LANGUAGE

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LANGUAGE THE MEDIA

• Media and Ideology

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Defining Ideology

• System of beliefs that enables us to make sense
  of the world
• A "symbolic mechanism," "frames of reference"
  affecting how society thinks about itself, how
  each of us sees the world
• Ideas in the service of interests (power,
  dominance, hegemony)
• John Thompson "Ideology is meaning in the
  service of power. Hence the study of ideology
  requires us to investigate the ways in which
  meaning is constructed and conveyed by symbolic
  forms of various kinds."

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Media discourse

• Power of the mass media to define situations
  through
• Labelling
• Creating a symbolic environment by framing
  situations
• Legitimate language of powerful social actors

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Manufacture of social consensus (consent)

• media exert ideological guidance agenda setting
  what to think rather than how to think
• Ideology of partisan, narrowly defined political
  messages difficult to distinguish from other
  media messages
• sociopolitical implications of all cultural
  products news, entertainment, advertising, etc.

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Media Social Control

• Boundary (Agenda) Setting Theory
• Mass media sets the order of thought/debate on
  current issues i.e. focus on certain issues, none
  on others
• E.g. Who gets to decide what is deviant?
• Define as deviant anyone who even questions your
  activities
• Also gatekeeping to control access to news,
  information and entertainment

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Media Social Control (Contd)

• Organizations and individuals take advantage of
  (manipulate/appropriate) news value of stories to
  serve own economic/political agendas
• Agenda Setting serves social class and elite
  interests
• AS principles are central to critical analysis of
  mass media

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Approaches to Critical Media Analysis

• THE POLITICAL ECONOMY APPROACH
• ELITES APPROACH
• HEGEMONY APPROACH

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1. The Political Economy Approach

• Media ideology is a function (result/outcome) of
  the interests of the owners
• Economic production and relations are the base,
  ideas are the superstructure (Cf. Karl Marx)
• Political economists look for financial
  links--ownership, stock holdings, etc.
• Marx is a major influence in this area- not
  political Marxism but sociological or cultural
  Marxism
• Marx examined the role of financial and class
  interests in society, the nature of power, and
  the connection of ruling ideas to ruling
  interests--these important concerns are still
  very relevant today

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2. The Elites Approach

• Similar to political economy, but focuses on the
  people occupying strategic positions in society
• Elites coordinate and promote their interests
  through shared experiences in clubs, prep
  schools, think tanks, boards of directors, etc.
• Every society has elites, but to what extent do
  elites act in the public interest?
• Manipulating rather than responding to public
  needs and interests

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3. The Hegemony Approach

• Defining hegemony influence or authority over
  others (M-Web)
• social, cultural, ideological, or economic
  influence (or dominance) exerted by a dominant
  group (M-Web)
• systematic but not necessarily deliberate
  engineering of mass consent
• Political values are made to appear
  commonsensical, because they appear so through
  the normal workings of the system
• Media control must be maintained without losing
  legitimacy

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Maintaining the status quo

• How levels of media influence "add up" to favour
  certain "frames," positions and interests
• Individual level Few radical journalists found
  in newsrooms.
• Routines level dependence of journalists on
  officials tend to lead them to reproduce the
  official points of view
• Organizational level reporters are brought into
  line when they stray too far beyond ideological
  boundaries (including self-censorship)
• Extra-media level organizations are pressured to
  stay within certain boundaries by watchdogs, and
  even indirectly through the state, think tank
  experts, advertisers, etc.

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Damage Limitation

• When a breach in the ideological boundaries is
  evident, we can observe repair work to restore
  order to the status quo i.e. Damage Limitation
• Downgrade the offender
• Distance the threat, and
• Reaffirm the worth of the system (i.e.,
  Watergate).

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Media Discourse

• EXAMPLES OF
• MEDIA ANALYSIS

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• An Anarchists March

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A. AN ANARCHISTS MARCH

• Based on framing and hegemony concepts, subtle
  cues serve to delegitimize social protest
  movements.
• What choice of language is used by the reporters
  to describe the protesters?
• How are the protesters framed? Who are they seen
  in opposition to?
• What visual devices in the coverage are important
  in framing the protesters?
• What aspects of the marching activity did the
  coverage revolve around?
• What kinds of sources were relied on? What other
  sources could have been called upon?
• What is the ideological effect of the coverage as
  a whole?

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B. LOCAL PRINT MEDIA

• Local mainstream Print media characterization of
  a street demonstration of anarchists
• Newspaper Headline frames event
• "ANARCHISTS ORGANIZE TO WREAK HAVOC DOWNTOWN"
• News focuses on appearance of marchers unruly
  hair, dress, etc.
• Actions examined based on elements of
  criminality
• One-dollar bills burned, symbolic meaning not
  discussed, but police quoted saying "burning less
  than 2 dollars at once is not a crime."
• Incomplete photo showed protester burning
  American flag--did not show them also burning
  Soviet and McDonalds flag, focusing on the
  "anti-Americanness"

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• Great attention given to thoughts of bystanders,
  esp. those who disagree with the march
• Considerable attention to official points of
  view e.g. the Deputy chief of police
• Meaning of anarchy not addressed stereotype of
  society in disorder, chaos, ruled by will of the
  strong.
• Anarchy actually contrasted with hierarchy of
  people in power

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C. COVERAGE BY ANARCHISTS' OWN MEDIA

• Anarchist media coverage by The Guardian
  newspaper
• OVERTHROW
• Emphasizes planning behind march
• Gives clear statements of rationale behind each
  stop on march e.g. Pillsbury was picketed
  because of "ownership of Burger King and other
  fast food enterprises which contribute to the
  destruction of the world's largest remaining rain
  forests in Central and South America."

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• Characterizes events as peaceful and cooperative
• Portrays police as instigators rather than
  respondents of violence
• Criticizes local media for concentrating on
  "punks" rather than older demonstrators
• Estimates crowd at 200 in first march. ( The Star
  Tribune quoted bystanders as estimating crowd
  at 100)

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D. TELEVISION COVERAGE

• Presented in law and order, social control frame
• These protesters call themselves anarchists.
  They claim they're opposed to any and all forms
  of government. (Delegitimizing)
• Blame violence on protesters (none of the
  anarchists given air-time to speak)
• Pictures shot from behind the police, thus
  adopting that visual viewpoint (Framing)
• Stories framed as anarchists vs. police, rather
  than vs. president of local bank, or CEO of
  Pillsbury, e.g. (speaking to these may have
  legitimized the protest)
• Variations in coverage
• Clear distinction between mainstream
  (pro-government) and alternative (opposition)
  media

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COVERAGE DEMONSTRATES

• IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE MEDIA
• Managing deviance, reaffirming social order
• We live in a media-dependent society
• Essential to be able to think clearly about
• the important values in our culture,
• how they are reproduced and transmitted by the
  mass media,
• the institutions that affect that process,
• the people, groups and interests that benefit and
  those who are harmed.

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IDEOLOGY AND THE PERSIAN GULF WAR

• LINGUISTIC DIRECTION IN GULF REPORTING
• Myths, stories, and metaphor give meaning to
  events, affect the way we come to know things,
  direct our thinking e.g. Mother of all battles
• One of the important new theoretical areas in
  media studies is the role of language.
• Metaphors, in particular, are powerful in the way
  they structure our thinking about issues.
• E.g. sports metaphors abound in discussing war,
  but improperly so
• The objective in sports is simply to win. In war,
  we must question what it is that we are winning.

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• WAR DEPICTED AS NATURAL EVENT
• Desert Storm
• War Erupts
• War breaks out
• Bombs "rain,"
• Scuds "shower"
• (Compare with The vase broke no agent)

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• WAR AS CONTEST
• Turkey shoot
• Showdown in the gulf
• Pummel/pound/punch/knock out opponents
• Sink 'em troops

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• DEHUMANIZATION OF ENEMY
• Saddam's war machine
• Mosquito (Iraq) biting elephant (the USA)
• The enemy is crafty, peculiar, surprising,
  unpredictable, mysterious, horrifying,
  unreliable, weak, haphazard, desperate,
  unspeakable, bizarre, demonic, devilish, satanic,
  criminal, ruthless, cruel, complex, random
• We are meticulous, successful, precise,
  accurate, careful, scrupulous, tough, cool calm,
  swift, decisive, effective, confident, cautious,
  eager, enthusiastic
• (Strategy of negative Other-representation and
  positive Self-representation)

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• MAKE KILLING ABSTRACT
• Suppressing assets
• Collateral damage
• Neutralizing targets
• Degrade/Downgrade initiatives
• Acquire assets
• Soften up targets

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• HIDING THE ACTOR (OR AGENT)
• "Its war"
• Non-combatants died
• (Again, The vase broke)
• DEMONIZATION PROCESS
• Gaddafi vs. Hussein The most dangerous man in
  the world in Newsweek features on both men
• Visual changes in Hussein picture in New Republic
  (to make him look like a demon)

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• HOW WAS OPINION MOBILIZED IN THE GULF WAR?
• Early support was mixed
• In November, NYT ran front page story on public
  uncertainty about Gulf policy. Sec. of State
  Baker, claimed it was about "jobs,"--"to bring it
  down to the level of the average citizen"
• Support for troops is converted to support for
  policy We support our boys in the Gulf. They
  are fighting for the nation.
• Think about ideological influences of media
  Isn't it remarkable that public opinion
  materialised so dramatically over that short
  period of time?
• Once troops are committed, a powerful set of
  routines and messages are engaged which establish
  their own logic, making it difficult to envision
  alternative policies.
• Support for the troops has been given the
  corporate and Hollywood treatment Yellow ribbon
  ads in Austin Weekly several Welcome Home Troops
  ads

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