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It is common in communication studies to characterize contemporary capitalist society as a consumer society, where the media plays a central role especially, though not exclusively, through advertising. This paper will focus specifically on the role advertisements play in the media in a consumer capitalist society. We live in a consumer culture where products are constantly advertised. Advertisements all serve the same purpose to promote and sell products and services in a society where consumers are constantly buying products according to advertisers that will satisfy their wants and needs. Media is often referred to as mass media and this form of communication has been used by companies to promote their products. This allows innovative ideas and concepts to be shared with other people through forms of mass media such as newspapers, magazines and the television. As technology continues to advance, advertising techniques advance as well, by enticing, shaping and creating consumerism and needs where luxury is turned into a form of necessity. This paper will argue some of the issues and concerns of advertising techniques, it will argue the role played by advertising in mass media, the negative impact advertisings has on program quality, and lastly, the implications for our understanding of the role of contemporary mass media in democracy.

Media is commonly understood as discourse, another system of signification and expressivity, but our contemporary understanding of mass media includes electronic media such as the radio, film, and television (Nesbitt-Larking). Advertising is often used to help pay for the cost of free media such as television channels that are funded by advertisements in order to help reduce the company’s financia...

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... in all, cultural forms are commodified to fit the needs of the growing capitalist society, where its main goal is profit. Due to advanced technology, advertising techniques entice, shape and create consumerism and needs, allowing innovative ideas and concepts to be shared with other people through forms of mass media such as newspapers, magazines and the television. Therefore, advertising plays an important role in the success of a product through mass media. However, it is because of advertising corporations that content is sacrificed and therefore advertising has a negative impact on program quality. Furthermore advertisements and mass media reinforce mainstream ideas as natural and unquestionable and therefore implicates that modern consumer culture along with the media, shapes the experiences, motivations, preferences, and self-concepts of individual consumers.