I am a Grenade

In Croteau's piece on "Media and Ideology" the author addresses the role of the Media in ideological representation.  Croteau states that the media helps to "define our world and provide models for appropriate behavior and attitudes" (159).  Essentially, the author argues that the Media plays a large role in showing (not necessarily telling) us how to appropriately behave in this society--as well as the consequences that can occur if one deviates from what is appropriate.



The author begins by explaining what Ideology is, particularly from a Marxist point of view.  (I recall reading Louis Althusser's "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" as I read through Croteau's explanation).  It is important for the reader (us) to understand what Ideology is before understanding the main argument in regards to the Media.  From there, Crocteau talks about Dominant Ideology -- a set (or sets) of ideas that is (are) privileged, more "right", has more power over other ideologies.  This Dominant Ideology is what is perceived as "normal" while anything that falls outside of the Dominant Ideology is "deviant" (163).

Crocteau claims that it is the Media that acts as one of the vehicles for this Dominant Ideology to enter our brains and shape our consciousness.  This leaves us with the conclusion that the Media plays a large role in constructing how we view, interact, and think about the world around us.


Let's face it.  We spend huge amounts of time steeped in the many different forms of Media, especially in comparison to the past.  Advertisements are everywhere, social networking sits in our pocket, I've seen televisions at gas pumps and on public transportation.  The Media never sleeps, it never leaves us alone.  Even when we dream we see the Media working silently in our inner consciousness.  The more we are bombarded with certain images, certain sets of ideology; the more dominant this ideology becomes, the more normalized this imagery becomes, the more we push aside and dehumanize "deviant behavior." 

As a non-heterosexual person, I am hypersensitive to the over-representation of heterosexual couples in the media.  Watch advertisements on television.  I am shocked whenever (if ever) I see a non-heterosexual couple--they are so rare in the media if they exist at all.  This past New Years I was watching the ball drop in NYC, where the camera spends copious amounts of time watching heterosexual couples kiss.  How quickly that camera cuts away when it accidentally catches anything non-heterosexual.  Simple decisions like what to film shapes what the viewer perceives as "normal."  If all we see through the television are happy heterosexual people, we subconsciously come to understand this image as normal and accepted, unquestioned dominant ideology.  The (in)frequency of non-heterosexual people determines how normal or not normal we understand them to be.

Movies are a great example of this selective representation.  Fried Green Tomatoes and Thelma and Louise are two examples of scripts that were changed to fit Dominant ideology.  Both of the pairs of women were supposed to be lovers.  This was changed to be less obvious or to disappear altogether from the film. 

The Media is not reality.  We understand that what is shown on the television is not literally there (you could not grab that Klondike bar in the commercial and take a bite).  The Media is also not merely a reflection of what is "real" because someone has gone in and cut out things, chosen what to show and what is most "important."  As Croteau mentions, "media images do not simply reflect the world, they re-present it" (168).  There is a great deal of effort given into this "active work of selecting and presenting, of structuring and shaping; not merely the transmitting of an already-existing meaning, but the more active labour of making things mean" (168).  The images are not just there, these images are chosen, sculpted, and transformed in order to fit into something more palatable for the dominant ideology, to continue to perpetuate the dominant ideology even as it shapes which ideologies are dominant in which societies.

The Media is not a neutral beast.  Who creates who?