MEDIA AND IDEOLOGY By Jela D Villegas IDEOLOGY

MEDIA AND IDEOLOGY By: Jela D. Villegas

IDEOLOGY The word “ ideology” is associated with rigid political beliefs or with social movements espousing radical ideas about reform and revolution.

It is said that the word first made its appearance during the French Revolution (1787 - 1799) when it was introduced by Antoine Destutt de Tracy as an encompassing concept for what called “the science of ideas” Karl Marx believed that ideologies were systems of thought perpetuated by the ruling classes to preserve an existing social order that only serves the interests of the ruling classes.

Ideological State Apparatus Gramsci and Althusser negated Marx’s view that social and political institutions including the state and their interactions, as well as the ideas, values, and beliefs of a society, are solely determined by the economic structures and activities of society.

The cultural institutions like media, religion, and cultural system, and structures in charge of imparting ideology, operate independent of the economic structure and this is the reason they enjoy popular acceptance

Althusser proceeded further by theorizing how the media and other ideological state apparatuses work to reproduce the dominant ideology. He was interested in understanding the means by whivh the ruling class ruled as well as how the dominant ideology shaped people’s perceptions of the world.