IDEOLOGY IN MEDIA

Ideology in Media and Communication Studies

Ideology in Media and Communication Studies

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).

Ideology

The term ideology applies to politicians and academicians as ideology means that you are working on a concept. Ideology in media and communication studies has a fairly different meaning than the way it is used in everyday life (Groseclose, 2005). In everyday language, it is used as a derogatory term and means the approach to life. 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. Media's ideologies changes over time and it normalize ideology for people to follow. He defined ideology as false consciousness and said that it represents but the ruling class's interests depicted by media (Gramsci, 1971).

Ideology of media

Althusser, a French philosopher, stress on the need for people to navigate different ideologies. It is important because ideologies dictate a person's course of actions and the way of life. Ideological analysis by critics do not challenge the media for the real or fake content rather they focus on accessing the effect that the content has on its audience. Media is also regarded as a source of the solution to various problems (Gamson, 1992). For instance, the growing violence in the American society is attributed to some extent to the video games and cartoons that display such content to young minds. Moreover, the change in US demographics and the prominence of single parenthood and children born to unmarried young and adult parents, one out of four girls in the US identified as a victim of sexually transmitted disease and growing public display of affection may all be attributed to the explicit sexual content available free for everyone on the Internet (Andina, 2007).

Ideology as Normalization

When media present the same content and images again and again, it makes those images and messages widely accepted. Hence, media defines the social set up for the society and culture (Folkerts, 2008). Together, these images and messages define normal and not normal. Media normalizes behavior that appears in ...