Ideology i

8/14/2019 Ideology i

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IDEOLOGY

Ideas, study of

IdealsLoaded term


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Ideology involves getting people to accept a particular way of thinking and seeing the world that makes the existing socialrelations seem natural .

Dominant groups in society


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Accept, way of seeing, naturalPatriarchy women are

weaker than menSexuality Gay people are

not normalRace White people are

superior to other racesClass Rich people should

always shape the way

society operatesEthnicity Tsongas areinferior to other ethnicgroups in South Africa

Patriarchy Men Sexuality

Heterosexuals Race White people Class Bourgeoisie Ethnicity Ngoni

speaking groups


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Ideology reveals that social relations areconstructed according to the ideas of dominant groups, but people come tobelieve and accept them. It reveals theunequal social relations.


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Ideology and the media

The media is seen as supporting theideologies of dominant groups

The media buy into the dominantideologies and can sometimes reflect andsustain them.

Reading media texts beyond the text,one has to study the ideologies that shapethem


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Example

Isidingo . Local soap opera.

The erasure of class and race differences,and the building of a new nation thatembraces the new SA

Ideology nationalism, rainbow nation.


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Ideology and representation

Representation how language re-presents reality to create meaning.

The media represents reality throughmediation

Mediation interference (sb decides whatgoes into the production of something)

Level of mediation that ideology takesplace.


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Media and ideology Take for instance, news reporting. Angles for representation Xenophobia. Important to take pictures of dark skinned

people to emphasize their foreignness. Assumption dark skinned people are all

foreigners There is already a level of discriminatory

selection. What about dark skinned SA? What does it say about how SAians view dark

skinned people? Why is the media reproducingsuch assumptions?


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Ideology

Inequalities Power

That ideas are defined according to thoseof the powerful . And these ideas are

normally defined unequally . Only theinterests of the powerful are represented


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Ideology and Marxism

Developed by Karl Marx, Germanphilosopher

Marx wanted to understand howminorities were able to maintain power and why a vast majority of peopleaccepted a system whose consequencesseemed to work against them.


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The Marx questions

How do societies maintain and reproducestructures of social difference and power?

Why do some people see themselves assuperior and justify their position insociety?

Why do people who are subordinateaccept their subordination?

How does this happen without force?


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Argument that submission andmaintenance of power structures tookplace at the level of ideology

That people in power used the power torepresent the world in a given way toprevent other individuals and groups fromobtaining a true picture of the world.


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False consciousness The working class unable to recognize the true

conditions of their existence Because they adopted the beliefs and values of

dominant classes in society Creation of false needs to divert peoples attention away

from the exploitative nature of capitalism Ideology was a product of class economic relations

(base) with the superstructure (institutions of societysuch as churches, media houses, families, schools).


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For Marx, the media are willing vehicles inthe reproduction of dominant ideology

However, he did not include other differences like race, ethnicity, age,gender, religion, nationality etc

He also looked at the dominant group as

one without differences No possibilities of resistance from themasses


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Louis Althusser

Ideology worked through IdeologicalState Apparatuses (ISAs) and force,through Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs) to control who you were andbecame in society.

ISAs church, school, family, media RSAs were force Police, army


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For him, ISAs were more effective inmolding subjects into thinking in aparticularly way

He spoke of the independence of ISAsfrom the economic and class interests.

ISAs manufactured ideas that were notreflective of the real conditions


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The media, as an ISA was a culprit. It hidwhat it did not want people to see, andpresented a different reality.

Althusser argued that ideology was notfalse that peoples everyday lives werestructured by ideology.


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Interpellation

He brought in the concept of interpellation . ISAs position individuals through interpellation or

hailing (being called up to be in a certain way). In the church, to be the most moral person you can

be School the best brain you can be In the family to relate to your parents and sibling in

a certain way that make you the model child Presupposes a kind of discipline which shows you

how to be as a person


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The media also hail or call up readers andposition them in relation to what they should bethrough products.

Adverts, for instance, continually offer individualsa clear, ideological definition of who or what theyshould be.

An advert of castle larger which shows muscled

men after a hard day of work opening anddrinking a cool bottle of beer is basicallysaying---- You can also do the same, rewardyourself


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The Voice over in adverts always referring toyou as a subject thus separating you as anindividual, rather than a group (poor people).

Lessening your fighting power. Think of howmany adverts address you. Why are theyreferring to you You can be part of this Your toilet can look as clean as this one

Get to your nearest store You deserve the best Your baby deserves the best Your investment deserves nothing less


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Adverts sell dominant ideologies along with theproducts.

For instance, when a harpic advert shows us a

dirty toilet that is cleaned out after using theproduct Harpic is good People of a certain class can use Harpic not

everyone has that type of toilet we are made to feelas if we can all use Harpic, and but not all can

Always the women cleaning the toilet women aresupposed to be home keepers, patriarchal ideas


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Vodacom advert Set against the movie Grease with John Travolta and

Olivia Newton-John (students) The love between a taxi driver and a police woman. Vodacom fall in love this summer

The impossible can happen, Taxi man and a policewoman? Assumption the law and the law breaker Class differences; gender (all female policewomen

derailed and performing their airhead romanticfunctions). The man is the man for having conquered

the policewoman. Implied, not apparent, but they formpart of the ideology You as the viewer are being asked to participate in it by

buying Vodacom and conquering the impossible


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Hegemony

Problem with Althusser, looked at the masses aspassive

Antonio Gramsci still maintains that social

relations are unequal but maintains that thedominant class rules by consent notcoercion/force

The consent is negotiated The ruling class packaged itself as a class most

able to fulfill the interests of other classes


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The media main sites of hegemonicstruggle

Dominant ideas and values are presentedin a form which allows them to seem asthough they are working in the interests of those they help to subordinate.


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Announcements (2009)

Research make use of the libraries Class schedules Next quarter will alternate class times.

Will announce if I will be using the guestlectures on Tuesday for our main lectures,and the Thursdays for any guest or

additional lectures Your essay question will discuss it onTuesday during the guest lecture hour.

Ideology i

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