Gitlin, T. (1982) “Prime Time
Ideology” in Newcomb, H. (ed) Television: The Critical View. Oxford:
Oxford University Press: 426-454.
- Gitlin's article deals with what do (television) programs
mean (with regard to their social, structural context)
- He mentions several intriguing questions such as; Why are
radical ideas suppressed in schools?; why do workers oppose socialism?...The
answer always given is cultural Hegemony, but Gitlin says that this is not an
answer…(he doesn’t go into his answer at this point)
- TV is the most pervasive (spread throughout) and familiar
of our cultural sites.
- Commercial culture does not manufacture ideology but
rather reproduces, repackages it.
- Everything including our leisure time has become
industrialized and homogenized. TV has also. It is part of our life, now for
those who can afford it, they can even get a VCR to watch the shows that they
have missed.
- Commercials and adverbs which no producer would go
without, led us to thinking in terms of a market as supposed to in terms of a
public. As consumers rather than citizens.
- The TV show all in the family was innovative in
that it brought social issues and conflicts on the show. Also (unlike previous
shows where characters were static because its easier to produce and the
average watcher wanted it that way) the character of the actors developed with
time.
- he discusses different genre and how and why they
developed (i.e. the growing black middle class led to black comedy…not black
drama because that mey be to much for the majority white audience. Etc). Genre
changes with culture.
- With TV sports we see how they don’t even trust us to
watch the game. So there is an announcer. But the announcer not only describes
the events, he interprets them (i.e. “isn’t it great to be here!”) Its like
they took human qualities and put them into the product (i.e. ‘sexy perfume’)
- also in televised sports they feed us with unnecessary
stats about the players and all that kind of stuff as to market the whole
thing, because it serves to flatter those in the audience who knew that tidbit
or fact, and it makes the person who knew that tidbit feel like he really knows
something about the world.
- By making the game more amazing the channel hopes that
you will stick around to watch the commercials (that cost millions)
- just like we discussed how genre changes and evolves, so
does the settings and character types: while in the 50’s there were happy
people with happy problems, the 70’s were more complex and saw unhappy people
with unhappy problems
- Character types have also evolved because the structural
changes in TV with advertisers: while in the 50’s the advertisers used to
contract the show and therefore wanted a happy setting, the 60’s saw the
producers taking (back) control from the advertisers and they were more intoned
to the wants of the audiences. Also the 60’s saw the near universality of TV
ownership thus opening it up to a larger range of audiences and thus a larger
range of characters
- While there is a larger range of characters, network
elites will still not allow a hero that challenges the values of a capitalistic
society.
- He discusses that every show has a slant which pushes a
certain public issue or position
- the hegemonic system is not ‘cut-and dried’. It
constantly needs to be refurbished and reproduced with the ‘indigestible’ parts
cast aside.
- There is much inner tension and contradictions in
capitalist ideology (urges people t work but than says that leisure is where
real satisfaction id found, etc) today the ultimate satisfaction is considered
consumer satisfaction and that is how corporate domination over the economy is
justified.
Gitlin – hegemonyl
→ US contemporary mass media as single cultural system
promoting re-production
- hegemony + coercion : process by which ruling classes secure consent of dominated.
- took working class seriously enough – fear of revolution
- high toned gossip – ask to be taken into spotlight with and in
system they criticize
- how does TV encourage viewers to see themselves as
anti-political accumulating individuals?
→ commercial culture doesn’t manufacture
ideology but rely, reproduces packages and focus ideology that arises from
social elite and active groups.
“agenda setting fundtion
→ tv preffers hegemonic ideology,
opposition brought in domesticated.
- format and formula
- changes seem to affirm sovereignty of audience while keeping
deep alternatives off agenda
- central operation of hegemonic capitalist society – assembly
line leisure
- industrialization of time – confined to those who cant afford
their way out of standardized social reality
- consequence : a. behave
as market not public. B. colonize consciousness c. consenting to commercial
dominance of public sphere
→ hegemonic ideology change in-order to remain hegemonic –
populist?
→ majour social conflicts are transported into cultural
system where hegemonic process (form and
content) into compatibility wit dominant system.
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