One of my first postings was supposed to be on the introduction chapter of our class textbook, Gender, Race, and Class in the Media. Now I sit here with two weeks left in the semester attempting to write about concepts such as ideology, hegemony, and audience receptions, concepts that I initially found to be confusing and uninteresting. However, after a semester’s worth of reading, discussing, and researching the media and how it affects our perceptions, I realize just how important these issues are. Thus, I am happy that I waited till now to write this specific post and I will play it off as if I had planned this all along J
Dines and Humez believe that in order to understand media, “one ideally needs to be able to understand the socioeconomic context in which it is created, analyze its constructed meaning(s) through careful attention to its particular visual/verbal/auditory languages or “codes,” and determine through ethnographic research what its real-world audiences contribute to the meaning-making process (p 2).”
Throughout this semester, I have conditioned myself to pay close attention to the media and what the real messages they convey are, specifically in advertisements, television shows, and video games. Once one has begun to notice these messages, they need to understand why they were created and how society plays a large role in the process. After one makes meaning of media, they can control how much it affects them, placing the power back into the consumers’ hands.
The media really does shape our perception of the world in terms of our values by depicting those in power and those who are not (p 9). Because I live in the society whose media I am studying, I am partaking in a form of cultural study, allowing me to analyze the media without prejudice to particular texts, institutions, or practices (p 11). In the chapter, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture,” Kellner states that ideology is a necessary concept in cultural studies because it “serves to reproduce social relations of domination and subordination (p 11). They make these inequalities seem natural in our society and, therefore, except and condone their progression. Also, they are ways for individuals to create and recreate their own identities, as well as the identities of others.
The concept of hegemony through me for a loop the first few times I encountered it. The idea, which is based on what is considered to be the dominant gender, race, and class roles, can be found in all media outlets. Wealthy, white males, for instance, are considered to be the most powerful group of individuals in our nations. Hegemonic views are based on this group of individuals’ values and beliefs. The media that has such great influence over our society is usually created and/or intended for this audience. They attempt to instill these views into the rest of society, the subordinate groups, until they, too believe that such stereotypes are, in fact, true.
Once individuals are able to identify the hegemony predominant in the media, they will realize just how manipulative media is. So, dear readers, open your eyes and ears! Realize who and what is influencing you and shaping your identity. Are you really going to let these industries tell you who you should be? Instead, create your own self, with your own set of beliefs that are grounded in something more concrete than visual and audio stimulus.
Dines, G. and Humez, J. (2011). A Cultural Studies Approach to Gender, Race, and Class in Media. In G. Dines & J. Humez (Eds.), Gender Race, and Class in Media (pp 1-7). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, INC.
Douglas Kellner. (2011). Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture. In G. Dines & J. Humez (Eds.), Gender Race, and Class in Media (pp 9-20). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, INC.
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