Intro to Cultural Media Studies (7)

COMM 111

Culture

Edward Hall (1976)

Likened _______ to an iceberg — divided into observable (surface), less observable (shallows), and unobservable (depths)

• Surface - language, art, fashion (tangible)

• Shallows - unspoken rules, norms, etiquettes

• Depths - unconscious ideologies

Cultural Media Studies

Any approach within media studies that focuses on relations between culture (behaviours, customs, beliefs) and power (domination, subordination, resistance)

Cultural Media Analysis

Focus on representation — how things/people/events/ideas are represented differently

• How are these representations manifested - communicative modes

• What are the effects of these representations - reproductive ideologies

• Where do these representations come from - underlying structures

Means using theory/method to consider how power and ideology are maintained through mediated culture

Definition of Power according to Foucault, M. (1982)

Less a confrontation between two adversaries or the linking of one to the other than a question government

Definition of Power according to Arendt, H (1970)

Corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert

(Focused more on how power can work both ways, it can be a form of resistance)

Definition of Ideology according to Eagleton, t (1994)

Claims that there is no set definition for ideology

Definition of Ideology according to van Dijk, T. (2006)

Ideologies are primarily belief systems shared by the members of a collectivity of social actors that control and organize other socially shared views

Definition of Ideology according to Williams, R (1977)

The concept of “ideology” did not originate in Marxism and is still in no way confined to it. Yet it is still an important concept in relation to it

3 Common Definitions in Marxist Writing

1. A system of beliefs characteristic of a particular class or group

2. A system of illusory beliefs - false ideas or false consciousness - which can be contrasted with true or scientific knowledge

3. The general process of the production of meanings and ideas

Common sense - ANTONIO GRAMSCI

• Refers to popular, uncritical everyday thinking

• Easily available form of knowledge that contains traces of ideology

• Discourses, media texts are all embedded with “common sense assumption” - notions of right/wrong, normal/abnormal

• Popular culture = an arena where ideas compete to attain “common sense” status

Hegemony - ANTONIO GRAMSCI

• Theory of domination/resistance

• Implies the power of one group/state/class over another achieved through a combination of coercion and consent. This is used to secure victory in the “war of attack”, and the “war of position”

War of attack — denotes struggle over material resources (money)

War of position — denotes struggle over mental resources (ideas)

Coercion - ANTONIO GRAMSCI

Denotes material resources of power used to subjugate workers and delegitimise certain ways of thinking and doing. This is achieved through apparatuses of state coercive power that “legally” enforce discipline amongst dissenting groups

• Ex. The policing of protest and how protestors are handled

• Police/Armed Forces/Criminal Justice System

Consent - ANTONIO GRAMSCi

Ideological resources of power (including pop culture) used to integrate workers and legitimise certain ways of thinking and doing. This is achieved through apparatuses of ideological power that promotes hegemonic views and demote and/or discredit alternative

• News/Religion/Entertainment Industry/Social Media Platforms

Repressive/Ideologies State Apparatuses - Louis Althusser

“Ideologies are said to “represent the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence”

“Ideologies are thus corporeal, enshrined within the repressive state apparatus and the ideological state apparatus.”

Interpellation - Louis Althusser

The process through which we encounter and internalise ideologies. The process is unconscious, occurs from birth, and can be likened to naming. When we are addressed as something, we learn to behave according to certain ideologically-determined norms

RSA (Repressive State Apparatus) interpellate individuals as subjects

• Nationals / Immigrants

• Citizens / Criminals

ISA (Ideologies State Apparatus) interpellate individuals as subjects

• Students (Education ISA)

• Consumers (Media ISA)

Encoding/Decoding - Stuart Hall

According to the encoding/decoding model of communication

• Texts are “encoded” by producers

• Texts are “decoded” by audiences

Each stage of communication (production, circulation, distribution/consumption, reproduction) modifies the message of a text, such that the intended reception cannot be guaranteed

Three Major Decoding Positions - Stuart Hall

• Dominant-Hegemonic

• Negotiated Code

• Opposition Code

Dominant-Hegemonic - Decoding Position - Stuart Hall

The message is decoded precisely as intended

Negotiated Code - Decoding Positions - Stuart Hall

The message is decoded as intended but not without resistance

Oppositional Code - Decoding Positions - Stuart Hall

The message is decoded critically and contrarily

Primary Definition - Stuart Hall

News Production and Dominant Ideology

• The relationship between news production and ideology is not reducible to a top-down chain of command

• Journalists do not tend to operate at the beck and call of elites 

• Ideology is reproduced discursively through the interdependency of major news outlets and powerful institutions, itself arising from pressures of the trade, and notion of impartiality 

• Reporters (“secondary definers”) routinely turn to representatives of major social institutions (“primary definers”) in pursuit of the closest approximation to “objective” and “authoritative” information on social events

• Overtime media outlets/news outlets by necessity develop reciprocal relationships with powerful institutions – they become symbiotic – they become dependent on one another. Journalists end up dependent on these institutions for information and individuals who give the information end up becoming primary definers whilst journalists are just secondary definers – they are repeating information from political/corporate elites