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The media, advertising and consumption as major vehicles of change: the case of Greece, 1960-2000 Emmanuel Hairetakis, University of Athens The basic question underlying the current presentation is the way with which the above three concepts, being initially separated during the early stages of the sixties, or even earlier in Greece, began converging, so as to merge into a unified form during the following decades (the 70’s, the 80’s and the 90’s) with increasingly complicated ties between them. This convergence created an indissoluble, tripolar bond of the form mass media—advertising—consumption in Greece, towards the end of the 90’s, as we were approaching the year 2000. 1. The Greek mass media 2. Advertising in Greece 3. Consumption in Greece 4. The convergence of advertising, mass media and consumption 1. The Greek mass media The trajectory of the mass media during these last forty years is characterized by an increasing complexity, which is intensified by the clash of power blocks, both of the Press and of the electronic and new media, a strife finally shaping the levels of mass media commercialization. Although this picture is complemented by what happens in the advertising sector, the field of mass media and its developments establishes a trustworthy index for the fashioning of commercialization levels. Within this frame, we may discern three major periods, covering 1960-2000: the period of the pre-TV era (from 1960 until 1966). the introductory and expansion period of television (from 1966 until 1988-89), and the deregulation period and its aftermath (from 1988-89 until 2000). periods directly related to the evolutionary course of the mass media and of their audiences, as well as to the course of advertising and the transitional phases of the market, mostly of consumer goods. 1. The Greek mass media Pre-TV era (-1966) Advent & expansion of TV (1966+) Deregulation & aftermath (1989+) Domination of the print media Radio as intermediary in the process of the gradual domination of TV Domination of the electronic & (secondarily) of the new media Transformations of advertising communication Product-oriented Symbolic/Imaginary (expansion of markets- new markets) (the product tends to disappear in its advertising representation) Citizens & consumers. The evolving TV-viewer ; from opinionated to connoisseur Consumers : individualized consumption of the mass media content. Chaotic TV-viewing. Expansion of markets and creation/establishment of new markets Intense market competition. Segmentation of product categories Educational (education-information) Transformation of the audience Citizens, consumers Transitional phases of the market Creation of markets and product/commodity categories 1. The Greek mass media Regarding the levels of commercialization, we may discern three levels: an initial level (from 1960 up to 1987), the intermediate commercialization (from 1987 up to 1996), and the course towards the advanced commercialization (from 1997 up to 2000), even though this last phase tends to extend well after the year 2000. During the initial level, there were only state-controlled electronic media, with no apparent competition between them. The degree of quantification of the mass media audiences, with the aid of pertinent research - a precondition that is the driving force of quantification- was not intense, to the degree that there was no such demand from the side of the mass media. Media audiences at the time were not diversified. Audience fragmentation was founded and expanded subsequently, with the intensification of competition between the media, and thus the quest for numerical proof demonstrating their actual influence. 1. The Greek mass media During the intermediate level, the hegemony of the public electronic media declines gradually, and is replaced by the advent of the privately owned electronic media and their subsequent expansion, thus becoming their major competitors. However, the new problem is that of their viability, since the only major source of income for the privately owned electronic media comes from their advertising activities, thus furthering the increase in competition, and therefore the demand for comparative quantitative data, such as their viewing levels and their market share. This competition is further increased along with the growth of TV advertising expenditure, being the direct outcome of the expanding competition between products and services available in the market, having to find a way so as to realize their profit objectives according to their marketing plans through the “construction” of demand, by mostly using TV advertising in order to promote their commodities to the public at large. 1. The Greek mass media The intensification of competition resulted into viewing audiences as fragmented, and this fact further increased the need for quantitative research results. At this stage, the methods for conducting research are transformed so as to respond to the increased demand. This led to a departure from the questionnaire method, and to a lesser degree, from the telephone surveys, and we have the advent of the electronic record of TV viewing, that evolved to a significant degree since the second half of the 90’s. A direct consequence of these was that research results contributed to the programming of TV stations, in their effort to employ programmes attractive to large audiences, leading to expanding their advertising income, and thus to an increased financial viability for the privately owned commercial stations. 1. The Greek mass media The advanced level of commercialization concerns the period 1998-2000 and henceforth. During this phase, the private TV stations have achieved hegemony. They have expanded, and their dominance in the media field is without question. Competition further intensifies in the field of the electronic media and in the markets of products and services. The requirements of the private TV stations are especially demanding, both in the area of programming (in the need to include programmes that may exhibit even slight numerical differences compared to their competitors) and in the competition between them at the level of TV viewing and in the existing financial limitations for creating or purchasing programmes, which has now become a critical factor for their viability. The following table summarizes the courses of commercialization levels, in parallel with the various forms of research for recording TV audiences: 1. The Greek mass media Concise course for the creation of interest and demand for media research, and especially of the research recording the TV audiences. Level of commercialization Phase/conjuncture of the electronic media Initial (1960-1987) Only public electronic media under state control are in existence. Intermediate (1988- Deregulation1998) “entrance” of private electronic media Advanced (1999-2000) Expansion and domination of the private electronic media Levels of use Simple record and comparability of data Increase in the needs for programmng( e.g increase in the number of stations, increase in advertising volume. Especially demanding needs for programming at various levels : stations, advertisers, advertising agencies. Μethods/techniques for realizing audience research Questionnaire, interview Improved questionnaire, telephone surveys, advent and improvements of the electronic record of TV viewing Generalization of the electronic record of TV viewing. 2. Advertising in Greece We may discern three major periods of advertising/commodity communication, almost the same as the evolutionary course of the mass media, within the time frame of 1960-2000 : the educational period the product-oriented period the symbolic/imaginary period. A concise description of the above periods is provided in the following table: 2. Advertising in Greece Phase Educational Product-oriented Symbolic/imaginary Main objective The audience is being educated in knowing product categories and in the formation of a positive attitude to them.-Creation of a positive attitude. The audience is informed about the various products belonging to product categories advertised. The audience is “subjected” to the various characteristics/properties that will “belong” to him provided that he will buy the products being advertised : products/commodities as a ticket for entering a “new” world. Advertising discourse Educationinformation. Use of simple and understandable language. Advertising discourse focuses on the product/commodity, that seems to dominate in its various representations. Creation of difference ( real or perceived) between products/commodities belonging to the same category. The product/commodity gradually “vanishes” from its advertising representation, functioning in an elliptical manner. Commodity discourse, where the product is not represented΄absence of the product. Market level Shrinkage of selfconsumption. Creation of markets and product/commodity categories. Εxpansion of current markets and creation of new markets of products/commodities. Keen up to very intense market competition. Fragmentation of product/commodity categories. Overall objective Εducation Knowledge of products/commodities and their characteristics. «Environments» of products, not the products per se e.g. world of Nescafé, world of Swatch. 3. Consumption in Greece During 1960, groceries were the center of reference for the everyday purchases of households. These shops had created a personal relationship with their clients, which bought products not according to their (visual) appearance, but based on that personal relation, combined with their own perception of the grocer’s sincerity in weighing. There were no supermarkets at the time The transition from grocery stores to supermarkets began towards the end of the 60’s and was completed towards the late 80’s. What was lost (and has not since been replaced) was the personal relationship clients had with grocers, i.e. the time for small talk What was observed during this “short decade” of the 60’s was a form of dispute and uprising from those who demanded a different world, which had been repulsive to established powers already since the period between the two world wars. The establishment was seriously disputed 3. Consumption in Greece The decade of the 70’s was the inaugural kick-off of an approach that asserted that “everything that cannot be invested in human relations is invested in objects” forewarning the flourishing of neoliberalism for the subsequent decades, as well as the preservation of the information deprivation, within an environment where the mass media went through an unprecedented growth The fact that during the 80’s Greece became a full member of the European Common Market was an important development, influencing in a positive manner/way the course of marketing, and consequently the course of advertising. The penetration of the international advertising agencies into the Greek market was intensified, as well as their merging with Greek advertising agencies. The consumption standards of Greeks tended to approach those of the sizeable European countries, while at the same time, institutions such as the family, started eroding. An outcome of the expansion of consumerism was the spreading of consumer credit during the second half of the 80’s, trend which took even larger dimensions during the ensuing years. Consumers thought of consumer credit as the (only feasible) way of approaching their consumer standards, including loans for purchasing a house and for consumer goods as well 3. Consumption in Greece Advertising, a practice which had intensified in Greece and in other European countries, using both new and older methods of persuasion in order to achieve its sales objective, even opposing the prevailing social conventions, contributed substantially to the de-politicization of “consumers”, to the glorification of worldwide brands and to the sales decrease of the traditional Greek products, that were seen as oldfashioned in the endless sign wars of advertising Since the 80’s, “consumers” become selective, and direct themselves towards branded products. The great majority of newspapers adopt the tabloid format, while they continue to be significant sources of information. Magazines have already started to use foreign names for their names (i.e. their titles), even if they were direct transplants of foreign magazines, while their pages contain few advertisements of Greek products 3. Consumption in Greece The “deregulation” of the electronic media during the later part of the 80’s, brings to the fore the municipal radio stations (most of them proved to be short-lived) and the private radio stations, and,after a while, private television. “Deregulation” possesses an unstable legal status, with licences being issued for a few months only, and renewed according to governmental objectives and intentions, while the advent of telecontrol (available for all colour TV sets) radically changed the practice of TV viewing, as well as the ways TV content was consumed and understood. The practice of offers from the print media (mainly from newspapers), i.e. incorporating a book, or a CD or similar objects with the issue/copy is already a wellestablished custom, and this comes full circle with the complete commercialization of the mass media, the continuous increase of advertising, mainly in TV, that has already started to disturb a significant part of TV viewers. And simultaneously, new media are already appearing, such as the internet and mobile telephony, accompanied with their ever-growing acceptance by the public at large, contributing towards the creation of an entirely new mass media field. And already, articles focusing on consumption are already appearing in the print media quite frequently. 3. Consumption in Greece During the 90’s, the formation of an ideological consumerism had already emerged: the grocery store already belonged to the past, the customers of supermarkets did not use a buying list, but usually filled-up their shopping basket, they had withdrawn into themselves, and of course borrowing items from neighbours was nonexistent, though it had been a usual practice during the 60’s and the 70’s. Individualization was rampant, combined with the conviction that the continuously aggravating social problems could not be solved collectively but only individually (an outcome of the ideological dominance of neo-liberalism), within a universe where advertising was omnipresent, inflating the consumer culture, focusing on surface impressions and appearances 3. Consumption in Greece The paradox is in that consumer culture had been promoted as a guarantor of financial stability and individual freedom, an assertion that had been vigorously propagated by an obsession (and not an ideology) that was to be discredited during the ensuing years. A recent survey revealed that the everyday reality in Greece is aggravated by insecurity, doubts, stress and discontent, describing the overall climate in Greece, clearly pointing towards the decline in the everyday quality of life of citizens, and the eventual transition from a society of need to that of desire 4. The convergence of advertising, mass media and consumption An especially vital fact in this continuous course of convergence is the formation and the evolution of the media power blocs, the older one being that of the print media (represented mainly through political newspapers), and the more recent one, that of the electronic and new media. Each one of those two power blocs also constitutes a pressure group, in the wider sense of the word, demanding for the realization of its interest, both as a bloc- i.e. as a lobby-and also individually, i.e. per medium, and pursuing the maximization of its influence and its vested advantages. The continuous tacticisms of these influence groups follows the historical course of the media, since the written speech/discourse- the major means of expression for political newspapers- is gradually reduced, being replaced by the image, the main vehicle of the electronic and new media, represented by television and its various mutations. Within such a correlation, the predomination of the image already is an undisputed fact. 4. The convergence of advertising, mass media and consumption The wider environment that sustains/supports all the above is the culture of contemporary, or late, capitalism (which, in contradistinction to the culture of early capitalism, which demanded ascetism combined with hard work), promoting the idea of individualization that is achieved through individual accomplishment and individual gratification, encouraging their pursuit via consumption, as it is promised by marketing and advertisements of an ever widening spectrum of commodities, under the guise of products and services. This was combined with the support, in one way or another, and the domination of formalism in Greek society, while the prerequisite for a civic tradition, based on wider social groupings and on the dissemination of education, which is connected to the written speech, would in all possibility, lead towards the opposite direction, thus leaving the doors open for the invasion and the flowering of mass culture. 4. The convergence of advertising, mass media and consumption Certainly, the daily existence and the wider acceptance of popular tradition could possibly act as an obstacle to the course towards commercialization, since it refers to conditions and approaches directly confronting the prevalence of the monetary sphere and its by-products, and it had necessarily to fall into disuse, exactly as the limitation of self-consumption was essential for the proliferation of commodity communication, i.e. of advertising. Of course, consumption is a cultural process, but the “culture of consumption” is, considered from important viewpoints, the culture of contemporary West, which of course is not the exclusive way to consume, but the dominant one, and to a large degree incorporates all other imaginable ways into its own field. And this becomes evident from the extended abundance of commodities accessible in the “cathedrals” of consumption, the shopping malls. 4. The convergence of advertising, mass media and consumption The wider environment that sustains/supports all the above is the culture of contemporary, or late, capitalism (which, in contradistinction to the culture of early capitalism, which demanded ascetism combined with hard work), promoting the idea of individualization that is achieved through individual accomplishment and individual gratification, encouraging their pursuit via consumption, as it is promised by marketing and advertisements of an ever widening spectrum of commodities, under the guise of products and services. Thank you