Marxist Representation Of Youtube

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The concept of popular culture impacts the everyday lives of people in society as it produces practices, beliefs and objects which influences people’s attitudes towards certain matters within society (McGaha, 2015). Hall (1981) describes popular culture as a “site where struggle for and against culture of the powerful is engaged” and “an arena of consent and resistance, where hegemony arises and where it is secured” (Hall, 1981:453). Therefore, as YouTube has arguably become a platform for generating and distributing popular culture, this assignment will critically assess whether YouTube’s platform supports or challenges Gramsci’s theory of Cultural Hegemony and the Marxist criticisms of Capitalism by focusing on the concept of the representation of female ‘beauty’ on YouTube. It begins with an introduction of what YouTube is and how it has become a form of popular culture followed by an analysis of the key representations of ‘beauty’ presented on YouTube. It then …show more content…

It involves the ability of a certain group to hold power over social institutions and influencing the norms, values, and behaviors of the rest of society; consequently, creating cultural hegemonic ideologies (Artz & Murphy, 2000:1). Furthermore, Cultural Hegemony functions by obtaining consent from the masses through their acceptance of these ideologies as standard social norms, when in reality they are designed with the illusion that they benefit all, although they may only benefit the ruling class (Artz & Murphy, 2000; Garner, 2007). Therefore, this concept can be witnessed through the analysis of YouTube’s representation of female beauty, as these representations can also reinforce cultural hegemonic ideologies which arguably only benefit the capitalist system (Burgess & Green,

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