Neo-Marxist Critique of American Televisual Media

What is neo-Marxist critique?

• As many of the presumptions and predictions of classical Marxism were called into question, modern theorists tried to determine what the shortcomings of the original theory were and how they could be fixed.– Self-destruction of capitalism– Worker unity– Failure of socialist societies

Neo-Marxism

• Neo-Marxism calls into question the predominance of the economic system and the relationship between owners and workers

• Neo-Marxism pays greater attention to culture (and, therefore, the media)– System maintenance through hegemony

Neo-Marxism

• Goal of liberation through destruction of ‘false consciousness’– Development of ‘class consciousness’– Reveal ideology and its limiting effects

• More recent versions have turned to analysis of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Neo-Marxism and Televisual Media

• What is the role of electronic media?– Direct argument for existing property/power

relations (not emphasized)– Subtle manipulation of beliefs and

expectations• What is real?• What is natural?• Who has the right to decide?• What are the rules of evidence?

Ideology

• Ideology is a difficult concept, but refers to the worldview one applies to everyday living– It is the way we approach a wide variety of

decisions, behaviors, etc.– Neo-Marxists are especially concerned with

what we take for granted without contesting it• Property relations• Power relations

Televisual presentations

• Each news story, primetime television episode, film, videogame, rap song, website, etc. presents a vision of the world– What are the structures?– What are the rules?– What kind of people inhabit the world?

Narrative content

• The vast majority of narratives present a vision that aligns with the current social structure, including the power and wealth hierarchy– Basic human nature– The role of government– The role of property– The rights and privileges of power

Televisual narratives

• People are portrayed in ways that fit with their assigned social roles– Government officials– Police– Criminals– Terrorists

Televisual content

• Proper behavior and motivations for the assigned roles are provided– Patriotism– Greed/Acquisitiveness– Lust– Social climbing

What don’t you find?

• Alternate systems or possibilities are either entirely ignored, denigrated, or made to seem impossible– “Well that would be nice, but we know it can’t

happen.”

Power in televisual content

• The relations of property and power are demonstrated in news and entertainment– Who has the right to commit acts of violence

• The police are justified in blowing away the maniacs

• Defense lawyers are sleazy bottom-feeders who get maniacal serial child rapist-murderers off on ‘technicalities’

– Who the ‘players’ are and what kinds of people inhabit each group

• Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys

Examples

• Commercials– Consumption messages

• Acquisitiveness is the road to happiness

– Vanity/pride/envy– Nonconcern with environmental damage

Examples

• News– Lack of concern with, coverage of, working

conditions• Management viewpoint in coverage of economy,

industrial conflict

– Lack of concern with, coverage of, poverty– Identification of race with social problems

• Overrepresentation of African Americans in crime, welfare stories

Examples

• Film– Cop shows pitting honest, hard-working cops

against psycho-killers• Necessity of ‘bending the rules’ to protect the wider

populace from mindless, rampaging killers

– War/terrorist movies that depict ubiquitous horrific external threat to innocent Americans

• Must have massive military with no limitations to protect us from this threat

What’s missing?

• Sympathetic view of poor, foreign people• Lead, heroic women

– Though there are getting to be more

• Critical treatment of powerful– Though there are some oversimplified

‘businessman as murderer’ characters

• Presentation of alternative social structures/rule systems– Significantly changed property relations

Conspiracy theory?• Most neo-Marxists reject conspiracy theory• While some emphasize the obvious point that

people who are powerful control the media, it is probably more realistic to say that commercial media, driven by the profit system, are rewarded for producing entertainment content that has a number of conservative characteristics– Simplistic plots– Good guys/bad guys

• Really sleazy villains are fun to see blown up– Americans as heros– Catering to mainstream tastes, interests, etc.

Conspiracy theory?

• The audience is relatively small and not particularly rich– Audiences do not flock to critical content– American culture is conservative if not right-wing

• Conservative patriotism• Religiosity

– Certain groups actively oppose the distribution of critical content

• Critics in mainstream media risk job loss/cannot get funding• Venues for distribution come under fire

• Advertising, traditional economic support systems are not easily accessed by alternative media

• Production of challenging content does occur– The U.S. provides a legal structure that allows for

dissent• Newspeople and documentarians, artists and indie

filmmakers are rarely arrested, tortured, ‘disappeared’• Some non-mainstream venues and funding sources are

available