The Concept of Ideological Hegemony - Essay Example

Journalism, Mass Media and Communication 8 Nov Ideological Hegemony Recent media studies that incorporate Marxist ideas use the concept of ideological hegemony in relation to the standards of journalistic proficiency. This approach to dominance in the society is broader than in behaviourist media studies and structuralism, as it introduces media makers as the full right actors on the field of so-called “social class struggle in language” (Hall 75). The article from Reuters seems to be a promising object for the analysis of the construction of reporting standards and of the discoursive support such constructions give to the articles of this specific agency. Gramsci’s idea of ideological hegemony is related to his view of the role of the intellectuals in the society as mediators. Journalists are also included in the blurred category of ‘intellectuals’, though Gramsci says this with a slight tone of regret (141). In Prison Notebooks, Gramsci argues that intellectuals do not constitute a separate class but rather perform certain functions: “All men are intellectuals, one could therefore say: but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals” (Gramsci 140). This means that there can be no stable class characteristic of the intellectual ‘elite’ that controls ‘masses’ (particularly, by the means of media). Such role is obtained as a function, in the process of social interactions between different groups. As the influence of such groups is not limited to their official status or the power assigned to them by law, Gramsci distinguishes between ‘dominant groups’ and state institutions: he says that intellectuals are the functionaries of such “superstructures” of the society as “civil society” (“private”) and “political society” (“the State”) (145). The former corresponds “to the function of “hegemony” which the dominant group exercises throughout society” (Gramsci 145). Thus, “hegemony” is achieved on the discoursive level, by the influence of the messages and social relations that are reproduced more successfully than that of the other ‘groups’. In Allan’s wording, it manifests itself through “persuasion” rather than “coercion” (109). The main tool of this reproduction (often used unconsciously) is so-called ‘common sense’, an intricate game of representing some group’s opinion in the “common language” of the other groups of the society (or most of them). According to Gramsci, ‘common sense’ lies in the conventions of cultural entities within the society and is carried in language, or, more specifically, one of the languages that is characterized with “collectively attaining a single cultural “climate” (Gramsci 666). ‘Hegemony’ results from this struggle in public informational space between different “languages” (Allan 113); it is not a victory of one group over other groups, it is rather the general characteristic of the process, something that stands behind the changes in communication, thereby confirming that no language is innocent. Raymond Williams, who is traditionally associated with British Marxism, applied this concept to the daily practices in general, treating hegemony as “a living system” (Allan 110). Stuart Hall and the researchers of Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) had been developing the same idea specifically in the field of media studies in 1970s – 1980s, which resulted in the deliberate analysis of such problems as “the pernicious logics of class, sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism and nationalism” in the framework of discoursive dominance (Allan 108-110). In “The Rediscovery of ‘Ideology’”, Stuart Hall notes how exactly these changes in media studies progressed in time: preceded by the recognition of the fact that media are not passive transmitters of the obvious ‘reality’ of the ‘commodity’ but rather active agents of reality creation, they focused on the analysis of linguistic and social strategies of struggle for the control (59-64). The new wave of the studies placed more emphasis on the message, on the factors that shaped content, thereby constructing ‘reality’ itself (Hall 61). Ideology is, in brief, the historicized system of interrelations in language that are taken ‘for granted’ by the members of the society (in other words, Gramsci’s ‘common sense’) (Hall 69). Later proponents of the same theory, as Hall observes, have taken into account the fact that there is no single ideology: ‘ideologies’ are multiple working systems that struggle and/or negotiate with each other by attributing the meanings of different symbolical orders to the same names (like ‘democracy’, ‘national security’, ‘immigrants’, etc.) (75). Moreover, the struggle between ideologies was not for mere signs but also for “the very means of signification” (Hall 77), for the legitimate strategies of making information important. Throughout the article, Hall mentions the following strategies of significations that could be useful in the analysis of the newspaper article: 1) Organization of the text according to the “established forms of episodic thinking” (69), the ways of describing events that are easily “recognized” by the comparison of the same representations; for instance, natural catastrophes in many contexts are described with the emphasis of death in order to activate the protective thinking patterns and avoid certain up-to-date issues that are not so threatening; 2) Discrediting some other ideologies: controversial classificatory systems will necessarily try to “de-legitimize” each other in the struggle for dominance (63); 3) Construction of the potential subject of discourse (in Hall’s example, “we, the people” rather than “workers versus employers”) (64) 4) “Multiple referentiality” resulting from the use of synonyms (when one signifier conceals the other potential signifiers) (73) – the example may be the words ‘hurricane’, ‘disaster’, ‘tragedy’, and ‘problem’ that all refer to one event but carry very different connotations. Due to this, this analysis of Cherry’s article also relies on several other articles as the examples of alternative representational strategies. Hall did not limit his media research to the study of syntactic and semantic characteristics of media texts. His findings in pragmatics (from the study Policing the Crisis) are summarized by Allan as the idea of ‘encoding-decoding’ system (114). When encoding news, their creator are consciously or unconsciously oriented on the subsequent process of decoding, the cognitive activity that occurs when their viewers/readers perceive the news (Allan 115-117). Hall describes three roles that interchange in the viewer’s mind in the process of decoding: the ‘dominant-hegemonic position’, when the structures of ideology are accepted without question; the ‘negotiated position’ when the reader/viewer general line of the report but disagrees on some minor issues; and the ‘oppositional’ code (the name speaks for itself) (Allan 115). Clever newsmakers may encode information in the ways that could apply to all of these positions, though the outcome of such strategies is not easy to be predicted (Allan 116). In contemporary media, one of the strongest guarantees of dominant position is credibility: according to Allan, truth claims should fulfill the requirements of “authoritative, credible and factual” informing (113). In recent years, credibility is becoming closely associated with general demands to the profession of journalist, especially in such cases as the agencies like Reuters with international recognition. Thus, their professional reputation as a credible medium becomes the factor of the ‘class struggle in language’. Allan describes some of the strategies of journalism, self-referential in their nature, that have considerable influence on the perception of media reports: 1) Emphasis on timeliness of the information, or “visualization of ‘immediacy’” (119); 2) Incorporation of alternative opinions (ranging from awkwardness in reporting to the “voices of dissent”) (121). The article from Reuters (Cherry) follows both of these “requirements”, but not slavishly: it is moderate in the assessment of the event as compared to the articles from NBC News and Fox News (that are partially based on the information by Reuters): the reporter calmly mentions the speed of Sandy and the time of the potential shutdown. Quite different selection of information and its linguistic representation may be found in the NBC article that is titled “Hundreds of Thousands Ordered to Evacuate as Sandy Bears down on East Coast”. Of course, the article refers to the actual beginning of the disaster, but the language is still worth noting: firstly, the quantity of potential casualties is emphasized; secondly, they are “ordered”, which is an implicit reference to the urgency of the event and absence of alternative; and then, emphatic language is used (Sandy bears down). All these elements convey the feeling that people are seriously endangered and short of time. Cherry’s language is more balanced; different predictions and comments are cited without evaluative remarks. The use of emphatic words is very limited (“smack the eastern third of the country”, “super storm”), most expressions are neutral: “50 to 60 million people could be affected by Sandy, which many forecasters warn could be more destructive than Irene” (Cherry). By contrast, the FoxNews article clearly follows the pattern of accepted reporting of the catastrophes: the storm is called “monster”, the article starts with numbers of casualties, the fact that “People will die in this storm” is emphasized even visually (see Appendix). Interestingly, the part devoted to the politics is larger in this article than in the other two. In comparison, Reuters clearly separate their geographical analysis from the political one: the article about the hurricane’s influence on the US elections (Lambert and Youngman) is situated separately, and there is no picture that would indicate its importance equal to Cherry’s article. Turning back to the question of ideology, Reuters seems to position itself as an exceptionally neutral and professional agency. One of the key structural elements of its language is distance: both the distance as a quantitative characteristic and the distance between the actual events and the encoders and decoders: Outer Banks residents, with memories of damaging flooding from last years Hurricane Irene, moved vehicles to higher ground and secured outside objects ahead of winds of more than 60 mph beginning Saturday night and potentially lasting into Monday. A buoy 225 miles south of Cape Hatteras recorded 26-foot (8-metre) waves amid blistering wind gusts early on Saturday, authorities said (Cherry). This places the encoders in a seemingly ‘uninterested’ and definitely inaccessible position, suggesting the ‘negotiating position’ of the decoders (Allan 115). The political article (Lambert and Youngman) represents two different opinions: one is the ‘feverish’ pre-election spirit toughened by the hurricane, and another is the questionable strength of this ‘fever’ (as the plans of 90% of the citizens were reported to be definite) (Lambert and Youngman). Regardless from the individual opinions of the reporters, the Reuters agency takes measures to maximize political neutrality of its messages. This, on the one hand, leaves space for the readers’ own conclusion, but, on the other hand, suggests the unbroken order of things: hurricanes are the events that intrude in this order. This is precisely the thing Hall notes about Gramsci’s ‘common sense’: media create digestable patterns of representation of “troubling events” (69). Consistently neutral tone initially has the same functions that the apocalyptic reporting style of FoxNews: it helps those who are going to perceive it in the acceptance of such events. Alternatively, environmentalists could even argue that such reporting style conceals the dangers of climate change. It is remarkable how the target subject of this neutral discourse is identified. Firstly, the event is introduced with the photo of black clouds over the city. It is not an exaggeration: there is no hurricane with gigantic waves or flying houses yet. But it suggests the metaphor of the approaching grim event. Moreover, the angle of this shot places the viewer in the position of approaching hurricane (which could be viewed either as troubling position or as an empowering one, depending on the decoder). There is the appeal to bodily perception and subjective feelings of the potential victims, but it is moderate in comparison with the other articles: "Right now its blowing pretty hard," said Ray Waller, manager of the Ocracoke office of North Carolina Ferry Division (Cherry, Reuters). “As conditions continue to deteriorate we’re seeing more people," with rain and increasing winds, she told NBC News. (NBC News). The predictions about the storm’s inland direction are counterbalanced with the following expression of uncertainty: “Theres no avoiding a significant storm-surge event over a large area. We just cant pinpoint whos going to get the worst of it," National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb said” (Cherry). Altogether, the article by Reuters is structured according to the standards of the neutrality of the professional media. An additional function of its detached language could be the support of the existing order of accident management together with the strict order of reporting. Works Cited Allan, S. “News from NowHere: Televisual News Discourse and the Construction of Hegemony”. Approaches to Media Discourse. Eds. A. Bell, P. Garrett. Oxford: Wiley, 1998. 105-141. Print. Gramsci, A. Selection from the Prison Notebooks. Eds. and transl. Q. Hoare and G. N. Smith. Vol. 1. London: ElecBook, 1999. E-Book. Retrieved 7 Nov 2012 from < firefly.sslcatacombnetworking.com/>. Hall, S. “The Rediscovery of ‘Ideology’; Return of the Repressed in Media Studies”. Culture, Society, and the Media. Eds. M. Gurevitch, T. Bennett, J. Curran, and J. Woollacott. London and New York: Routledge, 2005. 53-85. Print. Main News Article Cherry, G. “Massive Hurricane Sandy Takes Aim at East Coast”. Reuters. Oct 27, 2012. Retrieved 7 Nov 2012 from < http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/27/us-storm-sandy-hurricane-idUSBRE89N16J20121027 >. Supplementary Articles “Hundreds of Thousands Ordered to Evacuate as Sandy Bears down on East Coast”. NBC News. Oct 29, 2012. Retrieved 7 Nov 2012 from < http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49586952/ns/weather/t/hundreds-thousands-ordered-evacuate-sandy-bears-down-east-coast/#.UJuhvWcn-Hs >. “Over a Dozen Dead, over 7 Million without Power as Sandy Pummels the East Coast”. FoxNews.com. Oct 30, 2012. Retrieved 7 Nov 2012 from http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2012/10/29/millions-across-east-coast-brace-for-uperstorm-sandy/#ixzz2BdYpLSyZ. Lambert, L. and S. Youngman. “Hurricane Sandy Looms over 10-Day Sprint to U.S. Election”. Reuters. Oct 27, 2012. Retrieved 7 Nov 2012 from . Appendix Main Article Supplementary Articles Read More