A consideration about the role of the media in the U.K society

The Marxism:

In the (XIX) century, the spectre of Communism spread in Europe. This represented a really important historical event, after the British Industrial Revolution: the passage from the Feudal society to what will be the Capitalistic society. 

In Marx's view "ideology as an instrument of social reproduction" he strongly underlines the division of the society into two classes: the Proletariat or the industrial working class and the Bourgeoisie, which is the most powerful and control the means of production.Moreover, this concept, is a collection of beliefs own by an individual, group or society.  This is a set of ideas, proposed by the dominant class about: politics, religion and the economic system made up on the difference between the relations of production and the mode of production. Even today there is an evident hierarchical structure of the society, where the prevailing class dominate the lower class, seizing profit for themselves and accumulating capital. An Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, elaborated the concept of Hegemony to explain the ways in which one class controls the ideals, mores and belief of another. According to this , there are many action in people's every day behaviours for example celebrating an important event of their country, that consent to prevailing of the elite to prevail. People are completely indifferent and affected by the dominant class and approve  of their supremacy and they help also the Capitalist companies rather than the local stores to develop more and more their business. All of this actions symbolize the "common sense".  

The role of culture and  the media in the actual society is to persuade the masses into accepting  Capitalism as normal and inevitable, diverting their attention from rebelling against this. In order to obtain this objective, the media, in reference to Engels theory of  the "false consciousness", misrepresenting the true nature of the social or economic situation  to prevent these classes from recognising the injustice of their situations.  Another theorist, Noam Chomsky said that to control the mind of the public, the information is filtered for the media through the "manufacturing consent".  

Nowadays, a great power of persuasion is owned by the television. The main ruling class, reinforce their tastes and cultural values through many TV programmes for example: "What Not to wear", in which there are representatives of the upper middle class who criticise and humiliate the participant for their clothes. The most important media that affect people's thought is represented by the newspapers. The majority tend to distort the reality of the facts manipulating the public opinion, for example talking about the Immigration. Some journalists want people to think that immigrants have caused the majority of the problems that affect their country, such as the lack of work, and lots of times the population accept this passively.  

Analysing all of these elements, one of the most important point that the Marxist theory has made is the facility to manipulate  human minds by the dominant classes and our passivity to accept everything without take action  against the behaviour of the media. In terms of weaknesses the Pluralists might be right that there is a wide range of media with different views but people sometimes is not able to catch all of these sources.  

Interruzione pagina 

Feminism :Women and the media 

The different roles of women in the past and in the current societies were often represented by movies. One of the most famous is "Pretty woman", with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, where a prostitute met a really prestigious businessman. These characters represented two different classes the Proletarians and the Bourgeoisie together . Julia is the beautiful princess saved by her prince, who bring her in his "world made of money and beautiful things" . This is just one of the interpretation of this film, that assumes a woman need to be saved by a man but this is a wrong theory because women might be independent with equals economic position of men .  

An example of how women are objectified in the cinema and through advertisements , is clarified by the "male gaze" theory. This explained that women since the 50's were submitted to the rules of men and they were  represented in movies with an erotic function, one example is illustrated by James Bond movies. They were ornamental only,  not central to the film's narrative and often playing a decorative role for the pleasure of "male gaze". 

A large variety of 50's adverts were unethical and clearly underlined sexist messages. These also promoted the idea of marriage and the distinction between the roles of the man who worked and of the woman who was "obligated" to be an housewife and look after the children. These could represent the ideals of the patriarchal society ruled by the men power. 

A really delicate point is the male violence against women. In the United Kingdom, two women a week died, killed by their partners or ex partners. It is difficult identify  every episodes where actual violence occur because lots of women try to do not report the violence to the authorities in order to do not put the husband and the all family in risk  from fear or a lack of confidence in the juridical system . Too many times women are forgotten by the media, who want to find a justification or cover these atrocities. One famous episode of male violence is about the murder of Reeva Steenkamp killed by Oscar Pistorious a famous athlete.  

Nevertheless, it is difficult answer if sexism is in decline or not, so women have enough space in television? Which is the right measure that can show when it is enough or not?  At the moment seems that  journalist women talk about football in BBC sport, taking into account that it is a sport played by a majority if male hopefully in due course they will discuss about rugby or fishing or in other different fields.