Sunday, January 30, 2011

Media and Ideology

Ideological analysis does not require seeking out the “realness” of what the subject of study is in the media, but instead asks us to interrogate what the messages are that the subject of study is sending out and think about what it says about society’s practices. This relates to my life because what it tells me ultimately is that I am constantly being manipulated by the media. This article discusses the way in which politicians view media as a means of “disseminating information.” This means that lots of people with privilege and power have control over making decisions for what I am exposed to. However, I have been under an illusion that I have all this freedom and agency because I live in America and my power is my “purchasing power.” However, the things I have “freedom” and “power” to chose from, to consume, are all very limited in reality and I am being dominated. The types of people discussed in “Media and Ideology” as those in positions of power, influence and authority are all part of a very elite and privileged group of individuals. They do not represent the popular democracy that we should in this country, but instead control so much about the way we are socialized. They dominate our belief systems and even formulate our ideas of “right” and “wrong,” (reference to “morality” in the text) if there even is such a thing. It relates to me because it directly influences me, whether I am aware of it or not. The media is where our concepts about gender, consumerism, stereotypical opinions and generalizations, culture, current events, and just about everything is connected to or influenced by popular culture and the media (and when I refer to media, I mean mass/mainstream media, which in the text is referred to as “dominant ideology”). The dominant ideology does is not inclusive of many different voices and experiences, undermining their existence and presenting a deeply flawed and tunnel-vision version of reality.

2 comments:

  1. Cant wait to have a discussion on this in class. You make some great points on the way that media is used to disseminate dominant ideals and point out a lot of key ideas in the text.

    ps. so jealous of your blog name!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love all the resources you have posted on your blog already... and we are going to spend a lot of time on the "dominant ideology" concept (as soon as we get to have class!)

    ReplyDelete