The Nigerian Media and the Institution of a Cultureless Society (Published)
Culture is one of the central forces that help to situate a person or thing within a given milieu. Indeed, culture can be seen as personality designator because it identifies a person and situates him/her on the basis of certain traits he/she exhibits. On the other hand, it is also evidence of education, taste, finesse, and of civilization. A cultured person or people belong to a category of those who stand out as unique in virtually everything. ‘Cultureless-ness’, on its part is a term employed to denote the trend whereby a person or people lack culture, making it impossible to identify or situate him/her or them by what he/she does or they do. It is a celebration of abnormality and the opposite of culture as stated above. The media, on their part, are not only culture symbolized, they are also purveyors of culture. This paper examines the role the Nigerian media have played or failed to play in creating and foisting a cultureless society on the Nigerian people. This will be done through the literary/artistic research methodology. It will draw its conclusion on the basis of data analyzed and make recommendations where necessary.
Keywords: Culture, Mass Media, Society
Cultural Aspects in Advertising Discourse (Published)
Advertisements are an integral part of people’s life and culture. They react in a way to human concerns and cares by implementing global as well as culture specific aspects in their texts. They serve as a currency in everyday communication and reflect people’s way of thinking and life, as well as the assumptions, attitudes and beliefs typical for the society they originate from. The paper presents Bulgarian and British ads, their specificities and the comments for and against some of the issues they touch upon because apart from selling goods and services they offer symbolic meanings, life styles and signs which can be identified only by people familiar with the respective culture the ads appear in. All this is done through linguistic manifestations and various ways of conceptualizing the world reflected in the analyzed ads.
Keywords: Advertisements, Conceptualization, Culture, Society