The World Defined by the Mainstream Media
About 10 years ago, I could not realize what going on the world, especially dramatic changes of technologies and environments motivated by them.
I just begin to write my opinions and lifestyle on Steemit from now on, and want to start with my essay that I wrote about 10 years ago.
Of course, I have experienced many different things for the 10 years, especially because of works, but I think it is a good start with.
Starting from Sesame Street, Sponge Bob, and Power Ranger (the most popular TV shows among children) to Dancing with the Stars, NCIS: Los Angeles, and The mentalist (the most popular shows among over fifties), we are exposed to the media especially television regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, etc. In other word, we are immersed from cradle to grave in a media, and it seems to be irresistible. Furthermore, the power of the influence of the media has become much stronger than before because of the globalization allowing people to have an excellent information and communication infrastructure, making the world smaller. These days, the mainstream media has an effect not only on individuals but also on the entire world. Concerning this fact, the problem is that the mainstream media that affects us the most is concentrated and dominated by big corporations such as CBS Corporation, GMA Network Inc, and The Walt Disney Company. That is to say, the most influential means, which is the media, is managed by the dominant group in our society. The dominant group obtaining an unearned share of valued resources such as wealth, power, and status creates the dominant ideology in the society to maintain their privilege, and the identities of the subordinate are programmed and even constructed under the dominant ideology. The identities of the subordinate group marginalized in our society are highly influenced by the mainstream media because of lack of media literacy. For this reason, the subordinate helplessly accept the dominant ideology, so it is much easier for the dominant group to maintain the status quo. Regarding these facts, this paper will discuss and illustrate why the mainstream media constructs certain identities, subjectivities, and positions by giving relevant examples. Then we will closely look at how they construct those identities, subjectivities, and positions in terms of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. By illustrating those dominant ideologies, this paper will finally show how we can resist the dominant ideology constructed by the hegemonic media conglomerates and who we should be.
To begin with, communications technology has become a pervasive and potent ideological medium in our society compared to the past. Although there is a wider range of media available to a great number of people than in the past, media markets are becoming more concentrated. The big media conglomerates own the network company and distribute the media contents. It is easy for the media conglomerates not only vertically but also horizontally integrated to control the most influential tools in our society. Based on the highly integrated media conglomerates, it is necessary to discuss why they construct certain representations and how they use the media for their own interest.
Based on the capitalism and consumerism in our society, all of the media we are exposed to focus not on the public service but on the profit of the company. In other word, television or any other mainstream media is an economic machine. For example, the network companies need funds in order to broadcast their programs, and the funds are mostly from the commercial agencies that have the capitals and the powers and who are the dominant group in our society. The advertisers decide whether they invest in the network companies based on their profits. As a result, a new program of television or a new music of the pop stars should meet the expectation of the executives of the media conglomerates and commercial agencies. It is inevitable for the mainstream media to convey the dominant ideology that advocates for the dominant group in an economic structure. In this way, the media is shaped by dominant group and used to maintain their power.
More specifically, in order to do so, the mainstream media strengthen the dominant ideology by constructing certain identities, subjectivities, and positions. The dominant ideology matters because it arrests the imagination by making certain social inequalities seem natural and inevitable. Hegemony plays an important role to support the dominant ideology because the dominant ideology is constructed by the dominant group with hegemony which is an intersection between the power and the meaning. Moreover, ideological influences are much more crucial than before in exercising social power. According to Gramsci's theory of ideological hegemony, mass media are tools that ruling elites use to perpetuate their power, wealth and status their own philosophy, culture and morality. In Hegemony by James Lull, owners and managers of media industries can produce and reproduce the contents, inflections, and tone of ideas to be favorable to them far more easily than other social groups because they manage key social institutions, thereby guaranteeing that their points of view are constantly and attractively cast into the public arena. In addition, the mass mediated ideologies are corroborated and strengthened by an interlocking system of efficacious information-distributing agencies and taken-for-granted social practices that permeate every aspect of social and cultural reality. The most serious problem is that the messages are supported and the process of ideological influence is reinforced not only by the media but also by the institutions such as schools, political organization, and religious groups.
By defining identity of a certain minority group and creating a concept of "otherness," the hegemonic media makes it easy for dominant group to justify the social inequality. This is because the dominant group becomes the social norm, whereas the subordinate group is supposed to be different or outside of the norm made by the dominant group. In this sense, stereotypes of certain minority groups such as the women, the homosexuals, and the other ethnicities in the media support the dominant ideology. "Masculinity" and "femininity", for instance, are one of the pervasive representations constructed by the media. The media defines what men should be and what women should be. To do so, the media encourage the men as a dominant group to have power over women. The sexualized women can be seen in TV commercials or TV shows in our daily lives, which made women vulnerable and powerless while men are described as powerful and violent. As an example of the "hegemonic masculinity" easily found in the media, the pornography is a perfect example. According to Jane Caputi in The Pornography of Everyday life, pornography is not about the joy of sex but about the domination and denigration of women and a fear and hatred of the female body. In contrast to the women representation, the masculinity is defined as violence and invulnerability. Mainstream pornography shows that women and men are opposites and unequal, with specific gendered attributes such as masculine aggression and female identified passivity. The most serious problem that the pornography causes is that those images or representations of men and women become gender norm in our society. In other words, pornography is a normalization of sexualized violence. Based on the gender norm reflected on the media, the man is upright, taller, stronger, richer, and older, which means more powerful. On the other hand, the woman is shorter, weaker, vulnerable, and younger, which means socially powerless. One of Gucci advertisements sexualizes the woman's body using brand logo on the pubic hair. These stereotypical gender norms bring about dominant ideology that men is more powerful than women, which is not actually genetically programmed.
In addition to the gender representation, Ralph, Fred, Archie, Homer, and the king of Queens by Richard Butsch, gives several examples how the mass media represent realities including working people, which often generate distortions and misunderstandings in our society. In only about 10% of the prime-time network television family series, heads of house were portrayed as working class. Moreover, the media has created buffoon images of the male working class while prestigious professions are described as glamorous and lucrative. The working class men were portrayed as dumb, immature, irresponsible, and lacking in common sense and defined these images as causes of the poverty itself. In contrast, the media has defined the "average" and "normal" Americans as middle classes and wealthy people as winners in the fair game with their wisdoms and special talents and skills. The media has even assuaged that the wealth and power are benevolent. These are one of the reasons why billionaires like Bill Gates have become an ideal role model for the "average" Americans in the society, while the plights of the poor have been ignored. Therefore, these different images defined by the media reinforce and perpetuate the social structures working in favor of the dominant groups.
On top of the gender, class identities as mentioned above, there are number of dominant representations regarding race, homosexuals, and even disabled. Although we are quite programmed to accept those dominant ideologies that media keep showing, still there is hope for not being puppet of the dominant group. This is partly because there are also various oppositional cultural representations which challenge the dominant ideologies. The oppositional cultural representations such as hip-hop, The Simpsons series lead people to realize the dominant ideology reproducing social inequalities and injustices settled in our society. In other word, they help us to build media literacy in order to analyze the media text critically and not to be manipulated by the dominant ideology. Furthermore, as Douglas Kellner mentioned in Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture, the gaining of critical media literacy is an important resource for individuals and citizens in learning how to cope with a seductive cultural environment. Learning how to criticize and resist manipulation can help us empower ourselves in relation to dominant forms of media and culture. Not being exposed to the media is inevitable in media over-flood society. Also, it is easy for us to be manipulated by the dominant group and even our identities can be shaped by them. However, if we have a keen insight to perceive the dominant ideology critically we can be who we are not who we should be defined by the media.
