Theory Of Ideology And Criticism Of The Mass Media

As a result of development of the Communication's Research areas and the critique ideological trend's emergence, the Western academic circle has been filled with strong critical spirit to the mass media, this has caused the criticism of the mass media been the topic which paid attention to continuously since"the West Marxism"to the"the modern age". Simultaneously what needs to point out that, the medium critique school is not specifically a study of distinct factions in particular, but contains a lot of different genres and ideas. However, these critical schools are different from each other and have different ideas, they share some common spirit and tradition, which reflects the logical contact and the context of development. So this article will also break the boundary between the critique schools, and unify the representative persons as well as their medium critique theories, that in order to present the process and context of the critique theory of ideology medium.The ideology medium critique theory has experienced such a difficult process which is from strong negative to rational analysis. The Frankfurt School critical theory can be called a pioneer in the media, and their mass media critical theory has been called "the first critical study of the communication." The Purpose of the medium critical theory of Frankfurt school is to reveal the essence of mass media's Ideology. They thought radically that the mass media has become the"ideological state apparatus", which performances the function of social's control and becomes the soft instrument of the country. At the same time, up through the manipulation and deception, the mass media eliminates the negative socio-cultural factors and antagonistic forces effectively, eventually creates a "one-way" society. Of course,the point of the Frankfurt is undoubtedly a valuable asset, but they exaggerate the role of the media, especially the negative role of the media, and they blame the Defects to the science and technology itself, neglect the social and man-made factors, so they lead the study of mass media into an extreme. Therefore the mass media has lost the survival space and value, and"the critique"has become one kind of sole critique.Gramsci, Althusser and Hall's ideology medium critique theories precisely arised at the historic moment under this condition, and their theories are considered the living water which runs to the critique research of the mass media. They put the ideology into the overall frame of the world, and studied kinds of phenomenons of medium ideology from the social angle of view, thus got rid of the Frankfurt's narrow economical angle of view and realized the transformation of the thought angle.First of all, Gramsci's "cultural hegemony" theory believes that although the mass media which belongs to the "civil society" needs to comply with the ruling class's leadership, this is not a top-down repression, but a course of exercise which is educating and winning a "general support" through the ideology soft power. That is to say, on the one hand, the mass media needs to protect the interests of the ruling class, builds the social reality which is in favor of the ruling class, and becomes the ruling class'"propaganda tool"; On the other hand, "hegemony" aspects different kinds of challenges in the maintenance process, such as the market,audiences and so on, that requires the mass media releases the "resistance" concept and absorb the value and benefits of the "resistance" side, in order to reflect a "resistance" and "integration" of the turn process. At the same time, Gramsci also realized presciencely that the medium workers have the constructing ideology ability, and inspired afterward researcher to further carry on the analysis and the research of the medium text, in order to explain how the mass media win the"universal approval". It can be said that,Gramsci's concern to the mass media, not only confined to study how the mass media reproduct the ideology established and maintain the leading position of the ruling class, but also give full affirmation to the mass media of its own value. and also see the possibility that the media releases the "resistance" information. Moreover, Gramsci also rejects that the audiences are "One Dimensional Men", and point that the audiences are "independent thinking individual", that gives the audience the full initiative.The originality of Althusser's ideology medium critique theory lies that he places the ideology in the society reproduction's area to discuss. Althusser made the concept of"ideology state apparatus"and inherited Gramsci's ideas of text analying, He considers that the mass media has the function of putting the audiences into practice and interpellating"the individual"to"the main body". We may say that Althusser's pondering of"society reproduced"and the theory of the"ideology state apparatus", symbolizes that structuralism started to enter in the medium critique research field of vision, this started text analying of the mass media, and builds the foundation of the after modern age,the modern media's critique theory, and also provides us the profound,complex Connotation of the comprehensive to the mass media. But at the same time, Althusser regards the mass media as the ruling class"megaphone", and exaggerates its decisive effect of ideology, thus ignoring the differences between the audiences and the possibility of obtaining the practice consciousness, so he considers that the audiences be completely in the ideology world which created by the mass media, and lose his own idea and rationality. Thus it can be said that Althusser 's theory of media criticism leads the mass media to a one-sided and extreme habitats domain finally.Hall is a epitomize of the ideology medium critique domain and a milestone-like character of the communication research area. His medium critique theory both deepened and developed Gramsci's theory of"cultural hegemony", and profits from Althusser's essence of his theory, so he is right to find a balance point in the fundamental research and not allow himself to extreme. His "encoding / decoding" theory is not only a brilliant interpretation of the mass media as one of the "ideological state apparatus" how to shape the ideology and obtain the audience's "voluntary agree with" At the same time he also takes notes of the polysemy of the verbal symbol,the possibility of the audience gains ideas through the practice as well as the differences of the audiences'identity, and affirms the possibility of "confrontation", thus entrusts with the audiences are the main body status, who have the initiaty and the critique ability.Therefore we may say that ,the ideology medium critique theory tells us, regarding mass media's research, both note the restricted function of the social structure, and must note the unique quality of the mass media organization, in order to avoid going one-side. In short, the ideology study as an important school of criticism, is creating a unique position in the field of mass media.