Mass Media Text Coursework
Introduction
'Friends', is an American television sitcom produced by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired from 1994 right through to 2004, all together lasting 10 seasons. The entire series is based on five characters all talking about their friendships and romances they encounter throughout their daily lives. However, the television series rarely brings us to the importance of race, gender and class, something which could easy have been developed.
Television plays a very important part in today's society, after all, it's what a large number of people spend their spare time doing. Television almost creates a connection from the outside world to our living rooms (Fiske, 2003; Press, 1991). This is a very important
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In order for a series to stay popular, especially after 10 seasons, it needs to reach a wide variety of people. By Friends discussing the importance of friendships and romances, they are able to reach common grounds with the viewers, which is inevitable for a television series to succeed, which is the main reason why it is still discussed and watched 12 years on. The reason why I chose this specific mass media product, is because Friends should be studied to locate deeper connections between relationship, televised messages and their connections to our …show more content…
Cultural hegemony is the idea that the ruling class can manipulate the system and society, so that their view, becomes everyone else's. In Eagleton's words, “Gramsci normally uses the word hegemony to mean the ways in which governing power wins consent to its rule from those it subjugates”, this shows how much of an influence the ruling class has over it's working class citizens.
Hegemony is an extremely critical theory as it's constantly analysing the social practices and the “distribution of power in society”, (Littlejohn and Foss, Theories of Human Communication, 2005). The term hegemony, is vastly used by media researchers to exhibit ways that texts represent the dominant ideologies of society on television (Bertrand and Hughes, 2005). Littlejohn and Foss described the relationship of hegemony and mass media as “ dominant ideology perpetuates the interests of certain classes over others, and the media obviously plays a major role in this
As a group, we believe that popular culture does in fact perpetuates stereotypes. Television is a main source of information of popular culture. Television has forever changed how humans have interacted with another and introduce a world of diversity and knowledge. But with this profit, television has also harbored negative aspects. As a group, we studied how racial stereotypes are portrayed in television. In the history of television, different racial and ethnic groups have been widely underrepresented and television itself has been overwhelming represented by white figures. And when racial groups are presented on TV, the characters are often played in limited roles based on stereotypes. A stereotype isn’t necessarily untrue, but it is an assumption based on an incomplete and complex ideas that are oversimplified into something that isn’t what it meant to be, and it’s usually negative. For example, African Americans are often depicted as violent or involved in some kind of criminal activity. Their characters often portrays a person who is always sassy and angry or that isn’t intelligent and won’t succeed in life and inferior to whites in some manner. Asian characters are
As foolish as that comes across as, Gabler asserts that the viewers make as if the characters are their friends in in order to feel good about themselves and not overthink about their alienation (357). This is the ultimate relationship; the characters are always close by; there is no turmoil; and they are very amusing. Although there is no interaction, the viewer still is under the impression that the characters are their friends. This relationship is really comparable to social media because people may never truly chat with their “friends” but they are able to “interact” through a screen. A friend from a television show may appear to be like the best relationship, but the ones that occur between the onscreen characters is indeed better.
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
Since television came into existence, it has evolved into a useful tool to spread ideas, both social and political, and has had a great effect on the generations growing up with these heavily influential shows. To these younger generations, television has taken the role of a teacher, with the task of creating a social construction by which many of us base our personal beliefs and judgments on. This power allows television shows take the opportunity to address problems in a manner that many audiences can take to heart. Many television shows present controversial topics in a comical matter, in some ways to soften the blow of hard-hitting reality at the same time bringing attention to the issue being addressed. In the television show, Everybody Hates Chris, season one, episode four entitled “Everybody Hates Sausage”, the stereotypes that continue to fuel racism are examined in a satirical motif, and class is presented in a comical way, but carries serious undertones which present a somewhat realistic view of the different social strata within the United States.
Foss goes on to explain that multiple ideologies can co-exist within any given culture, but the privileging of some ideologies over another results in a phenomenon called hegemony. The consideration of hegemony is what makes ideological analysis critical - as it employs a Marxist flavor in confronting how the ideologies of the dominant group prevails over the ideologies of groups with less power. Hegemony fosters social control as the dominant group determines the dominant ideologies of a culture that
The media is a powerful tool. It can help shape our identity, behaviour, and our view of the world. Everyday we are shown new images, videos, and other materials, through television, newspapers, social media and many other forms of the media. These images and videos influence people without them noticing they are being influenced. It is important to be able to criticize and analyze what the media is telling us. Degrassi is a Canadian drama franchise. After doing some research I was able to find how the television show “Degrassi” has strongly contributed to social change through their show, as they cover many cultural studies’ issues. More specifically, they have had characters who model the transgender, lesbian and gay, characters of varying
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
Powercube.net. 2014. Hegemony and invisible power | Understanding power for social change | powercube.net | IDS at Sussex University. [online] Available at: http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/hegemony-and-invisible-power/ [Accessed: 23 Mar 2014].
Gauntlett, D. Hill, A. BFI (1999) TV Living: Television, Culture, and Everyday Life, p. 263 London: Routledge.
Two of the three friends fell in love with each other after years of hatred for one another. Their relationship grew, but sadly, near the ending of the show, they broke up. This show had everyone watching full attention because of the plots with the growth of the unusual couple. The continued plots made the show great because people were very interested in
In most well developed societies there is always an issue with the unequal division of power with the wealthiest people having the most and the poorest having the less, which causes tension amongst the people in the society. The people with the most people can also be seen as the most dominant group, and one way they are successful at maintaining their power is through the use of hegemony. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, hegemony is the “influence or control over another country, a group of people, etc”, in other words it is a system that is often used by the dominant group, used to spread their ideologies and maintain its control over another less dominant/powerful group. In the article “Gramsci’s Political Thought” by Roger Simon and Stuart Hall, the authors
According to D Gauntlett (2008), Media and communications are a central element of modern life, whilst gender and sexuality remain at the core of how we think about our identities. In modern societies, people spend more hours for watching television, look...
O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. (2009)Media and Society: An introduction. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony. London: Oxford.
Introduction Class divides have always been present in human society, whether it be through socio-economic standing, race, or gender. By embodying such an array of forms, class divides can be found in almost every facet of our lives, from the way we eat to the way we dress to even the way we relax. Class, as defined by Lynn Spangler, a professor of communication with current research on social class in television at New Paltz SUNY, class is defined by where one fits in occupation, education, income and wealth. Once situated, one is divided into the top fifth, the lower fifth, and the great middle area, which contains the upper middle, middle, and lower middle levels. This article reviews literature on class in the media and television domain,