What is an ideology?

Dominant Media Ideologies
What is an ideology? An ideology is a set of ideas that directs one’s goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision or as a way of looking at things in common sense. It is a doctrine, philosophy, body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group. In other words these are concepts we view as “normal” to our culture and therefore logically appeal to us through common sense.
The media tends to serve the hegemonic dominant ideology. The hegemonic ideology is reproduced in the media through media practices that stem from the ways journalists and producers are socialized from childhood and then trained, edited, and promoted by media. Although journalists and producers do not consciously consider ideology when they make news decisions, they tend to serve the political and economic elite’s ideology by doing their jobs.
Common media ideologies:
Materialism—Acquiring goods emphasized; As much as possible
Male privilege and patriarchal authority
Value placed on reputation or status over character traits
Reverence for the young
High value placed on technology
Successful people viewed as confident and assertive and money driven
Principle of independence as opposed to family values/cooperative values
Competition valued
Striving for higher economic status as a key to happiness.
Value placed on image over character traits
Paper—Explore the themes and ideologies in a film of your choice
Think about the 10 ideologies above and how they are either reinforced or challenged in some of your favorite films today. You would want to explore both the plot/story/editing/themes of the film as well as the characters. What messages are these films sending and how might the audience receive and process the material?
For this paper to be successful please follow these guidelines:
– Have a central focus that is demonstrated in your thesis statement. You need to be clear about whether the film is conforming to/reinforcing the typical messages we see or perhaps challenging the messages. You do not need to write about all the ideologies, but rather pick a few and have your paper be focused.
– Describe (Define) the ideologies you are discussing for the audience of your essay so you are clear in the point you are trying to make. Bring in other examples of where we have seen these ideologies to contextualize the paper.
– Make sure that you describe the film in enough detail that someone unfamiliar with it could understand how you are making your point. However, you do not need to summarize the movie!.
– Think about the purpose of ideologies and why they are being used. Are there multiple ways that an audience could understand the messages? Along with providing some examples of where ideologies are found there should be a level of critical thinking that provides additional insight to the topic that may not have been considered before.
Audience: The audience of this paper will be the Class and me, but write to a group of individuals unfamiliar with these concepts or the film and convince them that what you are saying is important.
Important note: This paper allows you some freedom and choice on what to write about. Think ahead of time about what film would give you enough to say and make certain before you start writing that there is enough to be said and enough examples to present.

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