Cultural Studies of Stuart Hall: Chapter 34 Lecture + Reading

Overview of Cultural Studies

• Interpretive Theory 

• Critical Tradition

Cultural Studies of Stuart Hall 

A neo-Marxist critique that sets forth the position that the mass media manufactures consent for dominant ideologies 

• Mediated communication is not just mass media 

• Cultural industries produce culture 

• Communication is inseparable from culture 

1. Power to prohibit or require: dominant ideology 

2. Power to produce

2 kinds of power

Hegemony

 influence excited by a dominant group, mass media convinces views that they share the same interests as those in higher power 

Encoding

powerful people but into the media (producers)

Decoding

The audience interprets the  message based on their standards (consumer)

They do this 3 ways: (for decoding question)

 (take it for face value, negotiate or oppose)

Mass Media…

maintains the dominant ideology and the powerful exploit the poor and powerless

Ideologies

 mental Frameworks that different classes and social groups deploy in order to make sense of the way Society works.

Economic determinism

human behavior and relationships are caused by differences in financial resources and power gaps

Democratic process

committed to democracy honors public rights to know about what's happening

Individualism

 individual effort  is valued news is about individuals

6 standards

• Reform of society

• Clarification of values

• aesthetic appeal

• qualitative research

• a new understanding of people

• community of agreement