Essay Example: The Concept of Power, Class, Hegemony, Negotiation, And Desire

Individual Interpretation

The concept of power, class, hegemony, negotiation, and desire are all interrelated. This means that if one is not hoping for one thing, they have already obtained the other. Many people believe that once they were able to control everything, then everything can fall into place and this concept is referred to as power. That means that one can act in a particular way and no one can stand in to stop them.

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The concept of class is directly associated with power. People with equal power often tend to associate in the same level. For the example presidents, usually, associate with fellow presidents and most of the time you may find them seeking advice from each other because they believe that they are in the same class. This means that they share the same attribute and this attribute is what differentiates them from the rest of the people.

Hegemony, on the other hand, is directly linked to both power and class as it involves dominance over other people. With power, quality and hegemony comes the aspect of negotiation as at one point or another you will find the three concepts pulling at each other. A negotiation has to be made for three ideas to co-exist. Desire is also directly linked to the first four concepts because people who lack the early three concepts are often striving to achieve them.

Reflections on the seminar

During the seminar, several topics were discussed and analyzed. First and foremost, we listened to the song sixteen tons and interpreted it. The song talks about the low waged workers who worked with the mining companies in the early 20th century. Most of us were shocked because most of the workers from this era were underpaid and poorly compensated. The working conditions were even worse as they did not look into the health of the people who worked in the mines. In addition to that, they toiled for several hours and made their employers rich while they became miserable, sick and weak. This brought back thoughts from the presentation on power, class, and hegemony as it could clary be seen that the mine workers did possess any of these concepts and they, therefore, ended being mistreated by people who did. Afterward were broken down into several groups to discuss and analyze an advertisement and each made an oral presentation of the analysis. Our group presented the review of Coca-Cola advertisement. The ad has the slogan taste and shares a feeling is a text that shows the people that they are willing to interact with people from all cultural backgrounds. They show pictures and clips of experiences from people from all walks of life, reaching out to all classes of people. This advertisement breaks downs the barriers of class, hegemony, and power as it shows that this is a drink that is taken by everybody. It also appeals to people's desires and increases the number of people who drink Coca-Cola by reaching out (Friedman,655).

The advertisement was followed by the discussion of several questions, that included applying psychoanalysis in "The Tell-Tale-Heart" and "Psycho" and also discussed the thrill of horror and what makes it a very saleable product. The psychoanalysis was made easier by watching the short clip of psycho and discussing what psychoanalysis entailed. Most therapist use psychoanalysis to try and reach out to the unconscious thoughts that make people do things they cannot explain (Storey, 45).

It is a technique that was developed by Sigmund, and it was proven to be a working principle. The thrill of horror arises from the fact that people are intrigued by the unknown. This is why movie makers make so much money from producing horror films because in one way or another they get to satisfy this curiosity. As one of the concepts discussed earlier, desire is one of the aspects that are reached out by people who make horror movies. It is because of the desire to know the unknown that makes horror a sellable product.

Teaching Application

In the future it as a valuable lesson to educate the next generation of children the importance of the concepts of power, class, hegemony, negotiation, and desire. Many parents and even teachers hold back so much information when it comes to telling their children about the hardships that exist in real life. For example, the song of sixteen tons holds so much information and a teachable lesson of how the people who worked in the mines were treated in the past. This should be information that should be made known to the young people. They should be able to understand their history so that they can appreciate their current future.

It is also important to be open about horror movies with our children. This is because horror induces creativity. Children should be made to understand that horror films are just made up stories, and they can be used to enhance a child's creativity. The seminar had so many other teaching points that could be used in the future and for future lessons.

Works cited

Friedman, Ted. "The world of the world of Coca-Cola." Communication Research 19.5 (1992): 642-662.

Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, 7th ed. (2015). Chapter 4-5