Media (Marxism) Flashcards
The main and the role of ideology
Marixsts believe that, as a part of the superstructure, the media helps the ruling class because it transmitts ideology: it puts across ideas that make the existing unequal social system appear to be natural, fair and legitmate, when infact inequaalties comes from the way capitalism functions.
Antonio Gramsci
The media is a mechanism to spread hegemony
Concept of hegemony: ideological leadership of society that has control over our norms/values etc.
Hegemony is maintained in two ways:
Coercion (force, through formal agents of social control)
Consent (cultural hegemony – using ideas to persuade subordinate classes that this is legitimate)
The media is a mechanism to spread hegemony
The state in a capitalist society (1969)
argued that the ruling class use the media to control society by creating a false picture of reality that presents capitalism in a positive way.
- Media presents the inequalities created by the capitalist system in such a way as to make them appear inevitable, justifiable and effective to society
- Prolertiart accept these values of capitalist system even though are not in the interests of their classes.
Marxist view on the ruling class making us believe we live in a meritocracy
They are that the media uses particular representations of social class for the benefit of the ruling class. They do this by presenting social class system as fair and natural they see this as a way of mainpulating the wc to believe they live in meritocracy.
AO3
Marixsts ignoring other forms of inequality
Neo marxists and feminists would critise for focusing to much on social class and ignoring other forms of inequality such as ethnicity and gender in media representations.
Marxists failing to take account for the role of media professionals in constructing representations of social
Feminists and pluralists critise marxists critised for failing to take account for the role of media professionals in constructing representations of social as There are an increasing numbers of female and minority ethnic journalists who contrust postive representations.
