I Fell in Their Trap, Did You?

Last week, we learned about the culture industry from the critical theorists’, Adorno and Horkheimer’s, perspectives. As professor Geoff Harkness explained to us in class, “popular culture is propaganda for corporations, designed to increase their economic power and social dominance.” Basically, we as consumers are soft targets for the big corporations since they produce shows, TV programs, films or design products to entertain us, and to keep us distracted from the fact that we are overworked and exploited customers. For example, fast food tastes great but it doesn’t mean that it’s healthy, and in reality it’s destroying our bodies in the long run as we keep having more cheeseburger meals. Therefore, the popular culture is a problem because it happens to be a form of social control that turns people into mindless consumers. While learning about risk management last week, the Pretty Little Liars show popped into my head as I’m currently watching it. The show is based on a series of books that were written by the American author Sara Shepard. So what ended up happening was that the book got to be made into a TV series. The story got to be developed by a prominent writer with a record of success, Marlene King who also wrote the story for the movie Just My Luck. The producers didn’t pretty much go with the plot of the story and did change A, who happens to be the anonymous person that the four friends kept getting texts from throughout the show. This was done due to the reason below that was explained by the producer of the show, Lisa Cochran-Neilan: "If you go just by the books, your fans are gone. We've used them as source material, we've used them for backbone, but obviously, if you only went by the books, your audience knew before you started shooting what the story was.” This is exactly how they hooked their audiences up with the TV show by simply not following the story of the book as they want to attract their audience and to keep them so attached to the show as they continue to anticipate what’s going to happen next. Another point is that ABC Family is the main channel that hosts Pretty Little Liars. They are also playing other TV shows like The Secret of the American Teenager, Gilmore Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, and other shows won’t has a good number of fans. So, they are not really afraid of losing because they know they already have big hits. In addition, Pretty Little Liars is on iTunes and Apple TV for people to either buy the whole season or purchase by episode. Another opportunity to make money was by using the name of the show for merchandising through using the name of the characters in the show and putting them on hoodies, T-shirts, iPhone covers, bags, … etc. I fell in their trap because I keep buying more episodes so I can identify who A is. But, the producers are expanding the show and keep adding other additional seasons. Not sure if I'll ever know who A is!

Ad Blindness

Media has increased widely around the world and the advertising world has covered almost every corner on land around a number of populations. Despite influencing people, some news still stays vague, although markets have presented them by spending a huge amount of money for the advertising. (See Image 1)

Image 1. Too many advertisements

A total disregard of advertisements that you pass by in your everyday cycle remains a problem that organizations have faced forever. One of them is our own university, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. Why is it so difficult to get attention from students, staff and faculty to convey messages and keep them informed of what is going on and what is coming up? This is not only an issue this university needs to resolve but a lot of other universities are under the same mission. (See Image 2)

Image 2. No ads? No students noticing? VCUQatar Orange Hall

Beginning to focus on the students, they are packed with so much to do and remember that keeping track of upcoming events or on-going activities are always their last priorities over their assignments and project deadlines. Is the curriculum not prepared considering the students’ everyday schedules? As important as a syllabus might be for a program, some space for co-curricular activities does have some significant importance for mental stability through some relaxing and joyful events and lectures that may be important for knowledge needed for their projects, of whose advertisements are neglected as well with the overwhelming moods they have while the students pass by them.

Keeping everyone in sight, people vary amongst each other with different viewing habits. Having all designers in this university, we should keep in mind that not everyone will think the same way. Surveys would be great to find out about the audience we are advertising to and what they prefer or take note of. Most ignored is the intranet server provided for the students, faculty and staff to stay updated with the university events and news. 

Video

How To Stop Ad Blindness: Novelty In Advertising Is Key 

Do the ad designers not have enough content on the posters? Is the content too crowded? Not to forget that there are Graphic designers walking around and analyzing these ads. An efficiently designed ad can control how viewers take notice of them. This strategy is what successful formal organizations use and spend most on. (See Image 3)

Image 3. Images help making successful ads!

A defense form people who are not able to notice ads is ‘Inattentional Blindness’.

Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness. This is when a person fails to notice some stimulus that is in plain sight. This stimulus is usually unexpected but fully visible. This typically happens because humans are overloaded with inputs. It is impossible to pay attention to every single input that is presented. A person’s attention cannot be focused on everything, and therefore, everyone experiences inattentional blindness. People can falsely believe that they do not experience inattentional blindness. This is due to the fact that they are unaware that they are missing things. Inattentional blindness also has an effect on people’s perception. The term inattentional blindness was coined by Arien Mack and Irvin Rock in 1992. 

Selective Attention Test - showing the height of blindness of noticing one thing when you are focusing on something so intensely.

As a sanction, with evidence of what causes the ads to be camouflaged for the eyes of the viewers and a design fail, unfortunately, the event or lecture turns out a waste of money and a no show of people because societies cannot be controlled only limitedly manipulated. (See Image 4)

Image 4. Waste of catering and seating after a low show of audience

From the sociological view of the Functionalist Perspective, although most people may be aware of the events advertisment, it is still not possible for some people to remember about it or even have knowledge of it at all. There are always some people whom the advertisements can not reach to. Sometimes we have to accept what is functional and what just has to be the way it is, not functional. (See Image 5)

Image 5. Functionalism is not always functional.

Work Cited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Three-Major-Perspectives-in-Sociology.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26837.html

http://www.bizreport.com/2010/12/ad-blindness-remains-challenge-for-marketers.html

http://www.adsavvy.org/how-to-stop-ad-blindness-novelty-in-advertising-is-key/

ACT OF VIOLENCE CAN BE DEVIANT AMONG CHILDREN.

Deviance in sociology is defined as a behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. We are all deviants from time to time. Each of us violates common social norms in certain situations. Deviance involves the violation of group norms that may or may not be formalized into law. One of the most important problems is the violence happening in schools and universities that causes deviant behavior.



Violence is very common among our youth in this generation and it’s spread widely in our society. Violence can lead to several problems in our society.
Now the question arises why does such things happen and what’s the reason behind it?



The constant storm of television programs and violent media channels causes deviant behavior in children. When children are immature or in their infant age, they are very receptive and responsive by the things going on around them. They learn things very quickly and often kids are influenced by what they see. This process of learning in their infancy is called internalization or symbolic interaction by which they accept and adopt the norms, understand their cultural values and beliefs, which has been taught to them in their early stage of life. So we understand how nurture plays an important role in a children’s life.



From an age of three, children watching cartoons or kids based television channels starts imitating someone on the television. There are certain super heroes and characters in cartoons that act violently even for a so-called good reason. For example when characters like batman, superman, Spiderman is shown in a fighting scene to protect a girl from a bad man. This is how the media is playing with the growing minds of children. If the media is showing such stuff to the younger generation, then who knows after a couple of years we might see certain acts of negative deviance in our schools, colleges, universities, on streets and everywhere. As a sociologist, it is the responsibility of our society to impose a law of social control in order to stop certain acts.



These Children, who grew up watching violence on TV, may end up being violent students by fighting or bullying other students or in worst case they might target their professors too which can drag them into worst situations and they might be expelled out from their educational institution and ruin their lives even more. As a social audience, we name this act of violence as a deviant behavior that can occur in a child due to the symbolic interaction that has to be noticed in their early stages of life.

A Sociological look at the Brazil vs. Egypt Friendly Match at Al-Rayyan Stadium

After driving at snail speed in the midst of traffic on the road to Al Rayyan Stadium in Doha last Monday, I walked a considerable distance from my car to the stadium’s entrance. On my way to the actual stadium, I came across a few things besides screaming fan groups with painted faces and floating flags, and people trying to sell merchandise (flags, snacks, lights etc.). First, I come across stand-by police cars, and security officials waiting at the outer gate of the stadium parking lot. And what I didn’t expect to see is a line of security officials on horses (more like cavalry), perfectly aligned and still, and ready to be summoned at any moment. The number of spectators in the stadium that night was announced to be over 25,000 people. When there is such a large mass of people, there needs to be some sort of control.





Without some form of social control, there is a possible threat that too many people will deviate from the norms that regulate accepted and suitable behavior. To ensure that no people deviate from these norms and expectations, security officials inside and all around the stadium keep a diligent eye and sanction anyone who even attempts any mild deviant behavior like aggressive talk between two opposing groups (Brazilian fans and Egyptian fans) trying to vandalize property or sneak in without a ticket, or sit somewhere that is unauthorized to you.




Next, I reach the security screening of spectators, similar to an airport manual check-up that doesn’t include walking through a detector system. This is where I noticed strict gender segregation: female security employees checked women and young children in a separate section and men (including young boys if they were accompanied by a male adult) went to another section where they were screened my male officials. People tried to rush past without getting checked, but security guards at both ends of the separate sections pulled them back. Officials at the entrances told women to go to the women’s section, and men to go to the male section, constantly monitoring the flow of people to ensure conformity to the rules. Failure to conform these rules might result in formal sanctions – which are, according to Joan Ferrante, expressions of disapproval or approval supported by official laws, policies, rules that dictate how people should be punished or rewarded for specific behavior.



Finally after ticket processing, I was directed to the gate number that leads to the section my seat is in. More security meets people heading towards the gate entrance, and security staff and personnel open the door to the fenced area where my seat is located, and I am ushered to the seat number printed on my ticket. The view is unlike what I usually see on my television screen at home. No matter how “HD” you get with the broadcast of any game, this is different. This is the “real” experience. You get to absorb the game and the reactions of everyone around you; cheering fans, the excitement, the anticipation, and the thrill of the game.





In the area close to where I was sitting, there were a lot of families with young children, older children, and even infants, carried on parents’ shoulders. Many believe that there is so much more to football than a game of set tactics, skill and rules. Sociology would call part of that added meaning and “effect” the process of socialization. These children are socialized at a very young age, through experiencing watching a game, cheering for their team, and their country, to value the game, and their national team, and participate in this experience that shows belonging to a group, pride of belonging to that group, and the importance of support for that group. They develop a sense of self, a sense of the group they belong to and the ways of that group, and the way of society. Joan Ferrante defines games as “structured organized activities that usually involve more than one person and a number of constraints, such as established roles, rules, time, place and outcome,” (p. 96).




The players on both the Brazilian and Egyptian national teams were probably exposed to the game at a very young age, where they developed a system of expected behavior in the football game stage. This system is called the generalized other, (Ferrante, p. 96) It shapes and defines meanings, behaviors, and perspectives that go beyond those participating in the game. These expected rules, behaviors, and meanings were already pre-established by people before the players even started learning the game.




At a young age, the players learn more than just passing the ball, and scoring goals, they learn to see things from a particular perspective. By performing their roles (striker, defender, goalkeeper, mid-fielder), in a shared activity, with a common goal, and interacting with each other to achieve that goal, the players learn to anticipate other peoples’ moves, their views, and their expectations of how to behave.




The game can result in the creation of ingroups and outgroups. The Egyptian team for example is a group in which its members feel a strong sense of belonging, and in many different cases when playing against a particular team, they share a strong sense of opposition for that team, that goes beyond the sense of competition in the game in itself. Similarly, the same concept can expand to all the Egyptians and Egyptian fans in the audience. To the Egyptians, the Brazilian team can be regarded as the outgroup (the group towards which the ingroup – the Egyptian team, feel opposition). The Egyptians in this case is the ingroup, and Brazilians the outgroup. In another sense, the Brazilians in the stadium could feel a strong sense of separateness towards the Egyptians and hence, the Egyptians in this case is the outgroup, and Brazilians the ingroup.




There are many past incidents where ingroups and outgroups clashed during a game in a stadium, and outside a stadium all around the world. Luckily, at this game, the horses at the front gates didn’t have to charge, and neither did the fans around me. I thoroughly enjoyed the match, and all the surrounding spectators and fans showing support for their team in many different ways; singing songs, cheering (with a combination of drumming on seats, apparently an Egyptian specialty), painted faces, waving flags, funny wigs, and not a favorite of mine – the screeching loud cheering horns that echo in your ear drums till the end of the night.

Surveillance in Qatar: A Mechanism of Social Control

Among many things, the basic human experience involves the interaction with other human beings. From the moment we take our first screaming gasp of air in the world to the moment we part it, we behave, interact, and communicate with other people for a specific purpose, in a particular way in any given time and place. How we behave, interact, and communicate with each other differ between two people, two groups, two societies, two nations, and so on – and these differences are part of the reason why human experiences all over the world are not identical. But just how different are they? How similar could they be? Well, we do not just decide to behave or act in a certain way. And we certainly do not come up with our own rules of behavior individually. Norms are socially constructed. And we are socialized to accept them and act upon them.





What is considered “right” or “wrong” in any given society, such as Qatar, is socially constructed, and there are mechanisms that enforce conformity to these socially constructed rules of behavior or norms. Mechanisms of social control include formal and informal sanctions. If you happen to be the employee of the month at a McDonald’s for example, your picture would be hung up on the wall in the restaurant, and you would receive a star badge. These are formal sanctions or expressions of approval that are supported by written rules by the organization. Formal sanctions can be expressions of disapproval as well.



Another form of social control is surveillance. Surveillance is everywhere in Qatar. In public places, malls, shopping centers, buildings, offices, streets, highways, petrol stations, restaurants, etc. Ferrante defines surveillance as a mechanism of social that involves “monitoring the movements, activities, conversations, and associations of people who are believed likely to engage in wrongdoing; catching those who engage in it; preventing people from engaging in it; and ensuring that the public is protected from wrongdoers,” (p. 176). Qatar has strict laws and guidelines about public behavior, and dress code. Surveillance is a method of ensuring that people follow these laws and do not deviate from them. If people sense that they are being watched, they are likely to refrain from performing any illicit or prohibited behavior.



Even though the cameras shown in the pictures that are commonly found all over Doha do not really show a camera perspective; meaning that you wouldn’t really know if the camera is watching you or not, people regard them as though they are constantly monitoring them regardless of whether they are in fact doing so. The effect is all the same. It prevents people from engaging in deviant behavior and helps catch those in the act of deviance if it occurs.




For example, in the convenient store, Sidra at Woqod petrol station, if someone attempts to shoplift or in my case take photos in the shop you are likely to be caught and negatively sanctioned. When I was pointing my phone around to snap some photos, the manager, who was nowhere in sight when I came in, came up to me and asked me if I belonged to some organization that had the authority to take pictures inside. He told me it was prohibited to take photos in the store, and that they will confiscate my phone if I continue to take any pictures. I withdraw from the scene and quietly put my phone away. However, that does not stop me from taking some more pictures inside the next-door McDonalds, outside the car wash, and other areas of the petrol station and food complex.




The purpose of these surveillance cameras inside McDonald’s would be to ensure that workers are not slacking on the job, are not stealing any food, and not eating or chatting while on their shift. Cleaners must diligently complete their work, servers must serve customers their food according to the written rules of the company, and even customers are monitored in case of any prohibited or illegal behavior such as vandalizing restaurant property, violence, theft, etc.




Universities in Education City are also packed with these cameras. You are likely to come across them in almost every corner, in front of every staircase, elevator, and around classrooms, offices and in hallways. They can also be found outdoors at entrances, in parking lots, and on the roads. There are important norms and rules that students, faculty and staff and even visitors (excluding members of education) should follow in education city.



The following list was forwarded via email to all Northwestern in Qatar students by the Associate Dean of Students:
“General reminders about appropriate conduct in Education City and generally in Qatar.

1. Interactions with the opposite gender which may be deemed culturally inappropriate (examples include but are not limited to public displays of affection, holding hands, kissing, etc.) are prohibited.
2. Eating, drinking or smoking in public spaces during the times of fasting in Ramadan are prohibited.
3. Clothing or lack thereof that is culturally inappropriate (e.g. shorts and skirts that reveal the knees, sleeveless or thin-strapped tops, clothing that is too revealing, being shirtless for males or females, etc.) is prohibited.
4. Residents and visitors must comply with reasonable requests/directives from QF officials and branch campus staff.
5. Residents and visitors may not obstruct QF Officials or law enforcement officers in the execution of their professional duties.
6. Language that is disrespectful or inappropriate directed towards members of the Education City community is prohibited.”



These cameras are a powerful mechanism of control that helps to prevent deviance from these norms, ensure conformity to them, and allow officers and security guards to deal with deviant people in the situation where the breaking any of these rules of behavior occurs.

Following the Rules

When someone asks me where I'm from, my response is always the same. I say that I am Sudanese. I never lived in my home country, but I have visited several times. Despite living abroad my whole life, I never really had an identity or culture crisis because I was raised in a Sudanese household by my parents who both taught me everything I need to know about Sudanese culture and tradition. However, simply knowing about a culture was never enough to fit in with the people. I needed to obey the social norms of the society itself or else I would be labeled as a deviant.




The way I act, speak and dress is socially acceptable in Qatar, but all of this changes when I visit Sudan. I have to alter all of these social norms with the conformity of the culture, otherwise it would be regarded as deviance. In sociology, these types of norms that are known as folkways which are the "regular" ways to handle everyday habits. In Qatar my folkways are very different from when I am in Sudan. For example, I'm used to speaking English most of the time with my friends, but as soon as I'm around my family or other Sudanese I switch to my own colloquial Arabic. I also tend to dress differently and modestly by wearing a headscarf to abide with the culture and the people. Seldom would you find a Sudanese woman in Sudan not wearing a scarf. The headscarf is a symbol of religion, but the role of religion is so significant that it has influenced culture which makes it hard to distinguish between the two. What's interesting is that even women that are not Muslim wear the headscarf just so they can fit in because it's something that is expected of you as a woman. Here you can observe how people of a certain group that have a certain mentality, social belief and culture have used social control -methods that influence and indirectly force both "members and non-members, to comply with and not deviate from its norms and expectations." If anyone was found to violate any of these social rules, sanctions would be implemented. These can be formal sanctions that are supported by the law, or informal meaning that they can be given anyone in that society and are not supported by the law. Both these forms of sanctions can be negative or positive. An example of a negative informal sanction is when my grandmother giving me a long lecture about speaking Arabic more often because it's my mother tongue and that I'm becoming more of a western and less of an Arab. Dressing conservatively is required in Sudanese law; therefore if a someone is caught not dressed appropriately they would be dealt with the religious police.




Similarly to Sudan, Qatar is a Muslim and Arab country, but I don't apply these social norms because in the end it is not my culture. For example Qatari women wear the abaya in their home country but not necessarily when they travel. However, if I don't wear accordingly to tradition no one would care simply because I'm not Qatari and therefore these unwritten social rules do not apply to me. That is why when I'm not in Sudan I don't feel the need to follow the rules. This social pressure that I experience is a form of social control that forces me to dress accordingly modestly according to my culture, religion and family. In the end it is hard to agree on what is considered to be deviant behavior because each society establishes its own conformity that differ from each other, so what might be regarded as deviant in one society could be considered normal in another.

Informal Social Control of the Desert: Falconers of Qatar

Hunting using falcons, an activity referred to as Falconary, is a popular sport among the native Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula. It consists of simply training a wild falcon that is usually brought by merchandisers from Persia, Egypt, or as far as Serbia, to be able to hunt down migrating birds during the winter season. It is a sport that is usually affiliated with manhood and pride within its lovers, and with that comes the culture of falconers.

Social control can be both formal and informal. It can be the laws and regulations written in the books or social values and beliefs that a certain society have. Murder and theft are considered crimes because they are written in law as deviances that must be punished for. However, disrespecting your elders is an informal social deviant, yet a person will not be necessarily punished for doing so.

Within the falconers there are many informal rules that has been around for a long time, and that set the boundaries of norms of the hobby. For example, when hunting, a hunter can claim the prey bird before he even finds it. This is true when a hunter finds the signs of footprints of the prey bird in the desert, and therefore gets clear evidence that there is a bird he can hunt near by. When that happened the prey “belongs” to the person who first saw the footprint, and when the bird is finally been seen, he has the saying on what to do with it.

Hunters positively sanction those who obey such desert rules. For example, last week my brother found a bird named Kurwan in the Southern desert of Doha. However, after a few minutes a car drove to him and he was told that the Kurwan does not belong to him because another hunter was tracking the footprints since the morning. Therefore, my brother accepted to give back the prey to its rightly hunter. By doing so, he got a positive sanction when the other hunters came and asked him to join them for dinner that night as a gesture of respect to his generosity.