BROA 301 Notes PDF

Ideology and Hegemony Marx and Engels Who is the ruling class? Who’s ideologies persists? Lead to hegemony? Gramsci Who should rule? The subaltern classes. If ruling class continue to persists, influence may expand to culture and ideas Althusser How the ideologies w...

Ideology and Hegemony Marx and Engels Who is the ruling class? Who’s ideologies persists? Lead to hegemony? Gramsci Who should rule? The subaltern classes. If ruling class continue to persists, influence may expand to culture and ideas Althusser How the ideologies works? The Culture Industry Adorno and Horkheimer Capitalist driven entertainment and the mass production Repress the imagination and transforms the masses into “culture dupes.” Fractalization vs homogenization Walter Benjamin High brow vs low brow New media technologies leading to the loss of “aura” or the authenticity and originality Liberating elements in this condition of mass-produced culture Political Economy Herman and Chomsky Media as commodity / cultural product Institutions, forms, practices, and products affects production, distribution, and consumption 5 filters of news media - ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy Netflix, as viewed through the 5 filters of media: It is beholden to institutional investors like Vanguard and BlackRock Netflix’s subscription model shields it from direct reliance on advertisers but its recent ad-supported tier suggests a growing influence of advertising Netflix’s global content acquisition allows it to dominate cultural narratives When faced with criticism, Netflix frequently alters or withdraws content to protect its brand Netflix promotes liberal, capitalist ideologies, avoiding radical or anti-establishment content Media Effects and Reception Studies Confirmation Bias Individuals tend to seek information that reinforces their existing beliefs, making them susceptible to biased media representations Belief in conspiracy theories often aligns with personal or group identity Users play an active role in choosing to accept misinformation, driven by biases that serve their own psychological needs Use of compelling counter-narratives Behavioral nudging that guide individuals toward more rational decision-making—can help counter conspiratorial thinking without directly challenging deeply held beliefs. Media Effects and Reception Studies Stuart Hall 3 modes of readings: dominated, negotiated and oppositional readings Mythologies Roland Barthes – semiotics (use of image to create meanings; sign-signified-signifier) Contemporary ideology / contents is some kind of “mythology” Rhetoric from the ruling class tends to be hegemonic Mythologies in the context of Philippine media: Epiko at Pelikula Pelikula at Kasaysayan Kasaysayan at Kahirapan Society of Spectacles Spectacles > Articulated Texts In media, spectacles = ratings = profit In Philippine politics, spectacles in media are long-tradition: Political Jingles Celebrities Carnival Congressional Hearings Public Sphere Habermas’s concept of the public sphere is not to be equated with that of “the public,” his concept is directed instead at the institution The public sphere is seen as a domain of social life where public opinion can be formed State and the public sphere, as opponents The citizen plays the role of a private person in order to form a public sphere There is no intimidating force behind the public sphere but its citizens assemble and unite freely to express their opinions Habermas' argument shows that the media are of particular importance for constituting and maintaining a public sphere Media act to facilitate discourse in a public sphere Traditional media, are close to the public sphere in this true sense but are limited by the market and concentration of ownership; focusing on alternative media or public broadcasting The rise of the Internet has brought about a resurgence of scholars applying theories of the public sphere to Internet technologies Technology and Culture Media technologies are catalysts in society which is parallel to Benjamin’s liberating elements in this condition of mass-produced culture Technology changes, enabled new activities, and create new cultural opportunities and possibilities Media as “translators” Media in the Ph popular culture Post-structuralism Structuralism has often been criticized for being ahistorical and for favouring deterministic structural forces over the ability of people to act. Surveillance - train individuals to see themselves as being seen Deconstruction No difference between signified and signifier; “a signified is already a signifier while the signifier is already signified” (no binary distinction) Deconstruction criticizes absolute concepts and thus destabilizes representations of power Deconstruction affirms the permanent possibility of social change. Deconstruction marks a critical opening, reexamination of conceptual infrastructure that informs political institutions