More Theory

Marxism

• The big thing to understand about Marxism is that it focuses on society and economics in particular.

• People’s identities and relationships are shaped by their place in society- the more economic power you have the more secure you are.

Inequality

• Marxism points out that inequality isn’t an error of the capitalist system, it’s the essence.

• In order for some people to get rich, other people have to be poor.

Initial Views

• Marxism open people’s eyes to the way capitalism worked. Not everyone agrees that letting everyone grab what they can is a bad idea.

Marxism in the Media

• While theorists with Marxist perspectives share a criticism of capitalism and the belief that social structures and economics define our existence, they all focus on different things.

Perspective 1- the media is bad

• the media control the masses and stop them seeing their true situation.

• Adorno and Horkheimer called the media the ‘culture industry’. The masses get not what they want, but what it is decided to give them. The media warp our minds and stop us from seeing reality and changing it- eg- sport just wastes time

• Gramsci: state's power rested on force but also consent, and culture was a ‘site of struggle.’ This means you can’t just fight against wrong things, but also they are justified.

• Herman/Chomsky: 'the conglomerate media are not a source of popular control over government but merely one means by which dominant economic forces exercise informal influence over the state.’ This means that the media don’t keep the government on its toes, but rather the govt uses the media to keep us in line.

Media Effects

• Essentially all of these views come under the ‘media effects’ umbrella.

• This paradigm (model) suggests that the message put into a medium comes out as intended by the sender.

• If you control the medium you controlthe message…?

Uses and Gratifications

• This is the opposite of the Effects theory.• McQuail and Katz are two theorists who put

forward the idea that we have a lot of power as consumers, and therefore we choose what we want.

• This sounds nice, but how is it that packaged pop stars succeed where more talented musicians don’t?

Middle Ground

•Stuart Hall in the 1990s argued that people are not blank sheets, they bring their identities to their reading of a newspaper, or film. Note three readings/types of reception:•i) dominant/hegemonic reading•ii) negotiated/partial•iii) Oppositional, challenging the hegemonic frame.

What to remember

• As well as the names of these theories, remember that it is a question of power.

• Although we have power in the relationship, media conglomerates have more.

• This is why it is important to fight for positive representations of youth in the media.