Media Hegemony

Media Hegemony

The concept of hegemony, which first was put forward by Antonio Gramsci (1971), refers to the moral, philosophical, and political leadership of a social group, which is not gained by force but by an active consent of other social groups through taking control of culture and ideology. During this process, the leading social group exerts its impact and gain its legitimacy mainly through social mechanisms such as education, religion, family and the mass media. Based on the definition of hegemony, media hegemony means the dominance of a certain aspects of life and thoughts by penetrating dominant culture and values in social life. In other words, media hegemony served as a crucial shaper of culture, values and ideology of society (Altheide, 1984).^[1]

For example, TV news departments are considered as extensions of a capitalistic economic order (Hall, 1979). The products of the media contain messages that convey the nature of society, the nature of relation of production within the media and the domain of institutions and social process (Golding, 1979). Thus it is crucial to decode media to figure out the latent capitalist ideology within the products of the media, and more importantly to realize the role of the media as tools to produce merchandise in a late capitalist economic order.

Results of Media Hegemony

As for the direct and indirect results of media hegemony, there are at least three aspects in news reporting. Firstly, the socialization of reporters including guidance, work norms and orientations will be greatly influenced by the dominant ideology (Mueller, 1973). Socialization of journalists means that they are socialized into professional and organizational norms (Gieber, 1960). And some basic values, norms they share are influenced by ideology as it is hard to be independent from the culture that the dominant class shapes (Gans, 1979). Though journalists claim that they are autonomic from the state and marketing force and are always on the side of the public as social instrument, it is undeniable that the ideology and control of economic interests permeate the assumption, orientations as well as procedure of reporters who are the direct producers of news stories. It turns out that it is journalists that can unconsciously facilitate the ideological hegemony by the means of using using cultural categories and symbols (Chaney, 1981). Then, reporters are inclined to choose and report those issues that are favorable to the domain ideology and the status quo. By so doing, it is harmful for social changes by diffusing those conservative news reports to the public (Golding, 1981). To a certain extent, the formation of public opinion is largely based on the information spread by status quo oriented news media. Last but not least, reporters tend to report those news that are supportive of their nation and negative to foreign nations in the communication of globalization. It is believed that prejudiced news reporting will hinder the international social change (Artz, 2012). It is news media that shapes negative stereotypes of foreign countries. And values and ideology are permeated through international social communication to exert impact on people foreign nations. In a word, media hegemony is a powerful forth that can influence and shape social values and life in an intangible way to reach consensus of the public which are supportive of the dominant class.