REPRESENTATION
KARL MARX
The philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, Karl
Marx, is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker to
emerge in the 19th century. Although he was very much ignored by
scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic and political ideas
gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death in
1883. Until quite recently almost half the population of the world
lived under regimes that claim to be Marxist. This very success,
however, has meant that the original ideas of Marx have often been
modified and his meanings adapted to a great variety of political
circumstances. In addition, the fact that Marx delayed publication of
many of his writings meant that is been only recently that scholars
had the opportunity to appreciate Marx's intellectual stature.
TRADITIONAL, AND NEO
MARXISM
 Marxism is an economic and socio-political worldview and method
of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist
interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an
analysis and critique of the development of capitalism
 Neo Marxism is seeking to incorporate principles of Marxist
thought into modern political and economic systems.
MARXISM AND IDEOLOGY
 Marxism- is an economic and socio-political worldview and
method of socio-economic inquiry that center's upon a materialist
interpretation of history, view of social change, and an analysis and
critique of the development of capitalism. was pioneered in the early
to mid 19th century by two German philosophers, Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels.
MARXISM AND IDEOLOGY
 Ideology- In the Marxist economic base and superstructure model
of society, base denotes the relations of production, and superstructure
denotes the dominant ideology (religious, legal, political systems). The
economic base of production determines the political superstructure
of a society. Ruling class-interests determine the superstructure and
the nature of the justifying ideology-actions feasible because the
ruling class control the means of production.
STUART HALL
 Stuart Hall, now Professor of Sociology at the Open University,
was a major figure in the revival of the British political Left in the
1960s and '70s. Following Louis Althusser, he argues that the media
appear to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism11.htm
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PLURALISM
 Predictably enough, the pluralist idea is the exact opposite of a hegemonic one.
A pluralist model argues that there is diversity in society (everyone is different) and
therefore there is also choice. So in media terms, because the audience (society) is
diverse, with different points of view, the media is influenced by society. Because
the media need to please the audience they will try to reflect the values and beliefs
that are predominant in society. In other words, they give us what we say we want
rather than telling us what to think and believe, in order to make us stay ‘in our
place’. The hegemonic and pluralist perspectives are most clearly seen in all kinds of
media representation, but the main area is in politics.
HEGEMONY
 A hegemony is a system where one group is dominated by another. The dominating group
achieves its domination by ‘winning’ popular consent through everyday cultural life. In media
studies terms, this model works by achieving dominance through media representations of the
world. The media ‘tell us’ what to think, what to believe and how our world ‘should be’. This
works through ideology – a set of ideas which gives a partial or selective view of reality. For
example, the ‘powerful’ rule over the ‘poor’ by promoting the idea (the ideology) of privilege and
wealth belonging exclusively to a select group of people. There is an argument that all belief
systems or world views are ideological. Beliefs become ‘truthful’ or ‘natural’ and this leads to
power inequalities. The media can circulate or reinforce ideologies OR it can undermine and
challenge them
CAPITALISM
 An economic system characterized by private or corporate
ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by
private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of
goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
LOUIS ALTHUSSER
 Louis Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. He was a member of the
French communist party. His arguments were set against threats attacking the
theoretical foundations of Marxism. He developed Marxist ideas. He was commonly
referred to as a structural Marxist. He focused on the role played by ideology. He
believes we are controlled by the ruling classes, and being some what brainwashed
to believing their ideologies.
 http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/general/bldef_althusserlouis.htm
REPRESSION
 Repression involves placing uncomfortable thoughts in relatively inaccessible areas of the
subconscious mind. Thus when things occur that we are unable to cope with now, we push them away,
either planning to deal with them at another time or hoping that they will fade away on their own accord.
 The level of 'forgetting' in repression can vary from a temporary abolition of uncomfortable
thoughts to a high level of amnesia, where events that caused the anxiety are buried very deep.
 Repressed memories do not disappear. They can have an accumulative effect and reappear as
unattributable anxiety or dysfunctional behavior. A high level of repression can cause a high level of
anxiety or dysfunction, although this may also be caused by the repression of one particularly traumatic
incident.
 Repressed memories may appear through subconscious means and in altered forms, such as dreams
or slips of the tongue ('Freudian slips').
LAURA MULVEY
 Laura Mulvey (born August 15, 1941) is a British feminist film
theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is
currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University
of London. She worked at the British Film Institute for many years
before taking up her current position.
TUCHMAN
 Gaye Tuchman (1978) divided the concept of symbolic
annihilation into three aspects: omission, trivialization and
condemnation. Symbolic annihilation is the absence of
representation, or underrepresentation, of some group of people in
the media (often based on their race, sex, status, etc.), understood in
the social sciences to be a means of maintaining social
inequality.
DAVID GAUNTLET
 David guantlett suggests that we use the media as a navigation
point for developing identity. He suggests that the audience develop
their identity based on characters in the media that the audience
watch.
NOAM CHOMSKY
 Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American
linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. His social criticism
has included Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass
Media (1988), co-written with Edward S. Herman, an analysis articulating
the propaganda model theory for examining the media. The propaganda
model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Edward S.
Herman and Noam Chomsky that states how propaganda, including
systemic biases, function in mass media
IDEOLOGY
 An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals,
expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a
comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things, as in common
sense and several philosophical tendencies, or a set of ideas proposed
by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society.