Ideology - further reading and tasks

The World of Mockingjay

Panem is being controlled by a group of people who want the society to live by arduous rules. These rulers want to create ideologies in their society that would give them a superior and untouchable appearance. They want the people of Panem to realise who their superiors are and how significant they are to their lives. Not only do the authorities of Panem control people's lives and their thinking but also the resources are heavily controlled and the people are seriously struggling. Also, the article emits a negative vibe on President Snow (in charge) when capitalist  ideology is mentioned. It talks about him using the media to manipulate the people of each district mainly to prevent or possibly distract rebels from fighting back. An example of this is 'The Hunger Games' which is aired live on television and the previous year events are also displayed for everyone of each district to watch. Mr Snow wants his audience to believe it's an event for entertainment and they should accept it in their society because it's his way of thinking. This is done through the media which influences the audience into believing Mr Snow's ideology.

They live

The four accepted ideological beliefs in western society are: money equals happiness, consumer goods equals fulfilment, marriage/family/children equals happiness and obedience/work equals fulfilment. Gramsci's theory of hegemony suggests those in power maintain their control through consent and not through the use of force. He argues ideologies are constructed through ideas and elite social groups are able to dominate through ideas and not through strength and fear. Althusser's theory offers an understanding how we are controlled through ideology. He believes that ideology is the greatest material power and dominates our day to day lives through two key forms of control: Repressive state control (Government,police) and Ideological State Apparatuses (Church,media). Ideology of consumerism is about being proud of who you are and trying to do the best for yourself. Yes, I believe we are controlled by the media because we have all believed something from the news or some form of media. For example, we are influenced by the weathermen and we would wear appropriate clothing for the weather he or she has informed us about. Advertising has influenced the way people think and has reinforced representations (women doing the cleaning, so they are advertised doing the dishes). People with power (power equals money) are sometimes able to create these ideologies and representations.  


    

Migrain Index

Media consumption audit
Reading an image: RBK 50 CENT and own
Institution: major media institution and pres 
Institution: brand values
Institution: cool brands
Narrative
Audience: psychographics  
Audience: theories
Audience: dependency theory
Representation
Representation - stereotypes
Representation - three clips
Representation theories - blog post
Media Magazine
Ideology - binary oppositions
Ideology

Ideology

P34 - The Hunger Games

Panem is based in America which has a strange way of living. It is separated into thirteen different Districts. The article emits a negative vibe on President Snow when ideology is mentioned. It talks about him using the media to manipulate the people of each district mainly to prevent or possibly distract rebels from fighting back. An example of this is 'The Hunger Games' which is aired live on television and the previous year events are also displayed for everyone of each district to watch. It entices the citizens because it is a way for youngsters to learn new skills in case they are selected (from their district) for next year's event and for the adults to watch in fear for the innocent teenagers being slaughtered by each other. Mr Snow wants his audience to believe it's an event for entertainment and they should accept it in their society because it's his way of thinking, One boy and one girl are selected for the event. For District 12, Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen were their warriors. These two were successful in the Hunger Games event and became really close and were televised as a couple. However, Peeta was tortured and his memories change which lead to him believing Katniss is a target. This article mainly talks about the manipulation on the people of this ludicrous society.

P48 - They Live

This article is about our thinking and how it has influenced as to judge in certain ways. It talks about us being controlled and we can look at films as an example because we are forced to believe certain things in films. Ideology in this country is similar with  everyone so we all would assume or believe similar things when watching films. However, these ideologies are changing in Britain and people are moving away from the mainstream way of thinking which could potentially eliminate the phrase altogether because we would all have different views. For example, there are many more homosexuals than there was a decade ago and people are more open about it. The article talks about the ideology glasses which means people see things in similar ways and we can only see what our country what's us to see. Therefore, we make subjective conclusions and we don't consider the other side to the story. 

Ideology - binary oppositions

The subject on that week of 'Question Time' was about politics and the BBC decided to include two people who could influence the people's decision. Whether the public would listen to a person who is irrelevant to politicians over a man who is associated with them is debatable as his (Russell Brand) input is as significant as ours. Therefore, the obvious binary opposition is between Russell Brand and Nigel Farage. When Russel Brand supports the majority of the country's ideology he says immigrants aren't the main reason why working class people have less money compared to a decade ago. However Nigel Farage is certain it is the reason and they receive the audience's opinion. I would say it is a dominant ideology that Nigel Farage is a 'bad person' and he is trying to shift the blame of the downfall on the economy on immigrants. In addition Brand tries to relate himself to the audience (working class) by constantly saying 'im just like you' and because of his fame it can be seen as a way of manipulating the audience to form an ideology.

President Barack Obama talks about the ideology created with poor people by the media. In particular news channel 'FOX' has been criticised for negatively portraying these groups of people by the president of America. The ideology has already been constructed without people thinking about its meaning and we would assume whenever a poor citizen does something illegal it is reported and exaggerated immediately on FOX news channel.

President Obama has questioned the channel (binary opposition) and this could diminish the ideology they have created. Also because of the significance of the president citizens of the country may side with him and it could become a dominant ideology. However, I believe there is a lot more to 'do poor people work hard enough?' This could be related with the first debate on immigrants and them being stereotyped in negative ways.

Media magazine

MM50

1. Mainly women have opened their eyes to the fake representation of women when it comes to clothes advertisements. They do not believe these models have been related to the people the business are trying to sell their products to because there aren't many people at the sizes of zero,one or two. 

2. A perfect 14

3. The female gaze is different from the male gaze because females are doing the looking at both males and females. They are looking at men because they adore them and they look at females because they admire them. 

4. I think the advertisements are not realistic of how women really look but I believe these current models would make the clothing look better on them than size 14 women. It makes women who are above the size 14 or obese women want to lose weight so they can look a little bit of weight.
5. 'A Perfect 14' is about accepting the person you are and being proud of it. Also, people should make the most of what they have and shouldn't have to change their image if they don't want to.

MM51

This section of the article talks about the way people and places are represented through a minority of people who try to get the public to view them in a particular way which is subjective. Everyone has been injected with their views which influences what people believe and the way they think and judge people. Therefore, the media have been successful at manipulating our opinions and we are accustom to their ideology. 

Producers will consider: the expectations and needs of target audience, the limitations provided by genre codes, the type of narrative they wish to create and their institutional remit. Certain things specific families have can tell us the type of people they are due to current associations society has on objects and not just people. However, if some things seem natural we would tend to ignore it and no question it because it's within our expectations.

Due to the new media people are able to share their personal opinions to anyone they want. This has created conflict which can start off discreetly but by the end of the week the whole World would be able to hear about it. Through social networking sites, people are able to communicate and expand others subjective opinions because it can be across many countries. For example, in the past we would have to rely on the media in our country to hear a story. However, now we can look online for any news articles from different countries or foreign reports.  

Representation theories: blog post

Person of interest

In this scene from Person of interest we see many representations. Most of them are universal ways of thinking/judging. An example is of the American gang that have the hostages waiting in fear for a hero to save them. Richard Dyer's theory would suggest the gangsters, especially because they are black, are violent and have/show no sympathy. The reason why black people are stereotyped in this way is because mainly white middle class males are able to portray them in this way because they have the power to create representations - through news or running the country. Although America have a black President (in power through running country), these representations haven't changed or been watered down. Therefore, this show has used a black gang to keep reinforce the representation of black people by putting the hostages in the vulnerable and unethical position they are in. However, Perkins' theory can also be applied here because of the stories we hear in the news about black people being 'gang affiliated'. So this scene could be partly true because although its not all black people that are heartless criminals there are some that are.

Another representation portrayed in this scene is created when the protagonist (in the suit) uses the information read out from the woman to escape from his capture and vulnerability. The representation shown here is of your typical intelligent and brave protagonist who is able to work under pressure. Medhurst's theory would suggest that this is a positive way of reinforcing the stereotype as we would expect a hero to be able to encrypt or decipher a message like the one given in the scene. Also, it would leave the audience wondering whether they would have been as focused as he was to figure out the message. In addition, there is another representation constructed within the escape when the woman indiscreetly reads out the message not considering it could be a trap. The stereotype here could possibly be of a black person not being as intelligent or educated as the protagonist or white people. Alternatively, the fact that it was one of the crew members instead of the leader of the crew could be another reason why she is represented as careless. This is because the leader of the gang may not have been as foolish to give away information without considering it's consequences. Therefore, I believe this representation can be linked with Medhurst because the audience are being shown a black female stubborn enough to read information out which could have dangered the crew. Also, Mulvey's theory would suggest that women would probably be better of being looked at instead of doing the hard work.