Sociology Topic Mass Media
(a)(i) Define the term hegemony.
Neo-Marxists who come up with the hegemonic model believes that what is
portrayed in the media is the result of class culture of journalists and the news
values which emerge from it. They believe that if the journalist comes from ruling
party, he will present and prioritise ideas of ruling party with events presented
narrowly as facts and a true picture, rather than what they really are (agenda-
setting). In hegemonic model, the news values of journalists are believed to be the
content of media instead of the real capitalistic condition of the country.
(ii) Identify and briefly describe two examples of hegemony in
relation to the mass media.
Most journalists in the 1970s are from the same class; middle class. Therefore they
write news from their point of view such as in cases like rebellion of employees
against employers, they favour the employer side. Glasgow Media Group (GMG)
argues that the reporting of industrial relations is bias where it favours the
employers over the employed. This can be found in the way journalists are willing to
use information supplied by the employers side in a dispute uncritically; the use of
language that describes employers in a strike as making ‘offers’ and ‘pleas’ while
strikers make ‘demands’ and ‘threats’; interviews with employers in the calm of
their office while strikers are shown shouting from the picket lines, and the
continuous re-editing of the footage that comes only to focus only on one aspect of
what actors in dispute have said about its consequences. In this way, it is the
actions of the strikers rather than employers, which can be seen as disruptive and
unnecessary.
Another example of hegemonic model in mass media is the use of spin doctor in
maintaining political power like ones done by Nicholas Sarkozy. He made sure that
unflattering news about him will be filtered out. In 2006, editor of Paris Match, Alain
Genestar is forced to resign after posting a photo of the president’s wife Cecilia
Sarkozy with her lover (future husband). In 2010, two journalists placed under
investigation for broadcasting a video showing Nicholas Sarkozy scolds a technician
for not greeting him. Also, a TNS poll for La Croix Daily showed that 93% people
thought the media had dedicated too much space to Sarkozy’s private life, while
52% thought too much space was given to covering his political actions. As a proof
of the success of his hegemony, sales of L’Express magazine jumped up to 50%
when a Sarkozy story was splashed on its cover and Nouvel Observateur weekly
sales climbed up 40% when Sarkozy or his family appeared on the front cover.
(b)Evaluate the claim that the mass media marginalizes less powerful
social groups.
I will assess the statement that mass media is biased against the less powerful
social groups by looking through the portrayal of ethnic minorities, gender, and
disability.
The marginalization in the portrayal of ethnic minorities like African-American is
evident in the mass media. As argued by Sarita Malik, she says that mass media is
a ‘racialised regime of representation’, by which she means that the black
experience is represented in distinctively patterned ways, different from the ways
other groups are represented. By contrast, ‘whiteness’ is represented as the norm
of the media. They are shown to have no obvious race to represent, and are rarely
being directed to think of themselves as having a racial identity. In other words,
Blacks are portrayed in the media as being less powerful and marginalized, such as
under educated, unintelligent, and uncivilized. For example, the Disney cartoon of
Jungle Book where the hero is a feral child who grows up, taken care of bear and
panther. In the story, these animals were also trying to save him from a predatory
tiger. This movie alone, together with the re-issues earns lifetime gross of
$141,843,612. Not only Jungle Book, Disney cartoons featuring Tarzan is also widely
spread across the globe where the idea or ideology of ethnic minority as groups of
people who are savage and undomesticated is broadened simultaneously. Tarzan is
another feral child who grows up with his best friends; an elephant and a gorilla. He
is also mannered like animals in the wild and become the leader of the wild animals.
He is married to a city woman, Jane, and has troubles adjusting to the norms of
human being whereas Jane is portrayed as the one that teaches Tarzan to behave in
mannered way. The message of ethnic minority being untaught and hard to learn
new things is instilled into the minds of audiences. And believe it or not, this movie,
which what Sarita Malik would claim to be a ‘racialised regime of representation’,
has been released for about 19 movies and collected millions of dollars of profit.
Another proof of the marginalization of Blacks is clear from the first Black character
who was incorporated into a syndicated comic strip Mandrake the Magician in the
1930s, Lothar. He was Mandrake's sidekick: the circus strongman, who wore
a Tarzan-style costume, was poor, and uneducated. Since the introduction of Lothar,
Black characters have a received a variety of treatments in comics, not all of them
positive. William H. Foster III, associate professor of English at Naugatuck Valley
Community College said, "They were comic foils, ignorant natives or brutal savages
or cannibals". And writer-artist Will Eisner was sometimes criticized for his depiction
of Ebony White, the young African American sidekick of Eisner's 1940s and 1950s
character The Spirit. Eisner later admitted to consciously stereotyping the
character, but said he tried to do so with ‘’responsibility’’, and argued that “at the
time humor consisted in our society of bad English and physical difference in
identity". This kind of message is spread across through the mainstream industry
like Disney in which the ideology of the ‘savageness’ of ethnic minorities is spread
to hundreds of nations. So, according to hegemonic model, this is how people in
power maintain their ideological leadership: by marginalizing the ethnic minorities
subconsciously. However, this argument is hardly true anymore because as time
progresses, the power of ethnic minorities have increased and racism has impaired.
Now, there is more attention given to the ethnic minorities like African Americans.
As a proof, since 1950s, many Blacks have been featured in Academy Award. Blacks
were nominated in the category of ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’ and among those
18 nominations, 4 had won the award. In another category, ‘Best Actress in a
Leading Role’, of 18 nominees, an award was won by Halle Berry. And in the
category of ‘Best Original Song’, across the years, 17 Blacks were nominated and 4
had won. Even in the prestigious Oscar award, minimum of 22 Blacks have won the
award since 1940s. This shows that the mass media does not eliminate the Blacks
from appealing to audiences in positive manner. In other words, the people in power
(usually White) grant access for the Blacks to reach out to mass through media such
as television shows (the movies they were nominated for) and the Internet (live
show of the award receiving ceremony) and do not marginalize them by instilling
the audience with only negative views on the Blacks, instead, they provide consent
for the mass and the Blacks to gain what they want; fair and respected depiction in
the mass media.
Another point of view in the mass media is the view that mass media
marginalize against women. The aspect of feminization of news is reflected in
magazines for women. Marjorie Ferguson conducted a detailed content analysis and
interview study of three of the largest-selling women’s magazines. According to
Ferguson, women’s magazine conveys a ‘cult of feminity’/ they instruct women in
all values and attitudes about being a woman. They tell women what to do and how
to think about themselves, about their men, colleagues, children, neighbours and
bosses. The novice is instructed in how to achieve her chosen ends: what to wear,
how to act, and what to buy to be a femme fatale, supercook or office boss. For
instance, in magazine like Cosmo there are lots of advertisements that
unconsciously degrades women’s pride such as those of Bebe and Ralph Lauren.
The models are usually shown to be wearing very short skirts and low cut tops. In
fact, most of the advertisements show nude or almost nude models. It sends the
message that women needs to bare skin in order to be sexy and wanted by men. In
Maxim magazine, women wear no clothes at all. They are depicted as sex symbols
and have low IQ. Meanwhile women magazines always portray an ideal woman as
thin and using make up, dress up in skin showing outfits, and thus persuade women
to consume on expensive products which have no guarantee on effectiveness.
Hence it clearly shows that women are desperate and could not think for
themselves. They need to be told what to do, how to think and act, and how should
they live, especially acting like sex symbols and trying to be eye-catching for the
other gender. Then again, this argument can be flawed by the positive and
encouraging portrayal of women in many movies and dramas. In drama series like
Ugly Betty, CSI, Chuck and How I Met Your Mother, women are one of the leading
roles. They are pictured as independent, intelligent, smart, and always be the one
that helps the team or mission to get to the next level. They also have control on
their own life like Betty from ‘Ugly Betty’; despite being less attractive and disliked
by all colleagues, she chooses to remain working in the office. Lindsay, in one of the
‘CSI:NY’ episodes reject to get married to the father of her child, while in ‘Chuck’,
the heroine: Sarah is always the one who rescues and saves Chuck from being
murdered and in ‘How I Met Your Mother’, Robin is a character who lives
autonomously, always be the one with the upper hand in relationships and is a job-
focused woman. All these dramas that depict the power and influence of women in
their episodes are on high demand and top ranked. In a way, it also reflects the
acceptance of society onto the equality of portrayal of men and women in mass
media.
The disabled are also disparaged in mass media. Longmore (1987) listed the
some forms of stereotypes of disabled people on television. One is they are
presented as an emblem of evil and also lost their humanity. As seen in ‘Hook’
where the pirate captain whose wrist is maimed and substituted by a hook. The
antagonist kidnaps the son of Peter Pan to avenge his loss in the past in their battle
to gain control over Neverlands. He also bullies all the kids in that place to abide his
rules. In ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, Fred Krueger is the antagonist whose fingers
are made of blades. He enters people’s dreams and kills them. In the decade
before, he already killed 20 children and because of slight faulty in the warrant
system, he was released and his parents burned him alive in his boiler room. So, he
kills people for revenge form the grave. Longmore also listed down the disabled as
portrayed as monsters. For example, in movie called ‘Freaks’ (1932). The whole
cast of genuinely disabled people was used to create horror. There is a scene where
they attack the antagonist, Cleopatra and Hercules with guns, knives and various
sharp-edged weapons, hideously mutilating them during a bad storm. The original
ending of this film had the freaks castrating Hercules, and Cleopatra unexplainably
transformed into a ‘human duck’. The disabled are also televised as totally
dependent on others and lack self-esteem, such as one seen in the movie: ‘The Lost
Prince’ (2002) which is based in true story of the royalty family. John, their prince
was suffering from epileptic seizures and an autism-like developmental disorder,
and the Royal Family tried to shelter him from public view as much as possible.
Another one is the character of Quasimodo in the film ‘The Hunchback of Notre
Dame’ who is despised by everyone except several of his friends including those of
non-human. He walks in the town with his figure closed and he was not confident in
himself. Sociologists Cumberbatch and Negrine (1992) added that the disabled are
also objects of fun or pity. In the movie of ‘Dumb and Dumber’ featuring two men
with learning difficulties in laughable situation, the two main characters decided to
chase after the woman who left her bag with these men. Some of the funny scenes
are “You drove almost a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction!”
The same thing goes to the movie ‘Time Bandit’, where the main characters: the
dwarfs were comic characters who spoke funny lines and act funny and silly
gestures. However, this argument is not really valid since there are proofs of the
disabled being focused on positively. In films like ‘Forrest Gump’, the main
character achieves a lot of success despite having low IQ. He went to college with
football scholarship, becomes an All American and meets President John F Kennedy.
When he entered the army, he received the Medal of Honour by President Lyndon B.
Johnson. When he represented the army to sport against the Chinese, he met
President Nixon and was given accommodation in Watergate hotel. This movie was
nominated in 60 categories in so many awards including the Academy Award and
won 29 of them. This film also reached to many other countries across the world.
So, we can see that fictional media portrayal of the disabled positively is accepted
throughout the world. Moving on to reality, the disabled are actually active,
independent and confident in presenting themselves. The establishment of the
Paralympic Games proves this. The Paralympic Games are a major
international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disability compete; this
includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral
Palsy. It is also one of the largest international sport events by the early 21st
century. The categories are amputee, Cerebral Palsy, intellectual disability,
wheelchair, visually impaired, and Les Autres (literally, “the others” which athletes
with disabilities that don’t fall into the other five categories; these include dwarfism,
multiple sclerosis, and congenital deformities. The effectiveness of the portrayal of
mass media on the disabled is seen from a study done by the University of British
Columbia (UBC) on the Olympic Games Impact (OGI), showed that of roughly 1,600
Canadian respondents, 41–50 percent believed the 2010 Paralympic and Olympic
Games in Vancouver, Canada triggered additional accessibility of buildings,
sidewalks and public spaces. 23 percent of employers said the Games had
increased their willingness to hire people with disabilities. So this shows that the
mass media portrays the positive side of the disabled and it effectively gives an
impact to the world.
In conclusion, I have assessed the claim that media is biased in which it
marginalizes against the social group of lesser power.
