1st Blog Assignment!

Hello everyone! 


The main focus of this prompt includes the idea of hegemony and how it helps me understand advertisements for controversial ideas such as child obesity. The concept of hegemony, in advertisements such as this one, utilizes framing because it tells us how to think about a certain issue. 

The idea of hegemony is that mass media uses this tool in order to maintain power. It links various concepts of culture, ideology, and power. Hegemony also works on the basis of common sense and deals with the general assumptions that we make on a day to day basis. It reminds us that the things that we except in the social world are not always logical. 


One way that hegemony works is through framing, which controls how to think about an issue or person and what is associated with them. This example from SIRE is an ideal advertisement which addresses the important issue of child obesity. Although we all know that child obesity is a problem, we take it for granted and assume that "everyone knows" the harmful effects. Seeing this ad of an infant with a giant obese body is shocking and it frames the disturbing issue of child obesity to make us think negatively and open our eyes about it. Overall, the concept of hegemony helps me to understand the compelling advertisement. 




-Jacy Schleier