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Globalization, Media Hegemony, and Social Class

Authors:
  • Purdue University Northwest, Hammond, Indiana, United States

Abstract

Three concepts-globalization, media hegemony, and social class-provide the necessary framework for understanding contemporary international communication. Yet, these terms and the conditions they purport to represent are so contested that each writer must begin by either summarizing the historical debates or providing singular definitions. The disagreements over globalization, hegemony, and class will not be resolved in texts, of course, but only in the course of ongoing social struggles. Consequently, researchers, scholars, and commentators-including those featured in this volume-can at best offer journalistic descriptions and theoretical observations that are differentiated primarily by the quality of their research, analytical expertise, and conscious or unconscious political preferences. Specifically, this text invites the conversation on media globalization to consider the dynamics of class conflict and negotiation as an analytical perspective having prescriptive potential.
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York Press, Albany
... Some challenge the unilateral nature of Gramsci's hegemony. Artz (2003) argues that Gramsci's articulation of the concept ignores the negotiation process that takes place. ...
... The closest entity to Gramsci's hegemony in contemporary society may be Western power, but Artz (2003) notes that even this power should not be overstated in that Western leadership is unstable across the globe. Others challenge Gramsci's theory in that is built on the idea of a mass, and as Carey (2008) notes, it is difficult to look at society in the midst of the current technological changes and identify anything as being a mass. ...
... Media hegemony indicates leadership and dominance-not control and domination (Artz, 2003). Popular culture modifies and renews the power of hegemonic forces (Goeddertz & Kraidy, 2003). ...
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... Despite the desire for democratic practices to prevail, this analysis concludes that it becomes unrealized. Instead, as Artz (2003) suggested, the perpetuation of a hegemonic belief in Westernized democracy is reinforced. Our analysis reveals that the Arab Spring is overthrowing governments for the ideology of democracy and Occupy is demanding democratic practices. ...
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This paper not only examines the intersectionality between class, caste and gender but also political, sociological, psychological, economic and technological influences within a post-neo-liberal framework which has been dominated by geopolitics. After India’s liberalisation in the early nineties, the nature and quality of media coverage on issues concerning the public have undergone a transformation. Foregrounding dominant frameworks, explanations for the functioning of the media will be laid bare with examples. Links between colonialism, birth of the modern state, neo-colonialism, ethnonationalism and patriarchy will be exposed to uncover the media’s modus operandi and its impact on reportage. Revealing how the media functions in conflict zones such as Kashmir elucidates how patriarchy, enacted through toxic militarised masculinities, oppresses not just females, but also adversely impacts males in a post-neo-liberal framework of governance. Elsewhere too patriarchal subjugation of oppressed classes such as Dalits, Muslims and tribal communities is on the rise. Keywords: post-neo-liberalism, media, conflict, patriarchy, Dalits, minorities, gender, ethnonationalism, Kashmir
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This study investigates the lukewarm resistance against pervasive social injustice in Rabbani"s Invisible People. Characters in these short stories may release their reactions sporadically but they fail to fight against the coercive hegemonies which continue to eat into their vitals of life. The sociopolitical structures, ideological state apparatuses and repressive state agencies address and handle these fictional characters so successfully that their quick move from bad to worse conditions of life seems inevitable. Thus the processes of interpellation and routinization go hand in hand to wreck their diagnostic aesthetics which could prove instrumental for the better future. Althusser whose theory of ideology is used as a theoretical framework for the present study says that the hegemonic and ideological interpellation tames the social beings shrewdly and successfully. Lack of commitment, pessimistic outlook, apathy, mistaken actions and erroneous reactions and absence of joining hands with each other against the cruel make them vulnerable before the oppressor. Keeping this pathetic situation in mind, Rabbani himself comes forward, like Seamus Heaney and James Joyce, to provide a voice to these suppressed souls.
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