Karl Marx developed Marxism in response to the poverty and inequality he witnessed during the Industrial Revolution. Marx argued that society is divided along class lines between the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, and the proletariat, who must sell their labor. He claimed the bourgeoisie exploit and dominate the proletariat for profit. Antonio Gramsci expanded on Marxism by developing the concept of cultural hegemony to explain how the ruling class maintains power through manipulating culture and ideology to present their views as common sense. Marxist theories have been applied to analyze how mainstream media persuades audiences to accept capitalism and distracts them from inequality, though some argue audiences are not entirely passive.

1. Karl Marx
sci
ram
io G
nton
A
MARXISM&HEGEMONY
Media Issues and Debates
AS Media Studies

2. MARXISM
Marxism is based on the writings of 19th Century philosopher and social activist Karl
Marx. His writings were a response to the extremes of poverty and exploitation he
witnessed in the years after the British Industrial Revolution. His most famous book
Das Kapital (1867) argued that in a capitalist society the most important and
fundamentally antagonistic divisions are along class lines and that there are two
fundamental classes:
The Proletariat – Workers who have to sell their labour to survive
The Bourgeoisie – The ruling class, own the means of production (i.e Factories),
property or wealth
AS Media Studies
Marx argued that in capitalist systems the bourgeoisie dominates and exploits the
proletariat in pursuit of profit. He also suggested that ideology, values and beliefs are
important in persuading the proletariat to accept the power of the bourgeoisie.
Marxism is subject to a wide variety of interpretations but essentially has the notion
of class struggle as its core tenet

3. MARXISM&MASS MEDIA
Marx’s ideas have been applied to the
media in contemporary
society to
suggest that the world constructed in
most mainstream media contributes to
persuading the proletariat to accept
capitalism as natural and inevitable,
whilst simultaneously distracting them
from complaining about exploitation.
(Source: AQA Textbook)
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“The ruling ideas of each age have ever
been the ideas of its ruling class”
The Com unist M
m
anifesto (1848)

4. HEGEMONY
Antonio Gramsci was a leading Italian Marxist however he disagreed with the
Marxist view of how the ruling class maintained their status and power. He
considered why given the inequality of capitalism the Proletariat did not simply
rise up and revolt. He came up with the concept of Hegemony (or more
specifically ‘Cultural Hegemony’) to describe how the ruling class dominate
other classes by manipulating the culture of a society in order to present their
view as being “common sense” or just “the way things are”. The ruling class
cannot rule by force alone and rely on the ‘consent’ of the proletariat. So rather
than question a system that clearly does not benefit them they are convinced
that the dominant ideology is the only ideology. This is sometimes referred to as
“Ruling by Consent”
AS Media Studies

5. “Any dom
inant ideology in any
society presents itself as the ideology
of that society as a whole. Its work is
to deny the legitim
acy of alternative
and oppositional ideologies” Dyer
(1979)
AS Media Studies
It should be noted that ideology is not necessarily a fixed
set of ideas and is in a constant state of flux – its
common goal however remains the same; to maintain
the status quo of the dominant class.

6. CRITICISMS
The problem with both Marx and Gramsci’s theories when applied to the
media is that they assume audiences are passive and easily manipulated.
AS Media Studies
Stuart Hall (1980), argued that the dominant ideology is typically
inscribed as the 'preferred reading' in a media text, but that this is not
automatically
adopted
by
readers.
The social
situations of
readers/viewers/listeners may lead them to adopt different stances.
'Dominant' readings are produced by those whose social situation
favours the preferred reading; 'negotiated' readings are produced by
those who inflect the preferred reading to take account of their social
position; and 'oppositional' readings are produced by those whose
social position puts them into direct conflict with the preferred reading.

7. This is a bit of a
chicken and egg
scenario!
The Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG) suggests that
media content does support the interests of those who run the capitalist
system. However, this is an unintended by-product of the social
backgrounds of journalists and broadcasters rather than a conscious
capitalist conspiracy. The GUMG points out that most journalists working
for national newspapers, television and radio tend to be overwhelmingly
male, White, and middle class, e.g. 54% are privately educated. (source)
AS Media Studies

8. MANUFACTURINGCONSENT
AS Media Studies
The term “Ruling by consent” was used by John Pilger at the start
of his documentary “The War You Don’t See”. We know from
watching this that the mainstream media in the UK and USA
chose not to print or broadcast anything that ran contrary to the
‘war agenda’ that the governments of both countries were
pursing. Even though there was strong evidence that the public
were being mislead. This is what Chomsky (1992) refers to as
‘manufacturing consent’. In other words information is ‘filtered’
through the media therefore influencing audience’s ideas and
thoughts. Chomsky does not suggest that this is done deliberately
or conspiratorially but is done through a media institutions own
censorship of what is included in media texts. This filtering is
often based on the institutions need for profit and to appeal to
consumers

9. Still with me?
Marxism and Hegemony are broad concepts that encompass a wide range
of political, social, economic and cultural issues – and both pre-date modern
media as we know it by quite some time. Essentially we are interested in
how the terms can be used in relation to contemporary media. Read
through the Case Study on pg 51 of your textbook for some examples.
Marxism focuses on relationships based on social class; however the
concept of hegemony can also be applied to the power relations found in
gender, sexuality and race.
AS Media Studies
Consider the representations of gay characters, women and other
races/ethnicities in the media. Can you think of any examples of
how the dominant ideology is enforced? (a useful starting point
could be looking at how women are represented in advertising)

10. Still with me?
Marxism and Hegemony are broad concepts that encompass a wide range
of political, social, economic and cultural issues – and both pre-date modern
media as we know it by quite some time. Essentially we are interested in
how the terms can be used in relation to contemporary media. Read
through the Case Study on pg 51 of your textbook for some examples.
Marxism focuses on relationships based on social class; however the
concept of hegemony can also be applied to the power relations found in
gender, sexuality and race.
AS Media Studies
Consider the representations of gay characters, women and other
races/ethnicities in the media. Can you think of any examples of
how the dominant ideology is enforced? (a useful starting point
could be looking at how women are represented in advertising)