Blog Post 4

Marxism can best be described as the power structures and conditions in a society and how the upper or higher people have control and influence. Marxism involves 3 main points, ideology, hegemony, and false consciousness. Ideology can be summarized as a concept that refers to shared ideas and beliefs in a society. "The concept of ideology forces readers to perceive that all cultural texts have the distinct biases, interests, and embedded values, reproducing the point of view of their producers and often the values of the dominant social groups (Durham and Kellner)." Religion is an example of ideology. Hegemony transcends and includes the concepts of culture and ideology. Hegemony is a dominant ideology of one over another. Religion being forced upon a country as the rule of law is an example of this. False Consciousness is the spread of propagated information by the elite over mass media and popular culture. Through the use of false consciousness the masses are manipulated and exploited by the ruling class. An example of false consciousness today would be news outlets. They are owned and supported by large corporations which decide what will be told to the masses.  

The way to critique media through a Marxist lens is to identify the positions of the subjects involved. The characters can sometimes be identified with and are models to us, while one who we do not identify with are anti-models. Once the subjects and their positions are identified the media's class and power structures can be analyzed.