Intro to Communication 2410.09/06

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Intro to Communication 2410.09/06

• Representations of Race
• in the Mass Media

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Representations of RaceLecture Overview

• Review some key concepts
• the bias of language
• race and ideology
• ideology and hegemony
• representations of race in the media
• the utopian vision
• the dystopian vision
• the question of multiculturalism.

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Culture
The ideas, customs, skills, arts and social
practices of a people or group that are
transferred, communicated or passed along, as in
or to succeeding generations also describes
such ideas, customs, etc. which belong to a
particular people or group in respect to a
precise historical moment or set of
circumstances finally, culture can be
understood as the apparatus of social relations
which define the individual subject in terms of
their own identity and subjective place in the
world.
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Ideology
While culture can be said to reside in the social
practices of the collective as they are enacted
in the everyday - ideology can be said to reside
in the ideas and thoughts that provide the basic
assumptions and beliefs for such behaviour and
action. In turn, these values and beliefs are
not always clearly expressed through action which
may take place in an unreflexive, one might say
unconscious manner, as part of what is loosely
understood as social action which is supported
and articulated by and through any number of
social institutions.
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Terry Eagletons Versions of Ideology
a) the process of production of meaning, signs
and values in social life b) the body of ideas
characteristic of a particular social group or
class c) (false) ideas which help to legitimate
a dominant political power d) systematically
distorted communication e) that which offers a
position for the subject f) forms of thought
motivated by social interests g) socially
necessary illusions h) the conjuncture of
discourse and power 1) the medium in which
conscious social actors make sense of their
world j) action-oriented set of beliefs k) the
confusion of linguistic and phenomenal
reality l) the indispensable medium in which
individuals live out their relations to a social
structure m) the process whereby social life is
converted to a natural reality.
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Subjectivity and Interpellation
As previously discussed, the process of
interpellation is fundamental to the creation of
the subject - it can be understood, in reference
to the mass media - as the moment when we are
addressed by either the material structure of the
apparatus or its content in terms which describe
and define not only the world around us but also
our idealized relationship to it.
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Interpellation
Religion
Age
Ethnicity
Race
Social Sphere
Socio-economic Status
Politics
Personality
Gender
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Responses to Ideological Interpellation

• Acquiescence and acceptance of the dominant
  discourse this can be conscious or unconscious
• accommodation
• acculturation and assimilation
• oppositional reading(s)
• subversion of dominant text- détournement
• rejection of dominant ideological position
• suffer cognitive dissonance or denotative
  fallacy.
• It should be acknowledged that each of these
  subject positions also constitutes a particular
  ideological orientation in relation to the
  normative social order and the dominant ideology
  as such individuals often embody inconsistent,
  conflicting and contradictory viewpoints in their
  relations to the ideological demands of everyday
  collective existence.

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Ideology and the Bias of Language
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The Bias of Language

• As previously discussed, any sign system, and by
  extension any system of codes, operates at once
  on the level of denotation and connotation.
• It follows, that the most fundamental of
  signifying systems, language, exist as a
  socio-structuring force which deeply articulates
  our basic relationship to the world we live in.

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The Word White

• At the denotative level, the word white means
• white colour or hue white coloration or
  appearance, whiteness.
• In physics, white is understood as the
  combination of all the colour frequencies of the
  spectrum

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The Word White

• At the connotative level, the word white means
• whiteness or fairness of complexion
• a symbol for purity, goodness, truth, joy and so
  forth
• a white pigment often with defining word
  denoting a particular or special kind of positive
  attribute.

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The Word Black

• At the denotative level, the word black means
• the proper word for a certain quality practically
  classed amongst colours, but consisting optically
  in the total absence of colour, due to the total
  absence or absorption of light
• absorbing all light.

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The Word Black

• At the connotative level, the word black means
• having dark or deadly purposes, malignant
  pertaining to or involving death
• deadly, baneful, disastrous, sinister
• foul, iniquitous, atrocious, horribly wicked
• clouded with sorrow or melancholy dismal,
  gloomy, sad
• indicating disgrace, censure,liability to
  punishment and so forth...

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Race and Ideology

• Any discussion of representation of race in the
  mass media
• must be understood in terms of the role that the
  media, as
• an apparatus of symbolic conveyance, plays in
  disseminating
• and maintaining dominant social ideological
  positions.
• As such
• all media texts can be said to be inherently
  ideological
• all media texts are monologic expressions
  designed for mass consumption
• mass media texts can be seen as the reflection of
  prevailing social assumptions
• these texts thus serve to perpetuate social
  asymmetries.

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Ideology and Hegemony

• Definition simply put, hegemony is the social
  practice by a dominant group which seeks to
  aggressively expand its influence and control
  over other less powerful groups in the
  collective this practice is often invisible or
  naturalized and presented in terms of adherence
  or compliance to normative values and belief
  systems which reinforce or support the dominant
  ideological apparatus of the society.

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The Utopian Vision of Race in the Media

• Based in the dominant ideology of capitalism
  which proposes human life as a process of
  continuous development and suggests the
  possibility of limitless progress through
  individual effort and achievement. This results
  in
• representing race as an individual or collective
  progression from social inequality and injustice
  towards equality and freedom
• based on an ideal egalitarian and classless
  version of society
• grounded in a consumerist fantasy focused on the
  commodification of all human activity
• oriented to lifestyle as representation of social
  self.

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The Dystopian Vision of Race in the Media

• Used to identify and characterize minorities as
  sources of existing social problems. This process
  is known as scapegoating.
• The solution to this perceived problem is
  presented in terms of the integration and
  assimilation of the alien or threatening other,
  a process known as hegemony. The dystopian vision
  of race is
• Expressed in media as social fear of minorities
• social logic runs through commercial logic
• media messages therefore limit content range for
  demographic reasons, in order to maximize their
  intended audience.

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The Multicultural Society
Popular multiculturalism is the celebration of
differences as differences which are valuable in
their own right and challenging for cultural
space and capital. Official multiculturalism is
a tool for promoting inclusiveness by proactively
engaging with diversity as different yet equal.
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The Multicultural Society
Multiculturalism can be understood, in turn,
according to the following categories, as
Fact Ideology Policy Practice Discourse
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The Multicultural Society
At the level of practice, we can look at the mass
media for examples of miscasting minorities which
reflect larger societal biases and assumptions.In
these representations, we must consider the
problems of
minorities as invisible stereotyping
minorities problematizing minorities
ornamentalizing minorities.
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The Multicultural Society
At the level of practice, we can therefore
account for the miscasting of minorities
according to the following institutional
perspectives, in terms of
institutional imperatives institutional
dynamics institutional logic institutional
values.
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The Multicultural Society
The media discourses in defense of dominant
ideologies share many of the same features
regardless of their topic or focus. In these

• - Dominant interests are proposed as universal
• - they deny the existence of any contradictions
• - they naturalize the present - Things are as
  they are
• they secure consensus and control through
  consent
• rather than coercion.

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The Multicultural Society
In conclusion, we can reflect on how we might
imagine the role of the mass media in regards to
all practices of representation. How and what
should the mass media show and to what ends?
Might we understand the mass media as a means of
empowerment or acculturation and coercion? In the
end, just how relevant is the mass media to civil
society in the 21rst century? And if the mass
media has lost its appeal and power, what is
replacing it in the expressive order of
collective life?
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Take-Home Essay Question

• Based on the course material and other personal
  research and considerations, how might you
  describe and define the social function of the
  mass media today? Does the media primarily
  construct the reality of everyday life by
  re-producing dominant ideological perspectives,
  values and practices, as Lefebvre and Althusser
  would have it? Or have we, rather, become so
  desensitized to media messages and
  representations through overexposure that they no
  longer have an enduring effect on us?
• Following from this initial determination, how
  might one imagine the mass media as a vital
  public sphere where the general will and the
  public interest find expression beyond
  economic, political or ideological considerations
  and imperatives? Is ongoing government
  regulation of the mass media the answer (and if
  so how?) or can the appropriate conjecture of
  public opinion and market forces help promote
  and maintain a mass media which is responsive and
  accountable to the public good? (and if so, how?)
• Note In your answer, you may focus on a single
  social practice. Ideological perspective or
  policy decision to illustrate and support your
  answer (i.e., representations of race, gender,
  class, national identity and so forth).

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