Enhanced by technology, media's pervasiveness has become a potent influential force in the shaping of local and global cultures. This raises major challenges for practitioners and their publics.
In this age of information and technologies, there is a need to discuss new media literacies as well as its impact on local language and market or business language. Specifically, this conference explores the influence of advertising on language and mass communication.
Advertising keeps the media business afloat. It allows innovative ideas, concepts and products to be shared with others. But it can also define contemporary culture as products seek to address the needs and desires of today’s society even as they battle for their share of consumers. It mirrors culture but also creates it. It makes creative use of language but at times gives it new connotations and coinages.
In the meantime, mainstream media battle for their share of the corporate advertising expenditures for their own financial survival. The higher the readership, the ratings or audience share, the easier it becomes to attract advertisers. Moreover, as a result of free trade and increasing globalization, the same product is being sold in various countries, projecting and encouraging a particular lifestyle, value system and outlook.
For example, how do we define transcendental concepts such as beauty, art age or even goodness? As an Asian, are you concerned about how “white” your skin color is or how sleek and straight our hair falls? Is a particular brand of clothing more desirable than another? Can we say that the free media truly free or has it become a slave to the market? What is the relationship of advertising to State-run media? These and many other questions will be the areas of discussion in this 2012 conference.
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