Ideology;

Tasks for Friday 27th period 1:

1. Use your own reading and the information on the handout to come up with a blogpost your own definition of 'ideology' and why this is important for a magazine

eg. Kerrang and their "break the mould" mission statement!

2. What might the ideology be for a school newsletter?

3. Mindmap possible mock-up photos to use in your own version of the school newsletter.

4. Make sure all other posts are up to date, to ensure no gaps at this stage.

  In Media Studies the concept of ideology refers to beliefs and ideas behind a media text. Through the media feeding us information, they have the power to construct and influence our views, attitudes and behaviour towards whatever is concerned.  For example, a newspaper will usually have a clear political ideology, siding with a particular party, this constructs and influences their readers to vote for this party.

     The creator of each media text will have a purpose or subject to portray. Ideology may be presented clearly or be an underlying issue that is given to the audience to understand.

  It is because of the constant ideologies presented to us by all forms of media around us that we become to have these dominant beliefs in society. For example, the government and media industry work closely to ensure that war is supported, this was particularly necessary in World War One and Two. The audience is fed information and is heavily influenced, perhaps without even realising.  

Hegemony and Dominant Ideologies

   Gramsci, an Italian politician and political philosopher, defined hegemony as the way in which those in power maintain their control over the public. Dominant ideologies are considered hegemonic as they are widely believed views influenced via the mass media to portray the political parties as they choose. It is views that are accepted because the audience is told and do not question, such as the law is correct and also patriotism that we should respect and care about the monarchy.

   Althusser argued that ideology is a force in its own right.

    Chomsky argues that the media can be used to divert the public’s attention from real issues that the government may not want us to know, in order to present Britain in a positive way. He maintains that most prefer to be entertained and see an ideal world in a media form therefore opting for fiction such as soap operas, instead of choosing to understand the truth of the world through gritty documentaries.

  To identify an ideology, it is important to consider:

·         Whether the text is implicit or explicit

·         How the text employs dominant ideologies

·         What ideological assumptions are made from the text

·         Are these ideologies cultured, institutional or both

·         Do the ideologies reflect the type of text, for example in a washing powder advert the ideology may shape the form and content of the whole advert.

   In regards to ideology in a music magazine, they will influence their audience heavily as journalists are able to portray their ideas with euphemism or make the artist or product sound worse than it is. Magazines are heavily influential as the reader will already agree to many views of their chosen genre and they feel that the magazine is in power, particularly if the magazine is well established or has dedicated readers, such as Rolling Stones magazine. If this magazine said that an up and coming artist was great and promoted them well with a lot of publicity, the dedicated reader is unlikely to disagree. Many magazines portray the ideal lifestyle for their reader to aspire to, they are able to identify the ideal lifestyle by their demographic and audience, for example a reader of a pop magazine would aim to have a glamorous lifestyle with beauty and luxuries.

   The ideology for a school newsletter would be support of the school and its staff and accept that they have authority over the pupils. Also the importance of the pupils and this would be shown through focusing on the students and the pictures. This would be presented using the language and would not be clear to the audience as they would make it appear that the pupils are the most important feature.