Key Concepts
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Ideology Sites of Culture |
Ideology In order to understand these different perspectives on culture we need to understand that all culture works within an ideological framework. What on earth is ideology? Here is one definition, again from “ABC of Communication Studies” by David Gill and Bridget Adams. “Ideology is a highly controversial term. At its simplest, it is a collection of concepts (ideas) and images reflecting what is important to any group, community or nation. As individuals, we all have our own beliefs about society, our own set of values and our own norms of behaviour. It is easy enough to say: ‘I believe that my parents are old fashioned', 'I think meat eating is wrong', 'I would always trust a stranger'. These are personal guidelines; the beginnings of a personal ideology. However, the term 'ideology' is not used in quite this way. This is because it has its origins in Marxist thought, and Marx was interested in the conflict between social classes. According to him, your social class determines the way you think and feel: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines Under bourgeois capitalism, the ruling class communicates its way of thinking (its ideology) to the rest of society in various indirect ways, through an education system and through mass media which have a degree of independence. In the former Soviet Union, where the dominant ideology was Marxist Leninism, the state controlled media and education system ensured that the basic principles of Soviet society were perpetuated, until the whole system collapsed under internal and external pressures. Most of us in Britain are not aware of there being a dominant ideology. In fact, ideology may consist of knowledge that is so taken for granted and seems so natural that we seldom bother to question it. Ideology is influenced by economic ideas. In this country John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman have both, in turn, shaped the economic and social policies of governments. The dominant ideology is capitalist. During Mrs Thatcher's rule, the business entrepreneur was idealised and competition was always 'healthy', while the role of the state was downgraded. To most people, the idea at least of speculating in stocks and shares and foreign currencies seems perfectly normal, and details of the stock markets are given daily in the mass media. But looked at another way, speculation is gambling and regarded by some religious minorities as immoral. However, our dominant ideology is not pure unfettered capitalism. As the 1997 Labour landslide victory showed, people widely accept that the state still has an important role to play in ensuring that the community as a whole enjoy education, health care and social security. Will Hutton's book The State We Are In (1996) is a recent attempt to set out an ideology which combines the dynamism of capitalist enterprise with state responsibility in what he terms stake holding society The dominant ideology suggested above is not accepted by everybody. Many women today perceive society as male dominated a state of affairs perpetuated by a largely man made ideology and are creating feminist alternatives,. Other groups reject the materialism which underlies the dominant ideology and depart into New Age mystical beliefs and practices. Travellers and gypsies, wanderers in a settled world, will always find themselves at odds with the dominant way of thinking. Ideology is communicated to us through the mass media, especially through television, which defines our world in particular ways. Hall (1980)argues that television gives us a 'preferred reading' of events that reflects the dominant ideology in society. This does not mean to say that television text can't be interpreted in different ways, or that all programmes support the present distribution of power in society. Alan Bleasdale's The Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)was perhaps the most powerful attack ever on the economics of the Eighties that left so many people, especially in the north of England unemployed and below the poverty line. The character of Yosser ('Gizza job') Hughes, played by Bernard Hill, will be remembered as the victim of a system where even the welfare services fail him. Another of Bleasdale's TV dramas, The Monocled Mutineer (1986), celebrates a mutiny in the British army towards the end of World War 1 with a gusto that undermines the patriotism with which mainstream ideology views that conflict.” Identity What is identity? Perhaps the simplest way to explain it would be to say it is the aspect of our self image which we wish to present to the outside world. Why and with whom is it negotiable? We don't have a free choice when constructing an identity to present to others - we negotiate or agree with others in our culture and society how far or close to the norms of our society we wish to be. What sort of woman or man do we want to be and what sort of woman will our society allow us to be? If we are Muslim and living in Saudi Arabia, our female identity will be constructed differently and reflected to others differently than if we are Christian and living in the UK. This reflection of our gender identity will be done through clothing, language and personal possessions. |
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