Summary: Arguments, Critical Terms, Main Points

1. Summary: Arguments, Critical Terms, Main Points

2. IDEOLOGYConsciousnessIndustry, Interpellation Len Masterman, Teaching the Media • The media as consciousness industry: shaping our perceptions and ideas about who we are, what we want, which groups we belong to. • „The prime item on the agenda of consciousness industry is producing people… who are ready to support a particular policy, rather than some other policy”; i.e., ideological manipulation; interpellation (address), how images speak to us, address us, try to manipulate us

3. Narrativity • „The media tell us what is important and what is trivial by what they take note of and what they ignore, by what is amplified and what is muted or omitted”; i,e., the principles of selection + construction • the media (represenation) create reality (diff. from simply saying that they lie), does not reflect reality; based on the principle of selection, and putting pieces together, they create a narrative, which viewers interpret; i.e., the stories created by the media are to be studied as particular kinds of narratives; they are constructed as stories with a particular (ideological) message, closure, etc.

4. 2. OBJECTIVITY; Partial Perspective, Self-Rexlefivity, Constructionism Donna J. Haraway, Situated Knowledges • Starting point: „universal knowledge” vs. partial knowledges; universal knowledge claims appear to be objective and do not reflect on their own partial nature; partial persepective, self-reflexivity • It is vital to recognise that knowledge claims are partial, but it is not enough: „It is not enough to show radical historical contingency and modes of construction for everything”; i.e., constructionism (we are constructed, „produced” by the images that interpellate us) has its dangers: it can lead to utter relativism

5. Objectivity, Situated Knowledges • Concept of objectivity: she argues that we need new modes of knowledge; „feminist objectivity means quite simply situated knowledges”. • Her thesis: „we do need an earth-wide network of connections, including the ability partially to translate knowledges among very different – and power-differentiated – communities”. Why are connections so vital for objectivity?

6. 3. SELF-IMAGESelf-Esteem, Body Image Len Masterman, Teaching the Media • Stuart Hall: „The line between preferred and excluded explanations and rationales, between permitted and deviant behaviours, between the „meaningless” and „meaningful”… is ceaselessly drawn and re-drawn; i.e., the basis of conditioning behaviour, identities, self-esteem. Maggie Wykes and Barrie Gunter, The Media and Body Image: • The ’body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” . The media disseminates „desirable”, „normal”, „acceptable looks” – making ordinary people feel „deviant” .

7. Consumerism, Beauty Industry • Mainly women are targeted, but both genders are concerned: “While research has shown that women tend to regard themselves as bigger than they really are, for men the opposite is true. Men tend to perceive themselves as underweight and as thinner than they actually are and report a desire to be larger”. • Most serious issue women face: anorexia nervosa. Other issues: cosmetic surgery, over-exercise, self-mutilation (The Black Swan) • Women learn to reconstruct themselves; beauty is the goal, science is the means; with the help of: fasion, exercise, diet, rejuvenation, chemical maintenance. • Dove, „Evolution”

8. Conflicting Roles, Split Identities • The media often produce conflicting roles; for instance: housekeeper, mother, screen siren. women are given an identity by ads and were told they were not good enough „naturally”. • Schizoid situation: the identities offered by these images are partial and may be contradicted by other representations! E.g. Screen siren vs. housewife; split identities

9. 4. HISTORYCollective Memory Motti Neiger, Oren Meyers and Eyal Zandberg, eds. • Definition of collective memory: „a shared pool of information held in the memories of two or more members of a group” • In media studies: „the systematic exploration of collective pasts that are narrated by the media, through the use of the media, and about the media” • The Iron Lady, The King’s Speech, etc.

10. Hermeneutics • Halbwach (1950s): „social groups construct their own images of the world by constantly shaping and reshaping versions of the past”; the past is shaped and reshaped according to the needs of the present; the basic assumption of hermeneutics • current events and beliefs guide our reading of the past, while frames of references learned from the past shape our understanding of the present • Whatever a nation chooses to memorialise in physical monument, or perhaps more significantly, what not to memorialise, is an indicator of the collective memory.

11. Agency • An often discussed question: who has the right to speak?; agent: the term does not refer to its common sensical meaning; it means to be empowered to speak, vs. being objectified, silenced, represented (spoken for), etc. • who has the right to narrate collective stories about the past? Not only academic and political elites; films, TV, the press • The role of the TV: „Television is the principal means by which most people learn about history today. Just as television has profoundly affected and altered every aspect of contemporary life – from family to education, government, business and religion – the medium’s nonfictional and fictional portrayals have similarly transformed the way tens of millions of viewers think about historical figures” /Gary Edgerton, 2000/.

12. 5. GLOBALIZATION; The Grammar of Nationhood, Media Economy Sabina Mihelj, Media Nations • The grammar of nationhood (symbols, national broadcasting systems, national sport teams, etc.) – a globally intelligible language, making even a remote country familiar and knowable. They suggest that global standardization does not necessarily imply an obliteration of difference. • The media plays a significant role in disseminating this grammar (national media events, national broadcasting systems, national associations of journalists, etc) • She claims that all modern nation states and media systems conform to the Western model (regarding political and economic institutions; she is not talking about national myths and histories, which are, of course, singular).media economy: transnational media ownership is concentrated in the west

13. Diversity and Standardization • national sovereignty is being constantly redefined (not erased) in response to a more complex, global environment  Two (contradictory) developments: • Greater diversity: the foreign is „domesticated”; e.g. the adaptation of reality shows • Grearer standardization: even domestically produced artworks are modelled on consumerist imagination