SOSC 1140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Hyperreality, Simulacrum, Guy Debord

• School: York University
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOSC 1140
• Professor: Claudio Colaguori

Document Summary

All freedom begins with freedom of thought hence the importance of mass media and its power over public thought. The media disseminates forms of knowledge and information which are significant forms of power. We live in a media culture media culture as the dominant culture it is the primary medium through which consumerism is promoted. Humans as story-telling beings media as main story teller. Basic model of monological mass communication: sender message receiver. Media effects theories how do people interpret messages? the mainstreaming of perception. Ideological hegemony (soft control) getting people to consent to control through ideas rather than force (hard control) Messages have manifest and latent content overt/surface meaning and the meaning contained in ideological subtexts. Ideology disguises its effects, its not always obvious as propaganda can be. The mass media is part of the entertainment system which presents itself in the form of pleasure and leisure, thus its ability to persuade and ideologize gets masked.