Gramsci's hegemony theory and the ideological role of the mass media
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Introduction
Gramsci’s theory
of hegemony is born from the basic idea that government and state cannot
enforce control over any particular class or structure unless other, more
intellectual methods are entailed. The reason and motive behind the concept has
been noted to be the way society is structured and exists on a power and class
base. Gramsci defined the State as coercion combined with hegemony and
according to Gramsci hegemony is political power that flows from intellectual
and moral leadership, authority or consensus as distinguished from armed force.
A ruling class forms and maintains its hegemony in civil society, i.e. by
creating cultural and political consensus through unions, political parties,
schools, media, the church, and other voluntary associations where hegemony is
exercised by a ruling class over allied classes and social groups.Gramsci argues in his Prison Notebooks (which were written
whilst he was incarcerated by Mussolini in Fascist Italy) that the way society
is controlled and manipulated is of direct consequence of the practice of a
‘false consciousness’ and the creation of values and life choices which are to
be followed. Gramsci argues that the
system of hegemony can be classified as “social basis of the proletarian
dictatorship and of the Workers
State". (Gramsci (1971) : 443)
It is this process which Gramsci refers to when he tries to explain the way in
which organisation of people, media and information controls the thought and
actions to create a state of domination though the creation of dominant
ideologies. Another aspects of the theory of hegemony include the economic
determination and intellectual and moral leadership, which degenerates into a
domination and consensual managing of life choices. The media has a central
role in this theory and the practice of the process has become more and more to
the fore in study of the way the ideological media are at the centre of the
struggle for consumers’ minds and central views. The role of the media has to
be taken into account within the context of the theory of hegemony due to of
the value of the media and the public-imposed powers it yields. Communication
from government, between and inside classes is now controlled by the media and
any text consumed by the state has to be considered to be potentially open to
the practice of manipulation and therefore, the process of hegemony.
The media and 'consent'
It could be argued that the media exists as a vehicle and tool for
consumerism to grow and for society to engage in the current purchase-dominated
way. If people are not consumers then they may be considered by some areas of
society to be outcasts and different from the ‘norm’. It is this state of
affairs where the media can be key to influencing the people it informs and
instilling the thought that one must be a consumer and if not then at least
aspire to be. Gramsci may argue that the way in which the media operates could
equate to what he envisaged when he talked about a ‘class struggle’ and the
creation of values which others must follow. It is this situation where the
ideological role of the media can be seen to influence the way in which people
can decode and read advertisements, features, television programmes and any
text which may hold a hidden meaning; therefore creating the possibility for
media to become very powerful in terms of ideological control and leadership.
It could be said that the media has become the dominant class in a Western
society full of semiotic and hegemonic traits. No longer can the world be seen
through ones own single apathetic eye. “Due to the rise of trade unions and
other pressure groups, the expansion of civil rights (including the right to
vote), and higher levels of educational achievement, rule must be based in
consent. The intellectuals sympathetic to the ruling class will therefore work
to present the ideas and justifications of the class’s domination coherently and
persuasively. This work will inform the persuasion of ideas through such
institutions as the mass media, the church, school and family.” (Edgar (1999) : 164)
Recently the proliferation and exploitation of press and interactive media has
led to the creation of super media existence threatens the objective viewpoints
society relies upon to keep an ‘open’ state if one were ever to exist. Gramsci
was mainly concerned with the determinism within the state of Italy in the
early part of the 20th Century. He saw the potential for manipulation
and the practice of domination growing in Mussolini Italy. Within the current
theoretical climate, the theory has been adapted to include the theory of
‘consent’. This allows the scope for many theorists to argue that the way
society is now run, with the increasing emphasis on education, makes the
leadership and decision making process less easy to quantify. The theory of
consent exists to try and explain the way in which government policy,
legislation and international policy are made and enforced.
