MDSA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Profit Motive, Propaganda Model, Manufacturing Consent
MDSA01
LEC 02.
Marxist Analysis.
Who owns and controls the media? What ideas are spread and neglected by them?
What heroes are shown?
What do you do? A question that usually means what you do for a living but does not
fully justify what the question says. i.e. an individual could “do” so many things e.g.,
hobbies, cooking etc. not just limited to work.
It is all about the money. Whoever controls the resources controls what us put out.
Material conditions determine our social life and vice versa.
Whoever is dominant in the base shapes and maintains our superstructure and the
superstructure shapes the relations. Continuous cycle
Marxist rule against the general belief that capitalism should shapes everything from
culture, behavior and society.
Due to concentration of the ownership and control of industries in the hands of those
with resources, there is limitation to information that Is passed across. Only what they
want us to know is distributed.
Marxist rule against the valuation of money over human life.
Propaganda model.
Manufacturing consent: the ideas of any given age popularized by the ruling class. The
ruling class believes its own messages and justifies its status, make it chief source to
develop and perfect illusions.
The ruling class convinces everyone that capitalism is natural therefore everyone.
Profit motive: un-fulfilling jobs, imposed on workers, money making.
Advertising license: Work hard to make profit and also spend a lot to make profit.
More misery found by workers in their jobs, the more the alienation from the job.
We are the pigeons in the picture. Companies do not intend to satisfy our need for the
products but rather capital gains.
Publications are more centered to divert us from social and political concerns. Even
therapeutic messages prescribe shopping as a means to feel better whereas we are sold
the idea that how we should spend our free time is in the malls rather than in the library
or somewhere else getting more information on relevant issues.
Conscious industry: Do not sell the product but the existing idea e.g. How easy it is to
predict movies because you know that the leading roles have chances of falling in love,
or the same sounds from pop music. It is all playing safe by building on existing ideas.
Logic of safety: Guides what is made and how it is made.
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Document Summary
A question that usually means what you do for a living but does not fully justify what the question says. i. e. an individual could do so many things e. g. , hobbies, cooking etc. not just limited to work. Whoever controls the resources controls what us put out. Material conditions determine our social life and vice versa. Whoever is dominant in the base shapes and maintains our superstructure and the superstructure shapes the relations. Marxist rule against the general belief that capitalism should shapes everything from culture, behavior and society. Due to concentration of the ownership and control of industries in the hands of those with resources, there is limitation to information that is passed across. Only what they want us to know is distributed. Marxist rule against the valuation of money over human life. Manufacturing consent: the ideas of any given age popularized by the ruling class.
