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message. Therefore, the individual transfers the symbolic meanings as much as the
main meanings of the behaviors he/she shows and objects he/she presents. The
crucifix necklace seen in many movies is not only an accessory the character puts on
his/her neck but also a message object which has the audience think that his/her
religious belief is Christianity.
Adorno, talks about how the commodity liberalizes in a way that it
acquires a second or an artificial consumption value once the dominance of
exchange value manages to dissolve the original consumption value of the
goods. In this case, the commodities liberalize in a way that they can undertake
an extensive series of cultural associations and illusions … romantic love,
exoticness, desire, beauty, satisfaction, scientific progress and good life
images are attached to ordinary consumption goods such as soap, dish
washers, cars, liquors. (Featherstone, M., 1996: 39)
Due to the symbolic meanings of objects, the individual, consciously or
unconsciously, inclines to the objects which explain or which he/she wants them to
explain him/her. This is because objects are tools which the individual uses in the
introduction of identity. Therefore, some people prefer not to wear a crucifix
necklace, specifically. However, the object in the primary meaning is merely a
necklace. Had the individual considered the object he/she wears merely as a necklace
which fits his/her outfit, the object may have been a reason for preference for
him/her. However, it will not be an object of preference because the meaning it will
reflect to the outside when he/she wears the necklace will not be correct.
In time, the objects become part of the individual’s identity. The ring he/she
wears, his/her hair color, the book he/she reads and even the shape of his/her nail is
a part of the individual’s identity. For this reason, product commercials include
slogans of “your product, your service, your bank, your wallet, your car, your brand”.
The individual is presented with what the objects to be purchased will make him/her
become and reflected that that is the ideal.
The transmission of symbols is more effective and believable than the usage
of words. People give more importance to the symbols they see than the sentences,
when they are forming opinions on others. This is a behavior which is made
sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. The famous communication
expert McLuhan’s “the thing which the word is written on is more important than
the word” statement, emphasizes that the transmission power of symbols are taken
into account more than the words. In parallel to the same idea, McLuhan maintained
that means are transmissions. This way of thinking lays various meanings to means:
Meanings shall be attributed to the form rather than the content, the
form of communication not only alters the content, each form has a preference
for certain messages.
The content always exists in a form and therefore, it is directed to a
certain extent by the dynamic of this form. If the means is unknown, the
message is also unknown; in this sense, the means is the common message.
The means alters the perceptional habits of the users. The means is not
impartial, affects the audience, opens and closes windows on the senses.
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The means transmits messages to the society as in the case of the
persons (Erdoğan, İ., Korkmaz, A., 2002:171).
When seen within the framework of the above points, the objects satisfy the
inner needs of the individual, however in order to realize this satisfaction, the
individual needs the outer world to realize the features which he/she wants to
transmit. In order to realize this, the objects start playing roles on the individual’s
behaviors. After a period, it results in others considering this individual as a person
who would perform such a behavior, even if the individual does not perform the
behavior. Thereby, meanings are attributed to objects and judgments are formed by
the usage of these meanings.
Attributing a second metaphoric meaning to the primary meaning which the
objects carry and considering these meanings as the symbolic aspects of the objects,
made the “symbolic consumption” concept one of the main elements of life in the
postmodernist world of consumption of the 21
st
century. Symbolic consumption is
procurement and consumption of objects by appraising according to their secondary
meanings, where they are symbolically given meaning to. Identifying the
individual’s identity with the symbolic meanings of objects is a transmission method
used for transfer (Odabaşı, Y., 1999: 69). This transmission method is placed with
life in a very vague and transparent manner. The individual knows the symbolic
meanings of the objects he/she uses and does not spend much time when procuring
or using the object. Therefore, he/she does not wear every necklace.
Transmission through Symbols and Cinema
One of the areas where transmission through symbols is actively used is the
“cinema”. When showing the audience the personalities, pasts and thoughts of cha-
racters, which he/she has never seen and did not have information on, the cinema
frequently refers to the symbolic meanings of objects. It sends messages to the
audience through objects and behaviors and asks them to get an insight on the
character’s personality by interpreting the messages. The products, clothes, cars and
all similar objects seen in the movies are symbolic resources which explain the
identity and the incidents. It is possible to see that objects with strong symbolic
meaning are used for identities that will be transmitted to the audience in a short
period. The reason for this is the necessity of transmitting too much information in a
short amount of time. By uniting the symbolic meanings the objects have with
personality, instead of directly saying who the character is, it is made read via
objects. This form of transmission, which the individual uses in the process of trans-
ferring his/her identity to others, is frequently used in movies for the transmission of
the character’s personality, thoughts and past.
In the postmodern society, the individual consumes the objects not with their
directly read meanings but with their metaphoric meanings that lie behind them.
Spectacles are accepted not only as an object which the individual who has bad eyes
wears in order to see better but also as a symbol which takes form according to the
character’s behaviors in the movies showing that he/she is hardworking or does not
have a social life or is not young, etc. During transmission, instead of directly giving