Marxist View of Mass Media - Essay Example

111485 Between the most happening decades of 1960s and 1980s, Marxist Media theories and neo-Marxist approaches were rampant all over in the Western world. Important Marxist concepts were used as tools to analyse various aspects of mass media. After the 1980s, the popularity diminished to a considerable extent, but did not vanish completely. There was a recent lifting up after the 9/11 attacks, even though, viewed from the periphery, events were totally unconnected to one another. There are many widespread Marxist schools of thought today, and some of them look distinctly different from the initial theories of Karl Marx. No doubt, they are based on his concept; but the way they have spread their tentacles far and wide today, Marx himself would have found it difficult to recognise them and the relationship between the media and Marxism is one such field. Liberal pluralism and freedom of speech come distractingly closer to Marxist theorists in this field. "Marxist theorists tend to emphasize the role of the mass media in the reproduction of the status quo, in contrast to liberal pluralists who emphasize the role of the media in promoting freedom of speech," http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism01.html (Daniel Chandler). To Marxists, capitalistic society is one that is dominated by the dominant class and media is a part of such a society. It also represents a pluralist view and diverse values from various classes in the society. Graham Murdock spoke about 'political economy' and according to such thinkers, economic foundation is much more important than the ideology. These ideologies are mainly dealing with the construction of ownership and control at different stages of media production. "The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. (Marx & Engels: The German Ideology, cited in Curran et al. 1982: 22)." http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism03.html According to Marxist principles, media is interpreted as 'means of production' and there are two power points here, one is the dominating ownership, and another, the working class. Marxist theory applies the same owner-worker yardstick to every eventuality without fail. Worldviews and ideas are coming from the ruling class and naturally, according to Marxist theorists, most of them are biased, as the ruling class is in charge of presenting those ideas in their own way. It does not allow workers to send the clearer ideas and this makes the Media a region for class struggle. Existing power relations are usually maintained and promoted by media for decades now. Developing alternative theories in the place of what is always taken for granted is a comparatively recent approach opening new ideas for Marxist theorists. 'From each according to his ability and to each according to his needs' is the main rule of Marxism. Information stretched and spread for common consumption shows a comparative consistency. When the unprecedented 9/11 attacks took place, mass media and Marxist theories worked with great bonhomie. Theorists could see Marxism in the attacks on capitalism. Even though Marxism never facilitated plural voices, and the media is awfully restricted in Marxist rules, Marxist theorists applied various theories to the media presentation of the incident on the aftermath of the attacks. Theories and media texts revolutionalised the entire social structures of the world after this event. "A social formation consists of three practices: the economic, the political and the ideological. The relationship between the base and the superstructure is not one of expression, i.e., the superstructure being an expression or passive reflection of the base," Storey, (p.110). Academy Award Winner, Michael Moor's film, Fahrenheit 911 has been one of the most controversial movies in recent years, based on the disastrous attack on World trade Centres and the depicting the way Bush Administration reacted to it. Film is an extensive criticism and examiner of Bush administration and gives a certain details about Bush administration's reluctance in pursuing the Saudi connection, even though 15 out of 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and money from this country had definitely funded the Al-Quida movement. Film has the characteristic investigatory humour that made this director famous over the years. It discusses USA's Patriot Act that deals harshly with the basic civil rights of the country, which has been kept on tenterhooks waiting for the further bulletins from CIA and FBI. It also facilitated US administration to rush into Iraq war and the lulled citizens of America, regularly drugged by Al Quaida fear, did nothing to oppose it. The film analyses and interprets the reality or lack of it. The director seems to be working on an agenda, while he stresses continuously on the Bush family business connection with Osama family. Film also focuses on the repercussion of the 9/11 attacks and how Osama's younger relatives studying in US were saved from being lynched by general public after the event. "Moore's greatest contribution to the national debate is that he pulls back the veil on the bloodshed of a war that has been sanitized for the American public's consumption" Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald (CrystalLake, IT), http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fahrenheit_911/ Film grounds on the Conspiracy Theory. According to Adam Smith, Conspiracy Theory is inherent in Capitalism. "As Marx noted, people make their own history, but not under conditions they have chosen. The puzzle that then remains is, how is it positive that "stupid white men" can perpetrate such conspiracies as Michael Moore describes " http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w27/msg00190.htm Mass media Marxism lays down the significance of Explicit and Critical Theories and supposed to be the myth of 'value-free' social science. It also removes the romance in the events and makes it as dry and cynical as possible, true or otherwise. "Marxist perspectives draw our attention to the issue of political and economic interests in the mass media and highlight social inequalities in media representations" http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism13.html It removes the ideology from constructed events and deconstructs them, devoid of accepted values. The deconstruction helps in ideological analysis by exposing realities in the media tests. Althusserian Marxism is considered to be deconstructing the myth of an autonomous individual and makes the mass media a major 'site of struggle' for any kind of ideological significance. This would make every event seem to be different stripped out of glitter and romance and without the taken-for-granted values, the same event would look bare and cynical. ".but the very presence of such auto-critiques circulating within patently mass cultural institutions such as the shopping mall movies theatre complex and the MTV network suggests that that critique is in need of serious reconsideration regarding function, homogeneity, and overall orchestration of mass culture," Collins (1986, p.15). Paparazzi and cynical investigative journalism (not always aided by truth) looking for sensation and fame for themselves and their media medium, tend to travel between truth and speculation, invoking Marxist relevance in the media texts. Marxist relevance also stresses the significance of social class where the ownership and receivers of media texts, are apart from one another, at the opposite ends. This concept had been one of the major factors of every analysis. "Whilst content analysis and semiotics may shed light on media content, Marxist theory highlights the material conditions of media production and reception, " Ibid. We cannot forget the crucial contribution of so-called 'Critical Political Economics' who tend to study the ownership and audience connection comparing and contrasting them with the ownership and influences over the said ownership. It segregates the diverse socio-economic groupings that are grouped together by the mass media effect. The establishment of Marxist media theory, representing mass media for mainly social and political coverage, in relation with the audience interpretation has been a recent revelation. It is supposed to be distributing power and strength equally amongst audience. Stuart Hall gave credence to the most recent Marxist Media theory. Marxist view of Mass media is commonly called as 'critical' or 'radical' or as 'cultural studies'. It is believed that it was more relevant twenty-five years ago, though still relevant now. Mannheim thought about the domination it creates as a central theme viewed from a class-neutral point. Marxian understanding always spoke of ideology as one of the belongings of the higher classes. Marxists proclaimed that upper classes used ideology as means to further their own ends. The fundamental principles of domination-exploitation are applied to mass media by differentiating the classes and to some extent, by creating a kind of class struggle in the media, even though the boundaries are not clear in any way. Here it is not only connected with gender, culture, ethnicity, colour and race, but also with the nation, direction and continent boundaries. "The 'Marxists' in cultural and media studies were generally concerned to develop theories of how relations of domination were developed and maintained, not only or even primarily by economic forces, but by cultural forces", http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html Frankfurt School is one of the most important left-wing critiques, argues on behalf of dominant theory by saying that dominant class in society not only owns the means of material production, but also controls society's dominant ideas and values. Gramsci's theory of hegemony is another well-known theory of Marxism. "Like the perspective developed by Arnbold, Leavisism and the American mass culture theorists, the Frankfurt School perspective on popular culture is essentially a discourse from above (a discourse of 'us' and 'them') on the culture of other people," Storey, (1993, p.109). Sociologists criticised the Marxist theory of the media saying that it is moving away from sociology towards cultural studies. Anderson and Sharrock (1979) felt that "media studies practitioners had failed to show how the media sustain capitalist hegemony, media studies men apparently being 'utterly indifferent to the particulars of their materials," http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html They said there is utter failure on the part of these theorists, who did not show how media could sustain capitalist hegemony. It is also said that an unhealthy over concentration on media and cultural studies had been taking the natural, unaggressive nature of media away from the audience. They say that there is no dominant ideology and the conclusions are trivial. Theoretical approaches to the mass media had not been exactly popular. There are different schools of thought within Marxist media theory and according to Murdock(1982) and Golding (1977) their theory represents the 'critical' political economy approach, and this locates the power of media in various economic processes and media structures. They agree that the financial control and owning of the media are the main criteria. "The whole Marxist theory centers on the emancipation and freedom of human beings, the naming of his highest ideal as association of free individuals' being the clear proof. However, it would be superficial to announce Marxism as humanism of individualism according to Marx's pursuit of free development of each," http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism04.html Marxist theory has materialist pose and this pose of 'social being determines consciousness'. Ideological positions are also reflections of class positions according to Marxism. Like in Hegelian philosophy, idealist theory makes consciousness vocal and this is a curious application contrasted with Marxist theory. Social consciousness could be said as deterministic or it could be dialectical relationship. Gender, race and social classes had been issues of every modern theory and they are the issues of neo-Marxism as well. Gender based bias had never been absent from the mass media. Feminist theorists had been relentlessly pointing out this lack of equality, not with much success. Similarly, race and racial connected issues again hit the heart of the Marxist theories. Mass media has highlighted these issues with a great amount of success and there are enough indications that things are on the mending. Class struggle, according to Marxism is a part of capitalistic society, and hence, media owned by capitalists, is a part of the ongoing class struggle. Theories are reflected in the diverse ways in which media has projected the events, away from the popular beliefs and common reasoning, presenting it in various modes and logics. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Berger, Arthur Asa (1995), Popular Culture Genres, Theories and Texts, Sage Publications, London. 2. Carter, Erica, Donald, James and Squires, Judith (1995), ed. Cultural Remix, Theories of Politics and the Popular, Lawrence & Wishart, London. 3. Collins, Jim, (1989), Uncommon Cultures, Popular Culture and Post-Modernism, Routledge, London. 4. Storey, John (1998), An introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, 2nd edn., The University of Georgia Press, Athens. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fahrenheit_911/ 2. http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w27/msg00190.htm 3. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism13.html 4. http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html 5. http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html 6. http://www.wanfangdata.com.cn/qikan/periodical.Articles/zjdxxb-e/zjdx2001/0103/010323.htm 7. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism01.html (Daniel Chandler). 8. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism03.html 9. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism04.html Read More