Marxism.

Marxism is a political practice and socail theory based on the works of Karl Marx. He argued that capitalism is based on the profit motive and that under capitalism, profits are generated by exploiting workers. He aslo believed that capitalist society is divided into two social classes.

• The working class- who sell their labour and do not own the means of production.
• The bourgeoisie- Who own the means of production and employ the working class. The bourgeoisie can be further subdivided into the wealthy bourgeoisie-who aslo do not need to work themselves and the petty bourgeoisie-who employ others but also owrk themselevs.

Marxism and the media:

• Media producers produce media texts within the society which maintain these social divides.
• The culture industries- constantly see greater audiences becasue of the profit motive. Therefore they will construct texts intended to generate mass audiences.
• He also believed that the mass media are seen as a way of entertaining the working class whule drip feeding them ideologies and beliefs(effects theory).
• Althusser identified what he called the ideological state apparatus(ISAs) which operate alongside the repressive state apparatus(military, police etc) to maintain these bourgeoisie ideologies:
• Religion
• education
• family
• legal and politcal system
• cultural and communication systems.

Therefore he studied the way in which these ISAs interpellate an audience- position the audience in such a way that they persume these ideologies are correct.

Gramsci:

He used the term HEGEMONY which is the dominace of the ruling class with all the beliefs and values that they incorporate. He believed that this process is so successsful that it becomes "common sense" and these ideologies thereofre become dominant.

Why I am a marxist?

I am a marxist because i personally do think that we live in a capitalist society in which the bourgeoisie do rule. I also belive in the term hegemony because people in the ruling class do have alot of power and domiance in the media and do have control to put thier views forward which we are likley to believe, linking to the dominant ideologies of the ruling classes. However we do have our own brain and can make our own choices at the end of the day.