Cultural Studies, Media, Power, and the Truly Educated Person

 Cultural Studies, Media, Power, and the Truly Educated Person

 

Hello learners. I'm a student. I'm writing this blog as a part of thinking activity. This task is given by Dilip sir Barad. This task is based on cultural studies, Media, Power and the Truly Educated Person. So, in which I have tried to some answer in interesting questions.Click here.  

Becoming Truly Educated in a Media-Saturated Culture: Media, Power and Education

In our modern age, the lines between media, culture, power and education are no longer discrete. They swirl around one another, shaping identities, worldviews and practices in profound ways. The blog post by Dilip Barad titled “Cultural Studies: Media, Power and Truly Educated Person” provides a rich starting point for reflecting on these intersections. In what follows I respond to his key themes media & power; education and what it means to be truly educated; cultural practices and then I reflect on my own media consumption and how I think education must evolve in the face of media-saturation.

Media and Power

Barad argues that media has become the tool through which power is exercised in contemporary society. He reminds us that in Cultural Studies the study of “power” is indispensable, and that media is where power “makes extensive use” of print, radio, TV, electronic, digital, and social forms. 

The idea is that media doesn’t just reflect culture it helps forge it; it doesn’t just transmit information it helps shape perceptions and subjectivities. Barad refers to the work of Noam Chomsky (via “Five Filters” of media ownership, advertising, media elite, flak, and the common enemy) as an example of how the mainstream mass media manufacture consent for dominant power structures. 

Examples from the blog and beyond:

Barad’s invocation of Chomsky’s concept of “manufacturing consent” shows how media can shape public opinion so that people support or acquiesce to power structures without fully realising it. 

In my observation: Consider how advertising (commercial media) doesn’t just sell products, but sells lifestyles, identities, even aspirations  and in doing so channels power: the power of corporations, the power of a consumer culture that privileges certain images/identities over others.

On social/digital media: Algorithms, platform design and data-economies play a subtle but potent role in shaping what we see, believe, share. The power is no longer only in print+broadcast, but distributed across our phones, social feeds and peer networks.

Thus, media and power interlink: power uses media to project, reinforce and naturalise certain cultural norms; media enables power by shaping what is visible, what is legitimate, what is possible. Barad argues that for Cultural Studies this means we must ask: what is power? how is media used by power? (and conversely) how can we read and resist this? 

Role of Education / What Does it Mean to be Truly Educated?

Barad sir's blog contends that a “truly educated person” is not simply someone who has acquired credentials, knowledge in the narrow disciplinary sense, or memorised the facts. Rather:

They are able to inquire and create constructively and independently  “intellectual freedom and creative autonomy.” 

They are resourceful, able to formulate serious questions, able to question standard doctrine if that is appropriate. 

The blog states: “It’s not important what we cover in the class; it’s important what you dis cover.” (Emphasis in original) 

Education thus becomes more about critique, reflexivity and autonomy rather than passive absorption.

How this challenges or aligns with traditional notions of education:

Traditional schooling often emphasises transmission of knowledge (facts, theories) and standardised assessment, rather than critical thinking and independence. Barad challenges that model: the emphasis shifts from “what you are taught” to “what you learn to ask, learn to critique, learn to create.”

In today’s media-saturated world, being “educated” must surely include media literacy the ability to decode media messages, recognise power relations embedded in them, and resist being passively shaped by media flows. In this sense his concept aligns with progressive education theories (critical pedagogy, lifelong learning) but departs from the narrower vocational/traditional notion of education as “acquiring status and knowledge”.

Qualities I think define a truly educated person today (especially in relation to media literacy):

Critical scepticism: They don’t take media messages at face value; they ask: Who produced this? For what purpose? What ideology does it carry?

Reflexivity: They understand their own positionality, media habits, and how they might be influenced or constrained by media.

Autonomy: They create as well as consume  e.g., they produce media, respond, debate, not only passively absorb.

Diversity awareness: They recognise multiple perspectives, value marginalised voices, are aware of how media representation excludes or includes.

Lifelong adaptability: They understand media technologies will keep shifting platforms, formats, attention spans and they keep learning how to navigate beyond the noise.

Cultural Practices & Media Representation

Media doesn’t just sit alongside culture: it intersects with cultural practices and identities deeply. Barad emphasises that Cultural Studies aims to break the difference between “high” and “low”, “elite” and “popular” culture: culture is everyday life as lived by “one and all”. 

Influence on cultural identities, especially marginalized groups:

Media representation can reinforce power hierarchies: When mainstream media depict certain groups only in stereotyped or limited ways, those groups’ identities are shaped (or constrained) by those representations. Barad’s focus on power reminds us that the media which looks “neutral” may still enact power by privileging certain voices, silencing others, making certain identities normative and others marginal. For example, if a marginalized community sees very few positive, complex representations of itself in mainstream media, then cultural identity may internalise a sense of inferiority or invisibility.

On the other side, media can act as a tool for resistance: when marginalized groups utilise media (social media, alternative media, community broadcasting) to tell their own stories, to represent themselves, to challenge dominant narratives. Barad’s argument about questioning doctrines (and standard media messages) opens up the possibility of resistance. Media is not only a mechanism of control, but also a terrain of struggle.

My observations:

I’ve seen how popular global streaming content often exports Western cultural norms (beauty, success, lifestyle) into various societies thereby influencing local culture and potentially eroding local traditions, or re-shaping them. But I’ve also seen how digital media empowers local voices: e.g., grassroots YouTube channels, community podcasts, regional language social-media influencers who challenge dominant cultural scripts, reclaim local identity and reshape the narrative.

Thus the process is dual: media representation influences cultural identities (both inclusive and exclusive), and it can either reinforce dominant power structures or serve as a site of resistance  depending on who controls the media, who uses it, with what purpose.

Critical Media Consumption & My Personal Reflection

Reflecting on my own media consumption: I realise that I spend a good deal of time on social media, news feeds, streaming services, and these platforms shape my worldview sometimes subtly. The algorithms direct what I see; viral posts shape what I talk about; popular content shapes what I imagine as “normal”. For example, daily news alerts may prioritise sensational items, shaping my sense of what matters; social media may amplify voices I agree with, reinforcing my existing views (echo chambers). This influences my daily choices: the brands I buy, the ideas I engage with, the identities I adopt or internalise.

How adopting a critical approach helps me become a more “truly educated person”:

I try to ask: Who created this content? What is its purpose? What is the underlying ideology?

I try to diversify my media diet: not only mainstream outlets, but alternative perspectives, regional voices, voices of the marginalised.

I engage in reflection: how did that piece of media make me feel? What assumptions did it carry? Did it reinforce a stereotype I didn’t notice?

I endeavour to create or respond: blogging, commenting, discussing not purely passive consumption.

In my education (formal/informal) I now include media literacy as a desideratum: understanding how media works, how power is embedded in it, how I as a consumer/creator relate to it.

Conclusion: 

What It Means to Be Truly Educated in Media-Saturated Culture

Bringing these threads together: media and power are deeply intertwined. Media is not neutral; it serves, reinforces or challenges power structures. Education, in the face of this, cannot remain the old model of “absorbing knowledge” it must equip us to question, critique, create, adapt. And cultural practices, shaped by media representations, demand that we become aware of how identities are formed, how the marginalised are portrayed, and how media can both harm and heal.

To be a truly educated person, then, is to be aware of the media-power-culture nexus; to be critical of what we consume; to be active in what we produce; to value diversity, voice, agency; and to keep learning how media is transforming and how we must transform alongside. In our media-saturated world, the educated person is not merely credentialed they are reflexive, autonomous, critically literate, and culturally aware.

In linking my own experiences with Barad’s insights, I conclude that the “true education” of our times is less about what we cover in class and more about what we uncover in ourselves: our media habits, our cultural biases, our positionalities, and our potential to resist and reshape the narratives of our time. If we learn to ask serious questions, recognise standard doctrine (in media, culture, education) for what it is, and forge our own way  then we are on the path to becoming truly educated in the 21st-century sense.

Thank you...!!! 

Be learners.