Media Ideology Essay

1278 Words3 Pages

How mass media is using both Ideology and Popular Culture to develop societal expectations and social identities. This essay will look at how Ideology, Hegemony, and Popular Cultural Theory shape common values and expectations of society and media’s influence and compare and contrast differing approaches to understanding the relationship between media and society. The discussion will be contextualized through the use of gender roles and expectations, and how these theories develop and affect the female social identity. Ideology is a set of ideas held by an individual or group to shape their common values, beliefs and expectations of the world around them. Media uses ideology is develop an order in which the nature of the world can be developed. …show more content…

Popular cultural theory argues that ideology is insignificant in comparison to the audience reception and interpretation of media content. Fiske (1986) believes that to preserve the minorities and serve the wider interest of the peoples whose differences will be a source of possible social change we must take the ideologies and power of the dominant groups, use them for different social purposes, and strip them of their hegemonic powers. Thwaites, Davis & Mules (1994) debates how media text can create an argument about social identity. The example given poses the question “are you are good wife?” which in itself brings into question female gender roles both in the family and in society and suggests that the woman in not fulfilling the expectations established by the dominant ideology enforced. The authors argue that “ideology limits and contain its polysemic structure by using such stereotypes and myths such as good, obedient wives and patriarchal authority. The possibility of a positive understanding of woman’s social identity has to be read through a male-defined position.” (p.161) Thus, it is argued that the connection between polysemy and social and political freedom does not place the audience in an equivalent position of power to authorities and mass media institutions portray the

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