J314: Ideology, hegemony, Gramsci, and rap music

Dominant ideology

✤ Taken for granted

✤ The most accepted and mainstream as “normal”

✤ Rarely challenged

Hegemony & Ideology

✤ H: A system of social control that functions through the consent of citizens.

✤ I: A set of assumptions used to explain and justify some form of social relationship.

✤ A world view based on ideas taught, laws, norms.

Review

✤ Main points last class?

✤ Marx and Marxism

✤ Weber: symbolic activity about politics & economics (legitimation)

✤ Marx: distribution of property/power; alienation from production

✤ Adorno: popular culture designed to control people- their thinking

✤ Althusser: dominant ideologies distract

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)

Extended Marx’s ideas “strategic management”

consensus concept of hegemony to

cultural hegemony. Hegemony is where the flow

of information in society is controlled by a ruling elite.

CH- A social class can dominate thru cultural norms. how media may serve as a

propaganda tool to promote the dominant ideology(s) of the power elite.

Gramsci

✤ Among most important Marxist thinkers

✤ +30 notebooks

✤ Mussolini - campaign against opposition

✤ 1926 - imprisoned.

✤ Prison Notebooks

✤ Hegemony “neutralizes dissent” (p. 77)

Hegemony

Like Althusser’s ISAs - consensus through beliefs via institutions

According to Gramsci, elites try to manufacture consent to their policies by promoting specific values and messages in the media favorable to their interests.

Hegemony

At the same time, opposing views are censored. In Nazi Germany, the

(capitalist) German media served as a virtual indoctrination mechanism for the virtues of the dominant ideology of Nazism.

Gramsci was aware that people can be manipulated when the flow of ideas is hegemonic.

However

✤ “Organic intellectual”

✤ Possibility of change and resistance

✤ Negotiated leadership

✤ Among any group

✤ Habermas - the everyday “lifeworld” and the public sphere

"Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." Bertolt Brecht

For Brecht, art was a political weapon to be used a tool of cultural resistance.

Date

Q: Is American Media Hegemonic?

Our capitalist mass media tends to portray the world of corporate capitalism as a healthy world of competition in which everyone benefits. They do not advertise the

fact that 60% of goods and services produced in the U.S. are produced by monopolies, oligopolies and other anti-competitive systems.

Poverty is largely censored too.

The corporate media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was almost entirely one-sided. It emphasized President

Bush and the Generals’ point of view while largely censoring other viewpoints.

What does a capitalist news media tend to censor?

Pro-labor news. News that challenges the

legitimacy of corporate capitalism.

Anything that challenges the dominant ideology of capitalism and its corresponding values. Marxist ideology is nearly

totally censored.

News media bias

The news media like to present themselves as the voice of moderate reason – as though they are balanced.

They tend to present their news to make it seem like common sense.

In fact, they are biased toward the wealthy, toward whites, toward males, toward established leaders, and toward large corporations.

Chilean Miners

✤ BBC, NPR, and Mainstream outlets?

Economic News as Ideological Construct

The capitalist media rarely portray corporate takeovers and mergers as a “social problem.”

Instead, they often let the corporate executives define the meaning of their own behavior. The executive will typically call it

healthy progress, despite the fact that it is harmful to competition, consumers, and workers.

Economic News as Ideological Construct

Similarly a workers strike is often portrayed through the lens of the corporate executive more than the strikers. The striker is often

Corporate/Consumer Capitalism

Normalizes certain ways of thinking: What is good is what sells. Material things/beauty are more

important than abstract things/beauty.

Life is about individuals in competition with each other, guiding by self-interest.

Private property is sacrosanct. The importance of consumerism and

keeping up with the Jones. Rich people are better than poor

people. Corporate authority is to be

respected. What is good for General Motors is

good for America

Features of corporate consumer capitalism

Consumerism Materialism Suburbia Credit purchases Hedonism Status consciousness Fear of failure Every person for him/herself Obedience to corporate

authority

Media & Dominant ideology

Most corporate media producers argue that their images are merely reflections of our society, and that they are not purveyors of an ideology.

This argument is inaccurate. By selecting some images

and ideologies over others, they cannot help but promote specific world views at the expense of others.

Media Example

✤ Ideological Analysis of Specific Genres of Media

Media example

Rap music & ideology

#2: Rap music ideology

Rap music originated mainly out of young, inner city, working class and poor black males. Given this demographic,

the music tends to reflect a different version of the American Dream: Survival in a hostile world.

Rap music ideology

The music takes advantage of the post-1965 era of freedom of expression, with emphasis on dance, rhythm, and lyrical expression.

Today there are many types of rap music, from heavy to light, from political to commercial.

Rap music ideology

According to Tricia Rose, rap music should be understood as a mass mediated criticism of the dominant ideology of racism within the America power structure.

Rap music ideology

Rap criticizes traditional institutions like the police, the justice system, education and the job system because these systems are seen as oppressive to blacks and the goal of equality.

Rose argues that much rap music rejects dominant ideological assumptions.

Rap music ideology

Rap affirms the experiences of inner city black youth while criticizing the social institutions that contribute to their ghettoization.

• Rap bands like Public Enemy and Wu Tang Clan were critical of the white power structure and its portrayal of the American system as fair and meritocratic.

Rap music ideology Rose argues that rap music has

been empowering to black youth by providing them a way to express themselves and their critical ideologies.

Yet at the same time, rap is full of ideological contradictions. While some rap challenges racism, the lyrics and imagery are often misogynistic, depicting women in degrading ways.

Thus rap music may challenge some oppressive dominant ideologies (racism) while affirming other oppressive dominant ideologies (sexism).

Rap music ideology Commercial rap is devoid of

messages that are critical of capitalism. Indeed, this music is a celebration of capitalism, consumerism, materialism, and the good life.

Rap music crosses over into white culture.

Q: Why are so many young, middle class whites attracted to rap?

In general, whites use slightly different ideological filters than blacks. It is therefore unlikely that a

white person will be attracted to rap music that labels white people as racists.

But that same white person, if they see themselves as young and hip, is likely to identify with other messages found in rap:

• Non-conformist messages related to youth culture, gangsters, and youthful deviance.

• Conformist messages about the good life, sexy babes, traditional masculinity, etc.