TV: Capital - Marxism and Hegemony
Task 1: Mail Online review of Capital
1) Re-read the Mail Online review of Capital. Why does it suggest that Capital features a left-wing ideology?It says that Capital would be like Jeremy Corbyn's diary who was the labour party leader which follows left wing ideologies and says that it is politically correct. The review as a whole says that Capital was to "woke" and purposely tried to avoid offending particular groups in society, except for the British upper class men.
2) Choose three quotes from the review that are particularly critical of Capital and paste them into your blogpost. Do you agree with the criticisms? Why?
"Capital was as stuffed full with fashionable causes as Jeremy Corbyn's function diary"
I agree that Capital follows left wing ideologies but I don't think that is a bad thing. However I think that the reviews preferred reading for the Mail Online audience is that this is a bad thing and that Capital is just going along with the majority in order to be "fashionable". The review is not only criticising left wing views but also the Labour party. The adjective stuffed also shows that Capital focused too much on being politically correct and it says that the plot of Capital is not as good as it started out.
3) What scenes or characters from Capital could be read as promoting left-wing ideology?
The clear divide and inequality between the wealthy residents and more working class residents of Pepys road supports the left wing idea of how there is unjustified inequalities between people. Petunia being vulnerable and lonely, Quentina working hard just to survive and the Kamal family who are disadvantaged also supports the left wing idea that there are certain groups who are at a disadvantage in life because of reasons they cannot control like where they are from or their age even if they are hardworking.
4) What about the other side of the argument - are there any aspects of Capital that reinforce right-wing or capitalist viewpoints?
Roger, the wealthiest character on the street, who is also a middle aged white British man can be seen travelling to work early in the morning and feeling stressed in his office. This may support how you have to feel stressed and work hard in order to be successful and if you are unsuccessful it is because you don't work enough (which is not true in Capital as Quentina works very hard but earns barely anything and is put in prison because she would rather be here than in her home country where her life would be in danger.) In all of the families the male is the breadwinner which may also support a patriarchal belief.
Task 2: Media Factsheet - Applying Marxism
Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #66: Applying Marxism. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level or online here (you'll need your Greenford Google login to access). Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:
1) What does Marxism suggest regarding power in society?
Power is held by the elite who have all of the money and use their power to generate more wealth and that the rest of society depends on them
2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?
3) Come up with two examples of media texts (e.g. TV programmes, newspapers etc.) that either fetishise working class life (e.g. EastEnders presents quite a harmonious East End community which probably doesn't accurately reflect East London life) or demonise working class life or poor people (e.g. The Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers regularly demonise people living on benefits with headlines referring to 'scroungers'.) Explain what meanings these texts communicate to their audiences.
The TV show shameless presents the struggles of the main family as well as the sense of community within the neighbourhood however some of the things happening to the family are extremely unrealistic so it may be fetishizing the working class lifestyle.
"anti terror police who were, naturally, bigoted and faceless. The crusading lawyer (a woman, of course)"
The word naturally shows how the connotations of bigoted and faceless are what the left wing think of anti terror police. The listing of the different words describing the anti terror police is sarcastic and is clearly disagreeing with how Capital presented them. Bigoted means that they have an unreasonable prejudice towards certain people because of their membership to a particular group. The Mail Online audience would read this and will see how there is a contrast between the anti terror police who they view as good and the negative adjective used to describe them. Similarly it disagrees with how the woman is a lawyer because they might think that Capital is trying to be too "woke".
"Everything British came in for a dose of loathing"
Once again the Mail Online criticises how Capital are presenting groups of people however this time the review disagrees with how the group is presented negatively. I think that the Mail Online review is being quite dramatic about the presentations of the different groups and that some aspects of British culture were celebrated like how grand the city is through the different shots of the city and the financial district as well as how the family at the corner shop helped Arabella showing the sense of community.
3) What scenes or characters from Capital could be read as promoting left-wing ideology?
The clear divide and inequality between the wealthy residents and more working class residents of Pepys road supports the left wing idea of how there is unjustified inequalities between people. Petunia being vulnerable and lonely, Quentina working hard just to survive and the Kamal family who are disadvantaged also supports the left wing idea that there are certain groups who are at a disadvantage in life because of reasons they cannot control like where they are from or their age even if they are hardworking.
4) What about the other side of the argument - are there any aspects of Capital that reinforce right-wing or capitalist viewpoints?
Roger, the wealthiest character on the street, who is also a middle aged white British man can be seen travelling to work early in the morning and feeling stressed in his office. This may support how you have to feel stressed and work hard in order to be successful and if you are unsuccessful it is because you don't work enough (which is not true in Capital as Quentina works very hard but earns barely anything and is put in prison because she would rather be here than in her home country where her life would be in danger.) In all of the families the male is the breadwinner which may also support a patriarchal belief.
Task 2: Media Factsheet - Applying Marxism
Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #66: Applying Marxism. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level or online here (you'll need your Greenford Google login to access). Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:
1) What does Marxism suggest regarding power in society?
Power is held by the elite who have all of the money and use their power to generate more wealth and that the rest of society depends on them
2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?
Sugar has all the power reinforces the ‘superior’ position of the capitalist elite. All of the contestants are dependent on him for their survival in the show. The winner of the show gets a well paid job because of their business qualities. The qualities that are reinforced are that you have to be confident, extroverted and not to have too much individualism.
3) Come up with two examples of media texts (e.g. TV programmes, newspapers etc.) that either fetishise working class life (e.g. EastEnders presents quite a harmonious East End community which probably doesn't accurately reflect East London life) or demonise working class life or poor people (e.g. The Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers regularly demonise people living on benefits with headlines referring to 'scroungers'.) Explain what meanings these texts communicate to their audiences.
The TV show shameless presents the struggles of the main family as well as the sense of community within the neighbourhood however some of the things happening to the family are extremely unrealistic so it may be fetishizing the working class lifestyle.
The Jerry Springer show specifically chose working class people with crazy stories and who were less educated so that there would be fights between people which allowed the audience to laugh and disagree with whatever the people are saying. He purposely presented the working class as people who got into fights and who were doing horrible things for the audience to look at and clearly disagree with them. The show obviously got cancelled because of how unethical it was.
4) Look at the bullet points on page 4 of the factsheet:
When making a Marxist reading of a text, look out for representations that:
Optional extension: Media Magazine feature on BBC drama The Casual Vacancy and ideology
If you'd like to further understand Marxism, Hegemony and the media, go to our Media Magazine archive and read the feature 'The Beeb, The Mail and JKR' in MM53 (page 20). This focuses on the politics of The Casual Vacancy, another BBC three-part drama based on a book by JK Rowling.
After you've read the article, think about or write answers to the questions below:
1) Why did the Daily Mail suggest The Casual Vacancy promoted a left-wing ideology?
it ridiculed the wealthier residents and shamed their decisions and uses characters as mouthpieces for left wing ideologies
2) How does the article suggest characters, narrative and setting are used to promote a left-wing ideology?
The characters are used to contrast each other and portray different ideologies so that you can see clearly who is in the right and who is in the wrong
3) What research is quoted regarding BBC bias and what did it find? Do you think the BBC is biased?
4) Gramsci's theory of hegemony suggests people are kept under control through active consent - the control of 'common sense'. How could you apply the Daily Mail or the BBC to the idea of hegemony and dominant ideologies in the UK media?
4) Look at the bullet points on page 4 of the factsheet:
When making a Marxist reading of a text, look out for representations that:
- show the values of the power elite as beneficial to the mass
- show queries or challenges to the base as meaningless, foolish or anti-social via ‘failed revolt’
- show the subdominant position of the masses as a naturalised idea
- show the values of the power elite as ‘natural’ or ‘right’
- show that being a member of the mass is a good thing
- show the masses accepting the values of the power elite
- show the values of the power elite as being ‘for the good of the masses’ (even when unpleasant)
Now try applying those bullet points to Capital. Think about the setting, characters and narrative strands - how many of the bullet points apply to Capital? Does Capital reinforce or challenge the values of capitalism? Give examples from episode 1 to support your points.
Roger abuses his power and ends up getting Quentina arrested and not even realising it, he does not care or think about his actions at all because he doesn't need to.
Queninta is arrested just for trying to live and there is nothing she can do about it because she is not powerful enough.
The police never look into the wealthy people like Roger but dont hesitate to look into Quentina.
Optional extension: Media Magazine feature on BBC drama The Casual Vacancy and ideology
If you'd like to further understand Marxism, Hegemony and the media, go to our Media Magazine archive and read the feature 'The Beeb, The Mail and JKR' in MM53 (page 20). This focuses on the politics of The Casual Vacancy, another BBC three-part drama based on a book by JK Rowling.
After you've read the article, think about or write answers to the questions below:
1) Why did the Daily Mail suggest The Casual Vacancy promoted a left-wing ideology?
it ridiculed the wealthier residents and shamed their decisions and uses characters as mouthpieces for left wing ideologies
2) How does the article suggest characters, narrative and setting are used to promote a left-wing ideology?
The characters are used to contrast each other and portray different ideologies so that you can see clearly who is in the right and who is in the wrong
3) What research is quoted regarding BBC bias and what did it find? Do you think the BBC is biased?
The BBC has broken its own impartiality guidelines, and implicitly gave support to the Labour Party
just two and a half months before the 2015 General Election. the most conclusive study of
the BBC’s output (conducted by Dr Mike Berry of Cardiff University and commissioned by the BBC Trust itself) found that, if anything, the BBC veered more to the right than to the left.
4) Gramsci's theory of hegemony suggests people are kept under control through active consent - the control of 'common sense'. How could you apply the Daily Mail or the BBC to the idea of hegemony and dominant ideologies in the UK media?
The BBC could be seen as reinforcing hegemonic ideology because of its impartiality as it remains neutral but it does try to target mainstream ideas and audiences but the daily mail reinforces right wing ideologies and its audience reflects that.
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