I liked your point about people needing to know about major media corporations and how they are taking over the entire structure of our economy. Lull’s quote about this sums up your thought perfectly.
I also think that it’s important that people know about media’s hold on the information that is disseminated throughout our society. Like we talked about in class today, as college students, we are part of an elite group that is more informed about these issues than those who are not college educated. If we are just learning about the media’s hold on information now, why would the average citizen know about its influence?
I think this idea correlates heavily to the video we watched in class about sports ideology and the white male hegemony that accompanies it.
I never knew about the Billie Jean King story, but I found it very surprising and a good example of the power of hegemony (especially the part that talked about how well her career was going until she came out as a lesbian.) In a perfect world, one’s sexual orientation, race, or religion would not matter just as long as they were talented players.
This brings up the question of how we view other celebrities and their importance in our lives and in the media in general. Celebrities are often glorified in the media, and their triumphs and trials are celebrated very publicly. For example, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears would constantly be in the news for their poor choices and tumultuous lifestyles, but doesn’t that mean that we’re glorifying their existence as bad role models altogether? Why should it matter that they got a DUI when there are people dying all over the world?
Somehow, their behavior is more acceptable for television than a professional athlete being a part of the LGBTA community. It upsets me that male professional athletes feel the need to come out once they’ve already retired. What’s this saying about our society or even about how these athletes view themselves in the LGBTA community? Why should their sexual orientation have anything to do with how they can throw a football or shoot a basket? This seems very similar to the don’t ask don’t tell policy in the armed forces. Again their ability to fight in combat has nothing to do with their sexual orientation, yet people find it contrary to the ideology of American patriotism and can’t accept it as being normal.

In response to Britani Luckman, I believe that you make some very good points. I too agree that this weeks reading was much easier and more enjoyable to learn about especially with the guest speaker and the very well done video on Hegemony and ideologies. You quoted the reading saying, “…ideological influence has become crucial in the ‘communication age’ today where mediated social interaction is commonplace.” I too agree that hegemony and ideologies have become more relevant as we have moved forward in society. Specific groups are taking advantage of the rise of media and using it almost as propaganda to reinforce ideas that are made to seem normal. When I wrote my initial response I focused mainly on Pat Tillman’s story and I believe it is still relevant today. The fact that nothing was done after Pat Tillman’s death and that rather than a decrease in the military propaganda seen in sports, there has been an increase. The fact is that no one is going to stop watching football because of the commercials and ideas behind the half time shows, etc. Therefore the media are able to reinforce ideologies and make them seem normal, such as the military being a good thing, and the act of war is a way of being strong just like NFL players. The quote from the article on Hegemony wraps this topic up very well into one sentence. “The fascists of Gramsci’s day used propaganda. The capitalists of today use advertising and other informational campaigns to accomplish the same goals.” I also completely agree with your thoughts on the war overseas. With the media reinforcing the war and making the American public not think twice about it and take it as a normal thing, the government is able to send troops overseas to fight a war which we don’t know the true purpose of. It is a huge possibility that this war is simply being fought so that we can bring or westernized government and social ideals to a less developed country whom cant handle our army. Going back to Pat Tillman, he thought the same thing. He just didn’t realize it until he was overseas and actually fighting. He was believed to have said that the war is illegal and the way we are fighting it is wrong. Even after his death, the media were trying to cover it up saying he was a true patriot and dies whilst protecting his troops during combat, even though he was shot down by friendly fire. This story will continue to amaze me the more I learn about it

In response to all:

So it seems to be that hegemony is not favored by the majority. I completely understand and agree. After all, its a process of some dominant group of people implanting ideas or ways of thinking into the minds of a subordinate group of people without them even realizing it. That sounds terrible! Like I said in the last post, BRAINWASH! In a country based on freedom and the right to make your own choices, this whole hegemony thing is so completely bizarre to me.  But there is the answer in itself. We do have a choice. Now that we know what hegemony is,we can recognize it and choose to act against it.

On the other hand or to play devils advocate, why are certain things we are looking at as a hegemony necessarily bad? Here’s what I’m thinking: The movie we watched in class was about how sports is discretely throwing America into everything. They bring out the flags and the hats come off and we sing the national anthem. They always run segments on military personnel during the games. The whole nine yards.  So my question is, why is all of this bad? I like being patriotic. I think it’s a great thing to show support in your country and support the men and women who are keeping it safe. People all over the world have pride in their country. Why, when we look at it in the examples in class, is it negative? When does it go from patriotic to being a victim of hegemony?

I agree that the hegemonic ideology can only grow as strong as people will let it. Unfortunately, we live in a day in age when people can be influenced to do almost anything for money. People will go against their strongest morals and beliefs if you put enough money under their nose.

“Hey we were wondering if you would like to change the Florida Gators name to the Florida Nokia?” “Haha, no thank you, we’ll pass.” “We’ll give you 500 million dollars.” “Where do we sign?”

I too understand the sense of glory that is drawn from sports, though sometimes it may be over done a little. In most households, the masculine traits are impounded into the human head from birth. Not necessarily intentionally, but even before we are old enough to clearly communicate, people assume boys prefer the color blue and Nerf guns while girls favor pink and Barbie dolls. When I was younger and my parents had to choose which organized activities to enroll us in, my sisters were signed up for cheerleading and I was tossed a football.

One thing that caught my attention in the video the other day was the part about woman’s sports getting so little airtime. Personally, the only sports I’m going to sit down and watch start to finish are football, hockey, baseball and maybe a little golf. Preferably, I’m not going to watch woman’s sports, but that’s not to say nobody will. Channels like ESPN have the time slots necessary to air woman’s sports. They play a never ending reel of Sports Center all day long, repeating the same material multiple times throughout the day.

In my Comm 384 class we have been discussing marketing strategies and how people will pay five times more for products such as Tylenol when they can purchase the generic brand for a fraction of the cost. The product is identical and functions exactly the same, but because of Tylenol’s familiar advertising and endorsements we are for whatever reason convinced that it is superior. Is the North Face jacket really worth the insane amount of money they charge, when you can get an almost identical Columbia for less than half the price? Probably not, but we are trained to think it is.

Individuality is a dying trait. It gets harder and harder every day for people to express themselves in ways that set them apart from the herd when there is the fear that people will look at them as an outsider.