Media Com 2200 Midterm Exam Review Slides PDF

MEDIA COM 2200 MIDTERM EXAM REVIEW SLIDES Culturalism ▪ Raymond Williams democratizes the term ‘culture’ as opposed to more traditional critics (Arnold and Leavis) who believed culture to be the realm of the elites. ▪ Culture is ordinary - a whole way of life: ideas, institutions, practic...

MEDIA COM 2200 MIDTERM EXAM REVIEW SLIDES Culturalism ▪ Raymond Williams democratizes the term ‘culture’ as opposed to more traditional critics (Arnold and Leavis) who believed culture to be the realm of the elites. ▪ Culture is ordinary - a whole way of life: ideas, institutions, practices, values - the ‘bricks and mortar of our common understanding’ Raymond Williams ▪ We can study culture by looking at its official records and products, but also at what has yet to be recorded - the structure of feeling of a particular moment shared by a group (the ‘vibe’) Critical Theory Culture is an ‘industry’ under capitalism It is a tool of domination that keeps the masses passive and complacent Theodor Adorno through standardized products, which teach resignation, reproduce the status quo and produce an unwillingness to question or rebel. We are subject to ‘false Max Horkheimer consciousness’ - ideologies of the dominant class which we adopt as our own. Structuralism and Semiotics Language is an arbitrary system of system of signs in which meaning is created via rules of selection and rules of combination. Ferdinand de Saussure Language is a model for the study of culture. Humans tend to organize their world into binary oppositions. No language is neutral – it represents specific Claude Levi Strauss worldviews and experiences. Myth is a type of speech/culture that appears ‘natural’ but always represents the interests of people in power. Roland Barthes Ideology/Hegemony Marx: Life determines consciousness - the ruling ideas/culture are the ideas of the ruling class Karl Marx Althusser: There is no ‘outside’ ideology – it is a material force in the world, ‘interpellates’ us to be constituted by it and operates through ideological state apparatuses. Gramsci: Hegemony describes how power operates in a democratic society. It is a moving Louis Althusser equilibrium. Consent to rule is won by articulating together an economic, political and moral agenda expressed in ideology Antonio Gramsci  Psychoanalysis Freud and Lacan address how we become certain kinds of (gendered) subjects in the world. Freud: the unconscious (the site of all repressed desires) drives us beneath the surface of our ego- driven consciousness. Culture can be read as Sigmund Freud expressing collective unconscious anxieties. Lacan: We become (split) subjects when we identify ourselves with an ‘idealized’ view of our selves in the mirror (mirror phase). As a result, we are always oriented towards watching others, looking to see ourselves ‘bettered.’ Jacques Lacan Discourse, Biopower, Governmentality ▪ Foucault: How do humans become “subjects”? ▪ Through discourse –systematically organized sets of statements that use language to represent specific ways of seeing the world/interests. ▪ Also through power. Michel Foucault ▪ Juridical/sovereign power is visible, negative and repressive. ▪ Biopower is invisible, unverifiable and productive. It controls us through ‘techniques of normalization’ (panopticon) ▪ Governmentality uses biopower to govern people’s conduct and manage populations.