How Broadcasting Institutions Reflect the Ideology of the Dominant Classes

We see that broadcasting institutions reflect the ideology of the dominant classes through the theories of Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci.Marxist view is extremely influential in the research or theories of media. Marxist theorists see the role of the mass media as one that maintains the status quo of dominance, whereas freedom of speech is seen as the role of media by the non-Marxists. The Marxist view of media is one of class domination. Opinions and views are fought within the dominance of certain classes, and this dominance is held by the media workers. This represents the ideology of the dominant class and the audience is unable to change this because of its own influence by the dominant class. Societies which state to have freedom of speech are regularly subjected to biased reporting. For example, reports on the present conflict in Iraq and the United States support the government stance and are sometimes and in this situation the ruling classes ideology is reflected in the alleged unbiased reporting of conflict. In Marxism the base of society determines everything else in the structure. The media and its messages, are determined by the base of the organisation in which they are produced. Therefore, any commercial media organisations must agree with the influence of the advertisers in programming.The ownership and control of the media is the base of the media. In Marxist terms the mass media is the means by which the ruling class provides information and ideas to society without allowing opposition or different opinions. Class determines ideology and the dominant ideology in society is the ideology of the dominant class. Clearly, mass media has the ideological power. The media institutions are locked into and act with the institutions that dominate society. These represent the opinions of the institutions as the only view.

Marxist theory emphasises the importance of social class in relationship to media ownership as well as audience

Bibliography: Branston, Gill- The Media Students Book, 2007. Burke, B. (1999, 2005) 'Antonio Gramsci, schooling and education ', the encyclopedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-gram.htm. Williams, Raymond. Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.