Thursday, 12 December 2013
Gramsci and Hegemony
“Hegemony is the process by which we learn to embrace enthusiastically a system of beliefs and practices that end up harming us and working to support the interests of others who have power over us.”
(Brookfield, 2005)
Antonio Gramsci
“Everything which influences or is able to influence public opinion, directly or indirectly, belongs to it; libraries, schools, associations and clubs of various kinds, even architecture and the layout and names of streets.”
(Gramsci, 1985. Pg385)
According to the Marxist sociologist Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) '[...] the rule of one class over another does not depend on economic or physical power alone but rather on persuading the ruled to accept the system of beliefs of the ruling class and to share their social, cultural, and moral values' (cited in Joll 1977: 8). Gramsci called this concept 'hegemony'.
Roland Barthes (Mythologies, 1957) was the first to recognise how the 'power of myth' helped to make hegemonic imbalances seem to be 'common sense'. One technique that is used regularly is to label undesired behaviour as 'deviant'.
Encoding /Decoding by Stuart Hall 1980
Just use the first half of this prezi about Stuart Hall.
In this model media texts are seen to be encoded in such a way as to present a preferred reading. So that the audience will make sense of it in a certain way.
However the audience does not always accept that preferred reading.
Dominant – the audience agree
Negotiated – the audience generally agree but they may disagree with certain aspects according to their social background
Oppositional – the audience disagree
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
George Gerbner Cultivation Theory
George Gerbner’s “Cultivation Theory” has to do with the idea that television has the power to shape our perceptions of reality and the world around us by affecting our attitudes and certain ways of thinking. Gerbner, a well-known communication theorist, and co-authors brought together information and supporting evidence from his Cultural Indicators research to write an article in the Journal of Communication, titled “The ‘Mainstreaming’ of America: Violence Profile No. 11." Through message system analysis, the annual monitoring of specific daytime and prime-time dramatic television programming, and cultivation analysis, the analysis of viewer perceptions in correlation with themes present in the television world, he was able to further elaborate onto the concepts of “mainstreaming” and “resonance.” To get a clearer grasp of how television affects different people, Gerbner broke viewers down in to three categories: light, moderate, and heavy viewers.
Through various experiments he discovered that, despite their race or socioeconomic class, people who viewed more television, had more mainstreamed and homogenous views and perceptions that converged with those represented on television shows. One example of this is that heavy viewers from all income categories believed that "fear of crime is a very serious personal problem,” while the opinions of light viewers varied depending on their incomes. He attributes this to the fact that light viewers not only do not accept all the nuanced messages from television, but also receive information and create ideas through different outlets. On the other hand, Gerbner discovered that these heavy viewers did receive most of their information from television, so generally within these groups, “differences deriving from other factors and social forces may be diminished or even absent” (Gerbner 1980).
He then explained resonance, another important aspect to his cultivation theory, as the pertinent ideas and themes on television that hold relevance for viewers. These themes “resonate” with them and reinforce ideas that the viewer already holds, in a way giving them a “double dose” of the message and further strengthen their perceptions. If they can relate an experience in their lives with one that they see on television the cultivation of this message would be stronger and they would come to believe that this experience is a very real and common one. These different aspects all join together to form Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory and explain the many important ways that television shapes, influences, and reinforces viewer’s perceptions of social reality.
For the full essay see the link below
http://www.colorado.edu/communications/meta-discourses/Papers/App_Papers/Gulisano.htm and http://sdsujms408su2011gp2.wikispaces.com/
Credit: http://www.pastdeadline.com/tv_violence_ouch/
Richard Dyer Utopian Solutions
Richard Dyer, lecturer in film for the universities of Keele and Birmingham in Britain, makes a case for entertainment as a utopian sensibility. He says:
'The notion of entertainment as in some sense utopian — expressing ideals about how human life could be organized and lived –is implicit in what the most widespread assumption about entertainment, namely, that it provides ‘escape.’
Richard Dyer states that people will respond to a media text if it offers them compensation for the inadequacies in their own lives. Through the media, audiences can vicariously live their lives and fulfill their wants and needs, leading them to strive to a utopian life.
Entertainment offers the image of ‘something better’ to set against the realities of day-to-day existence. - 3 reasons why audiences choose to consume media
2) inadequacy
3) absence
Dyer’s Utopian theory is linked with the Uses and Gratifications theory:
-audiences consume media products with a clear set of pleasures to draw from that experience
- Utopian theory—> gratification that allows people to escape from their real lives
-reality—> full of negatives and unfulfillment.
- the ‘mediated ‘ world represents an escape
Young & Rubicam's Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation (4Cs for short)
The 4Cs is a consumer segmentation that 'characterises' people into recognisable stereotypes that reflect the operation of each of a set of well-known human motivations: comprising SECURITY, CONTROL, STATUS, INDIVIDUALITY, FREEDOM, SURVIVAL and ESCAPE. If you are new to the 4Cs and would like to read more, please download our introductory booklet that gives you some background and explains a little more about the characterisations we use. You can also take one of our online questionnaires if you would like to find out which 4Cs values have the strongest influence on the way you live your life. http://www.4cs.yr.com
Y&R's Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation (4Cs for short) is a consumer segmentation that 'characterises' people into recognisable stereotypes that reflect the operation of each of a set of well-known human motivations: comprising SECURITY, CONTROL, STATUS, INDIVIDUALITY, FREEDOM, SURVIVAL and ESCAPE. If you are new to the 4Cs and would like to read more, please download our introductory booklet that gives you some background and explains a little more about the characterisations we use. You can also take one of our online questionnaires if you would like to find out which 4Cs values have the strongest influence on the way you live your life. You do not need to be registered with the site in order to access the questionnaires.
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people. He believed that individuals possess a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires.
Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so on.
The earliest and most widespread version of Maslow's (1943, 1954) hierarchy of needs includes five motivational needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html this link also includes the expanded version of Maslow's Hierarchy in a twenty minute lecture style video.
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