Reading The Media- The Sociology Of Mass Communications
Marxism &The Feminisms on the Mass Media.
It should be obvious that the originators of the Marxist tradition in social and political thought, Marx and Engels, had little if anything to say directly about the structure or content of the media or it's message. Indeed it is only in an early work "The German Ideology" that Marx comes close to systematic analysis of the nature mass culture. The central assertion of "The German Ideology" can be synopsised by a single quotation that "the ruling ideas of any epoch are the ideas of the ruling class". The thrust of the work is however less deterministic than the quotation would imply. In general the whole Marxist tradition of media analysis rests on the premise that life determines thought not vice versa.
As one would also expect the general approach to mass communications is rooted in an historical examination of the context in which the mass communications industries have developed as well as the perceived "ideological" nature of the content of the messages that these industries disseminate. The emphasis given to means and content may very between individual theorists depending largely on their influences within the tradition.
One key early theorist, who may even be credited with the instigation of a cultural studies debate within Marxism was the Italian Antonio Gramsci, despite a long period of imprisonment by Mussolini's Fascist Government.
As one would expect given the context of his writing Gramsci was centrally interested in the nature of State Power and the way in which the use of coercive force is either legitimated or even becomes unnecessary as the ideas of the ruling class become accepted, taken for granted, common sense. The work of Gramsci is in itself often at the centre of much debate and interpretation, but his introduction of the concept of hegemony, of which more later, has had an enormous influence on the whole field of media and cultural studies. He was not however solely concerned with this area of endeavour - his primary interest was with the State and the nature of power, indeed as Sassoon puts it:
The undisputed emphasis placed on cultural and ideological phenomena has often obscured his fundamental interest in the nature of of the State and the exercise of political dominance, the principles of political strategy in a specific historical period .... If these elements are coherently interconnected in Gramsci's conceptual framework, then it would be difficult to sustain, as some authors have implied, that his concept of hegemony is reducible to the notion of cultural influence ( Anne Showstack Sassoon 1980 p14)
The concept of hegemony as elucidated by Gramsci is not a simple one but to give brief outline of what is meant by it it could characterised it is asserted that: No state or social structure can exist for anything but a brief time by coercion alone. (See Machiavelli) Even at the lowest level of the economy- the individual unit of production- the shop floor the organisation is dependent on at least a minimal level of consent . Since in capitalist society conflict is both internal to the social structure and its institutions as well as rooted in conflictual relations of production this need for consent has to be manufactured through some elements of the process of socialisation. One of the consequences of this need for nominal consent is that political organisation within the working class, providing that they can be assimilated into the existing order, far from representing a threat to the social order actually help perpetuate it. The political institutions, the mass media, the judicio-legal system and education all contribute in this process which creates a hegemony- the ideology of the existing relations of production become part of the common sense understood reality of the population.
Within this schemata even media content which appears to be subversive (eg "The Doors Are Open" (Grenada 1968), "1900" (Bernard Bertolucci 1976) or "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (Luis Bunuel 1972) can be rendered harmless not least because they themselves become part of a system based on the commodity exchange of cultural production.
More recently there has been some emphasis on the unique nature of the actual product and production of the mass communications industries, as part of a structural analysis firmly focussed on ownership and control of global media. Some discussion of the ownership, control and history of the mass communications industries will follow in the next two lectures but for the moment if we concentrate on content; that is the message not the medium one feature of the media's production does appear to separate it from all other industrial products. The uniqueness of media production is a feature that, it is asserted has a great deal of significance for the much vaunted "information society" as well as contemporary analysis of the media. Since all products only attain value due to the amount of stored human labour in their production cultural becomes unique because of its unlimited potential to realise surplus value over and over again for no or only minimal outlay. One a programme or film or song or novel has been written it can be sold and sold again, even crossing the thresholds between media to realise further value.(eg the cd, of the TV Special, of the film, of the play, of the book, ......)
Despite the disparate perspectives that make up what may be termed the Feminisms there is one point of commonality which would make an interest in the mass media and its content a matter of some importance. One key criticism of "malestream" sociology that has emanated from within the women's movement is that by concentrating on the public sphere of life women are excluded. Women's lives are identified as occupying more completely the private sphere of domestic relations, although it is in general recognised that both genders are in and of both areas of social relations. Since in general the mass media is received within the domestic sphere it is unsurprising that it has become part of the central concern of the feminist project.
It is crucially the contribution that the content of the mass media makes to the socialisation process that is of central concern to the feminist analyses. It should be self evident that one point of commonality between the Marxist and Feminists perspectives on the mass media might be described as the assertion of the production of "false knowledge" and the widespread dissemination of a particular ideology.
The ideology of femininity- the gender role and associated social and sexual behaviour ascribed to women in a male dominated society- and the ideology of the nuclear family, is it is asserted, are at the centre of much of the content of the production of the mass communications industries. In particular media production that is self consciously directed at a female audience does appear to present a particular paradigm of domestic relations which is so strongly related to a specific model of the family that it can be seen as a stereotype. The model of the family that is presented, it is asserted, is very restricted- as Segal puts it:
"Our traditional family model of the married heterosexual couple with children based on a sexual division of labour where the husband as breadwinner provides economic support for his dependent wife and children, while the wife cares for both husband and children" (L. Segal "What is to be done about the Family" 1983 Penguin p.13)
It is also a family paradigm which no longer reflects the reality of everyday life in the U K where such a specific model may even have very little historical basis, in terms of the history of the family.
Some elements within the feminist project have been accused of the utilisation of the somewhat simplistic model of media effect that we looked at in week two, but for the most part the complexity of the interaction between content and audience is recognised. Indeed much of the analysis produced within the feminist perspectives is innovative precisely because it's subject is a neglected area within "malestream" media and cultural studies- that is media that is directed to women. The analysis of popular women's fiction for example is virtually the exclusive preserve of feminist research. The depiction of life that is part of the commonplace currency of "women's media" is something that we shall return to later in the module.
Brian Mulrine Bradford College. 2002
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