Reviewing the Concept of Advertising from the Print Media Perspectives

Abstract

In light of revisiting the notion of advertising from the perspectives of the print media, this review article found that advertisements are transgeneric and multidimensional media artefacts capable of operating at several platforms such as the cultural, economic, sociopolitical, religious and ideological spheres. It has also revealed that advertisements constitute an independent social discourse, which is culturally oriented, with remarkable influence on politics, social values, economics, lifestyles and the way people see the world around them. This review has also found that the multimodal nature of the present-day advertisements has accorded the genre some tremendous unseen power, capable of influencing people’s choices, when it comes to accepting ideas or goods and services. The review has also discussed how influential a mundane genre, such as newspaper advertisements, could be as it is used as the vehicle for constructing social and political agendas as well as promoting other topical issues in the society.