1.Cultural Hegemony
Conflict Perspective and the Analysis of Culture
This course takes a conflict perspective in its analysis of popular culture.
Based on the writings of Karl Marx, the conflict perspective claims that ideas are cultural creations of a society's powerful elite. Most people are not aware that they are being dominated, because they have false consciousness, which means that they hold beliefs they think promote their best interests when those beliefs are actually damaging to their interests.
The major vehicle for the ruling class to maintain their manipulation of the masses and their hold on power involves the production of ways of thinking and seeing where their interests are seen as "universal" interests. This is referred to as ideology and is maintained primarily through cultural hegemony.
2.Role of the Media
There are fewer studies examining class in television than there are about race or gender. Class permeates media content. It is interesting to examine both the class distribution of people in the media and the roles given to characters of different class status.
3.Net Neutrality
In August 2010, Google and Verizon announced a proposal for new legislative oversight of the Internet. So far, public reaction has been overwhelmingly negative, with critics quick to note for example that the legislation would let the owners of mobile networks (e.g. 3G and EDGE) prioritize web traffic and thus privilege certain forms of content over others. Moreover, as Craig Aaron, managing director of Free Press points out, (Opens new window) The deal would allow ISPs to effectively split the Internet into "two pipes" -- one of which would be reserved for "managed services," a pay-for-play platform for content and applications. This is the proverbial toll road on the information superhighway, a fast lane reserved for the select few, while the rest of us are stuck on the cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.
4.Political Influence on the Media
Tensions exist between the apparent right of the media to provide information to us, the public, and the State's need to censor certain information from being disseminated to the public. This tension has been brought to the forefront recently in American media's coverage of the war in Iraq.
5.Culture Jamming
Culture jamming is the practice of turning manifestations of consumer culture-in particular, advertising images-against themselves for political ends. By parodying targeted ad images, culture jamming recontextualizes them and offers a different set of associations through which they can be read.
6.Male Gaze:
According to this theory, popular culture objectifies women--that is, it represents women as objects (things to be used) and not as subjects (autonomous beings with their own desires and intentions).Objectified images of women reinforce male power and superiority by encouraging the male viewer to believe he has control over the pictured woman. The image positions her as subordinate to the all-powerful malespectator/viewer/gazer/owner.
Reply to their discussion 150 words each.
1.James Lull's definition of hegemony is " the power or dominace that one social group hods over others." The word is derived from the Greek verb hegei sthai, which transates as "to lead."The television show that comes to mind when looking for examples of hegemony woud be Game of Thrones. In this story, the wealthy class is said to have hegemony over the poor because of their abiity to use currency to infuence society and government. The show also portrays the dominance of males over females. For example, there was this one scene where King Joffery made Sansa live with him, take his torture and he also killed her dad. Since he had so much power and dominance she had to hide her feeings and act happy all the time. In today's movies I
feel like there is a shift away from hegemony when it comes to male dominace as you see more and more main female characters but theres still a long way to go.
2.This article is based on the American economy and Mark Karlin come up with the point that "banishing the poor, unemployed and working class from the mainstream media implies that they are worthless." There is truth to this argument because on television you mostly see celebrities, politicians, corporate elite, and the wealthy class. People with power usually control the media and government even tho there is said to be "freedom of speech". These people wouldn't want to spoil the image of the great United States of America by showing videos of poor people or that 3.6 million people earn less than minimum wage. There are stats that show the top 300000 Americans earn as much income as the bottom 150 million. Maybe one way to balance this would be by to increase the minimum wage and create something called a maximum wage. I do agree with Mark that the wealthy class is what today's society find interesting to watch on television whether its Rob Ford or Justin Bieber getting a DUI.
3.I really feel like Canadian Pop Culture is affected by the United States of America. Most of the popular shows, movies, and songs are created in United States. If you look at the two famous Canadian artists ( Drake and Justin Bieber) they are signed with American music labels. The top twenty television shows are produced in America. There are few shows the are Canadian produced such as Degrassi, Gilmore Girls, and Dragons Den. The big six media companies control 90% of what we see on television which is bad for the viewers. These corporations slowly brainwash us with their views and beliefs with advertisements and bias news. This limits creativity and diversity in the media. In today's society i feel that whoever controls the media has lots of power which can influence the nation greatly.
4.Hollywood is always making a film that wows the viewers and what better way to do it by involving war. War is a common topic for many movies in Hollywood. War provides big explosions, guns, cool equipment, and on the edge of your seat moments, perfect for the viewers. Notably the movie Captain Phillips stood out to me. Captain Phillips stars Tom Hanks and involves his ship being taken over by pirates. During the movie there is a lot of emphasis on Navy Seals Team 6. I would say the movie acted more as a Navy Seals pitch as appose to promoting Captain Phillips. As the movie goes on the viewer is constantly exposed to Navy Seals Team 6. They show a strong emphasis on the process the team takes to get to where they have to be as well as putting emphasis on everything they do. This includes a scene showing them building their guns, preparing to take off in their jet, and the team parachuting from the sky. This is the movies opportunity to show you how cool is can be to work in the army. Not only is Navy Seals Team 6 emphasized but whats going on at headquarters in America is also shown. This I felt was another attempt to give viewers an idea of how many important people are involved in such a situation. Not only does it show important people involved in war, it attempts to shine light on every aspect of war from the battlefield to the drawing board.
5. I believe that culture jamming has the potential to interrupt the ideology of consumerism depending on the context it is presented in. If there are consistent attempts to display culture jamming to consumers, it will eventually begin to resonate among people. The biggest problem with movements such as these is the fact that not enough people know or care about the issues for it to make a big enough difference. With the ideas of consumerism being pushed into the minds of people on a daily basis through advertisements, culture jamming almost seems like a niche in many circumstances. Corporations will always be able to reach wider audiences with the amount of money and marketing tactics at their disposal, and this potentially makes culture
jamming even more ineffective. I believe that culture jamming can have the biggest potential impact when dealing with issues that are most sensitive to consumers; mainly those associated with health issues. The internet is a huge platform for culture jamming to take off, as word spreads extremely quickly when picked up by the media or through viral marketing. Advertising is one of the most powerful tools to influence consumers, and I believe that culture jamming can work in certain (but not all) situations.
6.In my opinion, like men, women also objectify men sexually. As Stewart states in her article "...And while mainstream male nudity may not be as common as mainstream female nudity, it does seem like women gazing upon men purely as sexual objects". However, the reaction for female gaze is quite different in comparison to the male gaze. "the typical atmosphere in such an establishment isn't one of arousal and longing" Females view this as something "naughty" because mainstream male nudity is not as common as mainstream female nudity, hence the dissimilarities in reactions. Society has shaped females in western countries as being too "delicate, too tender, too dainty" for any sexual thoughts and actions. Similarly, male body modification has drawn less attention than female body modification because society has heavily shaped and "ideal" beauty image for females. There are is a higher expectations for how a female should look in comparison to males in mainstream media.