IDEOLOGY

Ideology in Media and Communication Studies and its Usefulness



Table of Contents

Ideology in Media and Communication Studies and its Usefulness1

Annotated Bibliography3

Referencs5

Bibliography6

Ideology in Media and Communication Studies and its Usefulness

Ideology in media and communication studies means the transmission of shared beliefs and concepts through various means of communication. The purpose of coining this term was to study the phenomenon through which someone comes up with an idea and how different ideas differ in nature (Croteau, 2002).

The term ideology generally applies to politicians and academicians, as ideology means that you are working on a concept (University of Chicago, 2011). Ideology in media and communication studies has a fairly different meaning than the way it is used in everyday life. In everyday language, it is used as a derogatory term and means the approach to life. Ideology in media means the way media portrays the society. Media's content outlines the way of life for people. It tells us what is the role of men and women in society, what the acceptable behavior in a workplace setting is, what is a crime and what is not. The ideologies given by Media change over time and it normalize ideology for people to follow. Marx certainly made the term famous when he used it in his essay The German Ideology (1846). He defined ideology as false consciousness and said that it represents but the ruling class's interests depicted by media (Marx 1846, p. 8).

Media cannot be the single propagator of a certain ideology. If media were the sole authority that defines the ideology followed by a society, the images it portrays would have remained constant. This is not true as media's content changes with time. Therefore, it brings contrasting ideologies to light (Croteau, 2002).

Hence, ideology relates to beliefs, values and worldview. It is ...