A Critical Ideological Analysis of Mass Mediated Language
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 8-2006 Democracy, Hegemony, and Consent: A Critical Ideological Analysis of Mass Mediated Language Michael Alan Glassco Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Glassco, Michael Alan, "Democracy, Hegemony, and Consent: A Critical Ideological Analysis of Mass Mediated Language" (2006). Master's Theses. 4187. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/4187 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DEMOCRACY, HEGEMONY, AND CONSENT: A CRITICAL IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MASS MEDIA TED LANGUAGE by Michael Alan Glassco A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College in partial fulfillment'of the requirements for the Degreeof Master of Arts School of Communication WesternMichigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 2006 © 2006 Michael Alan Glassco· DEMOCRACY,HEGEMONY, AND CONSENT: A CRITICAL IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MASS MEDIATED LANGUAGE Michael Alan Glassco, M.A. WesternMichigan University, 2006 Accepting and incorporating mediated political discourse into our everyday lives without conscious attention to the language used perpetuates the underlying ideological assumptions of power guiding such discourse. The consequences of such overreaching power are manifestin the public sphere as a hegemonic system in which freemarket capitalism is portrayed as democratic and necessaryto serve the needs of the public. This thesis focusesspecifically on two versions of the Society of ProfessionalJournalist Codes of Ethics 1987 and 1996, thought to influencethe output of news organizations. This analysis exposes the problems inherent in the news media's focusof objectivity-an implicit patriarchal capitalist ideology-through Jon Lye's (1997) methods of critical ideological analysis. It is also significantlyinformed by research in the areas of Political Economy, and Critical and Cultural studies. A historical and sociological review of the Society of Professional Journalist Codes of Ethics reveals the complexities of objectivity, unitary rationality and use of officialsources which legitimize the news and the illusion of democracy. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE .............................................. ! Introduction ............................................................................1 Rationale ............................................................................. 8 Organization of Chapters ......................................................... 10 IL LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................ 15 Introduction to Critical Theory .................................................. 15 . Ideology and Capitalism .........................................................21 Language and Ideology .................................................. 27 Hegemony ................................................................. 30 Knowledge and Symbolic Power ................................................33 Truth and Hegemony ............................................................... 38 The Veil of Objectivity ...........................................................48 Code or Dogma?.. ................................................................. 54 Democracy and the Public Sphere ..............................................72 III. METHODOLOGY............................................................ ........ 81 Critical Theory as Method ......................................................... 82 Critical Political Economy ......................................................... 85 Critical Semiotics and Textual/Ideological Analysis .......................... 88 11 Table ofContents-Continued CHAPTER N. CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION I...... .............................93 The FairnessDoctrine and the Elimination Thereof: Contextualizing the Society ofProfessional Journalists Code ofEthics - 1987....... ...................................................... 93 Critical Semiotic Analysis ofthe 1987 Society ofProfessional Journalists Code ofEthics ................................... .105 V. CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION II ................................ 117 The Implications ofthe Telecommunications Act of 1996 : Contextualizing the Society ofProfessional JournalistsCodes ofEthics - 1996.. ................................................................ 117 Critical Semiotic Analysis of the 1996 Society of Professional JournalistsCode ofEthics .. ......................................125 VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH..... ................................... 146 Conclusion ........................................................................ 146 Future Research ................................................................... 148 APPENDICES ................................................................................. 152 A. Lye's Method ofldeological Analysis.. ............................................ 152 B. The Society ofProfessional Journalists Code ofEthics- 1987 ...................153 C. The Ownership and Shareholdings of News Corp. Ltd .........................155 D. The Ownership and Shareholdingsof Time WarnerInc ........................157 E. The Ownership and Shareholdings ofViacom .................................... 160 F. The Ownership and Shareholdings ofDisney .................................... 164 111 Table ofContents-Continued APPENDICES G. The Ownership and Shareholdings of GE ........................................ 167 H. The Ownership and Shareholdings ofAdvance Publications ................... 168 I. The Society of Professional Journalists Code ofEthics-1996 ...................170 REFERENCES ................................................................................ 174 IV 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND RA TI ONALE Introduction While the current age has been described as the 'informationage', the 'global era' and the 'digital age', the U.S. has recently arrived at an era where a technologically advanced market driven capitalist society operates through the corporate lens of autocratic interests perpetuated through the illusion of democratic ideals. The mainstream information media established to support citizen consciousness and thus, democratic participation in the public sphere, has lost their purpose amidst the current "regime of truth". The inadequacy of the news continues daily, for our news agencies are run by advertising revenue, boards of trustees and corporate shareholders whose pursuit of profit strangle competing meanings out of an informedcitizenry. Such public information systems initially instilled to facilitatedemocratic participation, deriving fromnotions of objectivity and Enlightenment rationality, are suppressed under a hegemonic order that perpetuates illusions of professionalized neutrality. A corporate and lobbyist guided autocratic government perpetuates the dominant ideology of free market capitalism through neo-liberalism rather than operating through richly diverse democratic practices. This is accomplished through projecting a perception of objective, neutral news. The media's veil of objectivity is necessary to enable the public to derive an all-encompassing world view so as to make decisions within the often imperceptible elite corporate structure. Within this economically monopolized and institutionalized vision of reality journalist codes of ethics perpetuate rigid categorical 2 distinctions, gross oversimplificationand highly abstract generalizations. This research will address these particular practices. However it should be noted that the significance of other discursive practices such as the creation of mythic character and competition researched by Alterman (2003) and Lule (2002), are beyond the scope of this particular study. These ideologically obscured discursive practices are the mechanisms by which the news educates the public and perpetuates the notion of objectivity. Such mechanisms further substantiate not only the claims in the news but the method in which news information is acquired and disseminated, thereby perpetuating the dominant epistemological framework of unitary rationality and over generalized dichotomized discourse. Additionally, the dominant ideology of corporate owned, commercially driven and sensationalized media perpetuates the illusion of democracy through the pervasive discourse of binary oppositions. This dualistic thinking limits possibility and the creative discourse necessary for a rich and vibrant public sphere. Moreover, the downward spiral of oversimplificationin news media controls the epistemic framework in which knowledge of reality is fostered. Notions of dualism and binary oppositions in language are explicated in the literature review under the subsections, Language and ideology, Hegemony and The Veil of Objectivity. The thesis asserts that objectivity and codes of ethics used by professional journalists are the myths utilized to maintain the belief that news language is not political or economic language. Insofar as journalistsare complicit in such practices they further authorize these myths and promote their legitimacy. Once accepted, the myth of 3 objectivity allows corporate media to classify