Marx and the Media
Here is a staring point for your research and reading.
Please make some notes but keep them simple and try to grasp the main concepts of Marxism as applied to Media.
This is a university site but don't be put off it is not beyond you.
Also take a look at some of the following links which may also be of interest.
Stuart Hall videos
Reena Mystry
Both especially relevant for discussions of representations with regard to race and in particular reps of African Americans and black British both important study areas.
Once you have read please comment on what you have discovered to ensure that I know you have read both the blog and done some research.
PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS POST TO LET US KNOW THAT YOU HAVE READ IT
5 comments:
i found this website very hard to understand but i think i have an idea of what it is talkng about. Here are the notes i have taken from the website.
Marxist theorists tend to emphasize the role of the mass media in the reproduction of the status quo.
Marxists view capitalist society as being one of class domination
The media is seen as part of an ideological arena in which various class views are fought out.
The base/superstructure model as applied to the mass media is associated with a concern with the ownership and control of the media.
The mass media are, in classical Marxist terms, a 'means of production' which in capitalist society are in the ownership of the ruling class.
The mass media functioned to produce 'false consciousness' in the working-classes.
In fundamentalist Marxism, ideology is 'false consciousness', which results from the emulation of the dominant ideology by those whose interests it does not reflect.
Marxist theorists agree that the mass media has ideological power, but disagree as to its nature.
In Marxist media analysis, media institutions is regarded as being 'locked into the power structure, and consequently as acting largely in tandem with the dominant institutions in society.
The mass media is a powerful (if secondary) influence in shaping public consciousness.
'Marxist theorists vary in their accounts of the determination of the mass media and in their accounts of the nature and power of mass media ideologies'.
Stuart Hall has addressed theoretically the issue of how people make sense of media texts.
Stuart Hall (1980), argued that the dominant ideology is typically inscribed as the 'preferred reading' in a media text, but that this is not automatically adopted by readers.
Critics argue that Marxism is just another ideology.
Fundamentalist Marxism is crudely deterministic, and also reductionist in its 'materialism', allowing little scope for human agency and subjectivity.
Marxism is often seen as 'grand theory', eschewing empirical research. However, research in the Marxist 'political economy' tradition in particular does employ empirical methods.
The orthodox Marxist notion of 'false consciousness' misleadingly suggests the existence of a reality 'undistorted' by mediation.
Marxist perpectives should not lead us to ignore the various ways in which audiences use the mass media.
The primary Marxist emphasis on class needs to be (and had increasingly been) related to other divisions, such as gender and ethnicity.
Marxist 'critical theory' exposes the myth of 'value-free' social science.
Marxist perspectives draw our attention to the issue of political and economic interests in the mass media and highlight social inequalities in media representations.
Marxism helps to situate media texts within the larger social formation. Its focus on the nature of ideology helps us to deconstruct taken-for-granted values.
Marxist theory emphasizes the importance of social class in relation to both media ownership and audience interpretation of media texts: this remains an important factor in media analysis.
Marxist theory highlights the material conditions of media production and reception.
Marxist media research includes the analysis of representation in the mass media (e.g. political coverage or social groups) in order to reveal underlying ideologies.
I actually learned a lot in terms of the Marxist theory and media. I had a general idea of what the Marxist theory was from studying politics and sociology but I only knew the general belief that mass media is a means of control used by the ruling class/bourgeoisie over the lower working class/proletariat. From reading the webpage I understood that there are different beliefs within the Marxist theory also expand on this idea.
Liberal pluralism, which is the popular view when it comes to media, is the opposite of Marxism. They take account to the diversity with in media and the control that the audience actually has over the media being produced. I also learned about economism, which refers to the financial control of the media platform belonging to the ruling class and therefore depicting what they want it to depict. The ownership is also a crucial part of the Marxist theory because financially control leads to evident influence.
Althusser rejects the idea that humans are autonomous beings and instead believes in the concept of mechanism of interpellation, whereby the subject is assigned their identity. I was already familiar with this concept from studying Althusser’s work in my sociology class. The ideological state apparatuses (institutions such as school, family and mass media), according the Marxist theory, provide you with this sense of identity and understanding of reality, thus ignoring the freewill of a human being.
I also found Stuart Hall’s lecture(Race the floating signifier) interesting because he looks at the representation of race as a social construct and refers to how the idea of a certain race has changed over time. He also spoke of the political accept of racial representations. He also encouraged to question why I think a certain way about a race and whether it is valid our not.
Media studies as a concept and subject alone,is very broad as it incorporates major issues concerning the society whether in politics,economics and social; across different platforms such as Broadcasting,E-media and Print.In relation to everything are the theories taht connects and widens our own understanding;specifically the Marxist Media Theory.
The concepts and ideologies presented by the website about Marxists Media Theory,is very difficult to understand as to the use of complicated and depth terminologies, however as I read further to the list,I have come to understand that the reason why I haven't understand is that I don't know the meaning of Marxists/Marxism itself.
To start with, Marxists/Marxism is a political philosophy and economic practice based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a critical anlysis of capitalism, a theory of social change and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Marxism emphasises the idea of that social life is based upon "conflicts of interests".The most fundamental and important of this conflict is that between Bourgeoisie (owns and control the means of production) and Proletariat (sell their labour power in the market place of capitalism).
To link with media, Marxist tend to emphasise he role of mass media in the reproduction of status quo.
To further ellaborate, it is categorised into 3 different contending paradigms:
1)Structuralists-Althusser
-> the subject(viewer,listener,reader) is constituted by the text and the power of mass media resided in their ability to 'position' the subject in such a way that their representations were taken to be reflections of everyday reality.
2)Political Economists-fundametalist tradition/Murdock and Golding
->'Ownership and economic control of the media is seen as the key factor in determining control of media messages.'
3)Culturalist-Stuart Hall
->'Mass media as a powerful influence in shaping public consiousness.'
As I read further,I have come to understand as I have come to question the ideas,principles,ideologies and representations of Media.
As quoted by Stuart,'The media appear to reflect reality while in fact they construct it.'
Media RE presented as to what is already presented.
Marxist analysis draw our attention to the issue of political and economic interests in the mass media and highlight social inequalities in media represenataions.
Representations as depicted by media now a days focuses on Race specifically the issue of classification and stereotypes between black and white.
Wherein it leads to conflicts,war,discrimination,violence,exploitation and oppression.
However what we don't undesrtand is the reason behind. As Stuart said,'Every culture has a kind of order of classification built into it to stabilise.'
Same as through as to understanding the concept of race that it is not in our genes/biology but of whats in our history that creates distinction among race,ethnicity and nationality.
As history affects the way we view people and of whats arround us.
Let me end my notes, by the two statements by marxist theorist:
'There are no real differences between races but instead the difference created by humans in language and culture.'
'The power of media is thus portrayed as that of renewing,amplifying and extending the existing predispositions that constitute dominant culture,not in creating them.'
Well done those of you who have commented thus far. You have clearly begun to get to grips with the ideas and this will put you in good stead for our next lesson.
bit difficult to understand but as i did this late. I understood alot from the lesson after when we were supposed to have done this but it helped alot!
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