Marx and media studies

Who was Karl Marx

Influential German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary thinker

What was Karl Marx’s key idea

Historical materialism: the material conditions of a society’s model of production shapes its politics, social relations, and culture (base/superstructure)

What marks a society’s mode of production?

Class struggle: one class position is determined by one’s relationship to it (bourgeoisie and proletariat)

Key concepts of Marxism

• Alienation

• Value

• Commodity fetishism

• Ideology

According to Stuart Hall, what is ideology?

The mental frameworks- the language, concepts, categories, imagery of thought and systems of representation- which different classes and social groups deploy to make sense of, define, figure out, and render intelligible in the way society works

Marx emphasizes ideology as the…

Ideas of ruling class (ex: capitalism as an ideology… more than just an economic system)

Ideology is a ____ concept

Politicized: ideologies can help maintain or disrupt established power relations

Why would we be interested in the concept of ideology in this course?

Ideologies are often produced through and circulated within media, suggesting a particular way of looking at the world.

Ideologies in news media examples

• Trump slams democrats over thuggery as video appears to show protesters harassing elderly couple (front of Fox News website)

• Nearly all Black Lives Matter protests are peaceful despite Trump narrative, report finds (featured article on the guardian website

What are the two ideologies in the Biggest loser?

Individualism and Thinness

Individualism in The Biggest Loser

One’s hard work will “pay off”; you have the power to change your life through dedication and avoiding temptation; social/structural power inequalities are ignored in favour of the individual

Who developed hegemony?

Antonio Gramsci

Who was Gramsci?

Italian Marxist who wrote over 30 notebooks while in prison during Mussolini regime, published a series of books called, Prison Notebooks in the 50s

What was Gramsci interested in?

Social class: why the proletariat had not risen up and caused revolution in Western capitalist democracies

How does Storey define hegemony

A condition in process in which a dominant class does not merely rule a society but leads it through the exercise of intellectual moral leadership

Storey on hegemony: requires the dominant (ruling) social group to…

Present its own interests as the general interests of a society as a whole in order to gain consensus (consensus via negotiation)

Storey on hegemony: Not conflict free, but conflict is contained and channeled into…

Ideologically safe harbours (resistance and incorporation)

Examples of resistance and incorporation

• Stonewall riots, 1969, New York

• Starbuck’s pride merchandise

Hegemonic media representation reflect…

The status quo, accepted cultural values

Hegemonic media representation often serve…

Those in power

Hegemonic media representations are…

Widespread and common, therefore not often surprising or attracting attention… the unspoken “norm”, “natural”, “just the way it is”

Examples of hegemonic media representations

• Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcie’s engagement post on Instagram

• The Bachelor

Ideology and hegemony are both rooted within…

Marxism, concentrated with issues of power

Ideologies can be said to be…

Hegemonic, when they serve the interests of those in power and become widely accepted as “common sense”

Examples of ideology + hegemony

• Capitalism

• Individualism

• Patriarchy

• Feminism

Political economy approach to media studies

• Pays attention to the mode of production (who owns it? Who profits?

• “Follow the money”

• Ex: Studying Twitter/X

What is media consolidation (conglomeration)

A process by which a few large conglomerates own the majority of media

2020s consolidation trends

• Streaming

• Pandemic

• Tech efforts

Ongoing consolidation

Disney getting Fox in March 2019

Consolidation with tech compannies

Amazon getting MGM in May 2021

In Canada, how many companies account for what percent of the English-language mediascape?

4 companies account for 70%

During the 2015 federal election…

Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey ordered all 16 of his major newspapers to print an endorsement of Conservative leader Stephen Harper

In Canada their is a continuing decline of

Local news media

What is media synergy?

A process by which media conglomerate uses a range of media platforms to promote a media product

Example of media synergy

Hannah Montana (created by Disney, benefited from multiple media platforms which they owned- compounding wealth)

Wedding Media Conglomerate

The Knot/xo group: circulate different hegemonic representation and ideologies through their media products

Setting up Engstrom article utilizes…

The concept of hegemony to consider the Knot

Setting up Engstrom article asks:

What hegemonic messages about women (and men) do bridle media contain and how do these contribute out ideas about gender roles in contemporary American society?