The Agronomist

The Agronomist and how it shows Consumer Behavior Principles: The Agronomist is about Jean Leopold Dominique who hosted Haiti’s first independent radio station-Radio Haiti-Inter. The documentary depicts the numerous regimes Haiti, the notoriously oppressed nation, went through and how Radio Haiti-Inter struggled for democracy. The Agronomist begins just after the 1991 overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, when Dominique and his wife, while at the radio station, came under fire from rebels involved with the coup. Dominique’s passion for reform landed him in exile, when he was released (instead of giving up) he started a career as a radio communicator, voicing the feelings of the poor and the powerless. The movie shows consumer
behavior principles in action as it depicts the impact Jean Leopold Dominique had on the society in brining justice to the underprivileged. Principles of consumer behavior state that others, especially those who possess some kind of social power, often influence us to or to consume things we wouldn’t have otherwise. Dominique had rapidly gained popularity amongst the poor and powerful as strived to voice their opinions, therefore soon the radio, or rather his message, became a popular medium of consumption. Individuals have influence of in a group to the extent they posses social power- information power, referent power, legitimate power. In this case, Dominique had information power, because he knew thins others would like to know, and legitimate power, because of the authority people gave him due to him holding the title of owning his own radio station. Dominique most certainly was not another infamous example of Adolf Hitler, who used propaganda to attempt to eradicate a human race, but he most certainly was a strong leader that people venerated. Therefore, due his good deed of bringing justice to the oppressed during a time of reform he had become a nationally recognized freedom fighter that had influence on groups of people.