Media, Ideology, and Discourse (1)

COMM 111

Ideology

• Set of ideas which give some account of the social world.

• Ideas which are usually partial and selective.

• The relationship of these ideas or values to the ways in which power is distributed socially.

• Both a social phenomenon and an analytical tool.

Functions/Mechanisms of Ideology

• One of the ways in which dominant values and meanings come to seem “natural” and obvious rather than socially aligned

• _________ are imaginative maps drawing together facts that themselves may be disputed; they are collectively produced and collectively consumed

• _________ as socially shared by groups can also be used to bolster resistance, as is the case for socialist/feminist/pacifist movements

Marxist Approach

Single dominant ideology vs one oppositional set of ideas (ex. capitalist vs working class)

Critical Approach

• powerful vs subordinated ideologies & identities

• operating through lived cultures

• manifested in powerful & subordinated discourse

Discourse

• Systems of language use (arguments, descriptions, theories, etc.) built up as part of a particular areas of practice (ex. the law, fashion, politics, medicine)

• involved regulated systems of statements (ex. what is and what is not “appropriate”) or language use (including “visual languages” - photos etc.)

• ______ create “regimes of truth” (Foucault)

• can also operate in sub-cultures and specialised practices

• (Critical) _____ Analysis examines “struggles for meaning” in the choice of words, images, and signs

  • certain meanings are prioritised and dominant while others are marginalised

Connection between ideology and discourse

• ________ are mental representations → largely (re)produced and expressed via communication

• ___________ biased mental models are the basis of i_______ d______

• ______ usually does not express i_____ directly, but via specific group attitudes about social issues and personal opinions about specific events and shaped by situational contexts → i______ are not always easy to detect in specific situations

Examples of Ideological Discourse

• TINA - "there is no alternative" 

• "the market" - as an unchangeable entity that "dictates" our politics – AS IF IT ISN'T A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT – we made it up  

• Economic euphemisms  

  • Downsizing – laying people off 

  • Profit warning – we're losing money 

  • Streamlining/rationalising 

Examples of dominant mediated discourses

• Celebrity Lifestyle - and what they tell us to be/act/look like - without acknowledgement of its artificiality and production

• Make-over TV Shows - tell us how to be normal and desirable in society and how NOT to look

• The “commodity fetishism” manifested in advertising culture

  • always being told to shop in order to make us feel better

• Narratives of the “undeserving poor” (not undeserving of their poverty, but of our charity and empathy)

• Gendered inequalities in fictional content - Bechdel test

Critical Pluralism

Several kinds of power:

• Economic power

• Political power

• Coercive, especially military power

• symbolic power i.e. the means of information and communication, including religions, schools, universities, and crucially, the media

Critical Political Economy

• We must be aware of who is producing and distributing our media products

• Focus on the role of ownership & economic relations on the production (or lack thereof) of media products and their distribution (or lack thereof)

  • decline in range (not the amount) of content)

  • continued dominance of corporate advertising and marketing culture

  • prevalence of “blockbuster material”

  • Ex: The Walt Disney Company

Ideological Nature of News

• personal mental models of journalists about news events can control activities of news making (news gathering, interviews, editing)

• news making is based on cultural routines and professional practices that are taken for granted and hence implicit and hard to observe directly

• manifests as “restricted code” of reporting social conflict that implies an ideological defence of the legitimacy of the status quo

• dominant ideologies are often associated with the very position and power of white, male, middle class journalists working within a corporate environment.

• appeals to “common sense”, to the “undeniable” and to that which is “clearly the case”

• dominance of pro-Capitalist voices