Analysis of Dominant Ideology in Various Media Texts

Stuart Hall has posited that the concepts of individual dream states can be brought on a macroscopic scale to media text. In particular, "nightmares" of individuals, can be related to the semiological analysis of a given media text in relation to dominant ideology and culture in general. His main points in this are twofold, first is to point out that the more horrible and "nightmarish" a media scenario (i.e. story) is, the more difficult it is to de-construct the ideological markers that serve as the basis for the text. The second, and perhaps more important, is that the ideological representation in the nightmare represents a repressed wish of society and has increased threat to the dominant class, or the bourgeois.

For example, the nightmare Alien of sci-fi fame is used as an example of the perceived overcrowding and overpopulation of America by minority groups and cultural absorption by foreign power in the 80's, specifically Japan. The repressed wish perhaps here can be the usurpation of Dominant culture. Of course, these are all very threatening to the dominant class. In this instance, it is through the analysis of signs, or semiotics that one reads a text. In "The Dis-Order of Things in Twin Peaks", J.P. Telotte also employs semiotics to analyze the text of the television series "Twin Peaks", and uses the presence and absence of signs to illustrate his point that order and disorder coincide and vie for control in this fictional universe, and in the process illustrate Ideology. Perhaps in contrast, the essay by Fisk on polysemy in television, calls for the need to deconstruct media texts on the basis of multileveled, and polysemic, meanings within the text that stem from unresolved conflicts, which is important f...

... middle of paper ...

...t to Dominant Ideology. Indeed Twin peaks often uses dream states to further the narrative, and often these dreams are in fact nightmares, or otherwise disturbing dreams. Fisk's reading of critical analysis in "Television: Polysemy..." is valid however, his thesis is shown to be unstable in the structure of his argument. He indeed seems to prove the Althussarian school of thought, rather than to weaken it. Furthermore, in conclusion, in both articles it is necessary to use multiple critical techniques to tease out valid meaning. In this case I have used narratology, semiotics, and even psychoanalysis to a degree. This underlies the importance of a broad use of analytical techniques in order to achieve a desired argumentative goal. One cannot expect to achieve logical success using only one tool, as to the overwhelming presence of Dominant Ideology in media.