TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Media Studies > Marxist Theorists
Marx = Believed that it was often the powerful minority (bourgeoisie) who imposed their ideas on the powerless majority (proletariat).
Althusser = Believed that Ideological State Apparatuses (media forms e.g TV) which operated alongside Repressive State Apparatuses (police, military etc) to maintain Bourgeois ideologies such as religion, education, family, legal and political system and cultural and communications systems. This was achieved through interpellation where the audience is positioned to believe that the ideologies given are correct.
Gramsci = Believed in Hegemony - the dominance of ruling class values in media texts influences audiences to believe that these values are 'common place'
Eisenstein = believed that all conventions used by Hollywood cinema is designed to draw audiences into believing in capitalist propaganda and ideologies. He believed the way to get around these conventions was to focus on the group rather than the individual and to tell the narrative through montage to make the audience realise that what they are watching isn't real.
'Williams = Rejected the term 'mass culture' and instead believed that products of culture industries are either 'low culture', suitable for workers, or 'high culture', e.g ballet or opera with 'high culture' having a great status than 'low culture'. This exists today with theatres having greater status than cinemas. This also explains why most US film actors go onto acting at theatres as they want to prove themselves as serious actors which is gained through the difference in status.
Barthes = Believed that texts can be deconstructed in three different ways - denotation (whats physically there), connotation (what are the surface and implied meanings of whats there) and the mythic (ideologies that arise from the text). He also was the narrative theorist who believed in enigma codes.
Comments
All of these theories are confusing to understand fully (I had trouble summarising them) but if used would gain good marks as these theories often link to ideologies, institution and audiences and therefore are good bridges between the three issues.
