Marxist and Athuser's theories basically center around the history is of the struggle between social classes and how the powerful state control the world. In short they are basically saying that the wealthy and powerful members of society have massive amounts of control over the public and that the media can be censored to benefit the powerful. an example of this is when gordon brown sets up photo shoots with papers so that the public think whatever he wants them to think of him, and in turn shifting public perceptions of him?! Althuser stated that he believed we where being ruled by two governing states; Repressive state apparatus (RSA) including the police, army., prisons , courts, controlling us by rules and regulations, and the ideological state apparatus (ISA) which includes the church, education, party politics, family and the media, which control us by use of manipulation of images and image relations.
- NEWS CORP AND ADVERTISING
Rupert Murdoch censored his newspaper corporation so that the memoirs of chris pattern, slandering the Chinese government, couldn't be published. he did this because at the time Murdoch was in talks about deals with the Chinese government and wanted to keep them happy. Advertising is used by large companies and government also to set trends that the public will or will not follow, as i believe we DO have the freedom to choose, but i also agree that i feel the choices we do have are probably censored and manipulated by media and social trends.i believe the consumers ARE the powerful, without us there would be nothing to manipulate??!!!
Humans are identified by objects instead of themselves. advertising is promoting materialism and masking the true person. advertising is responsible for creating trends and promoting this class divide between the consumers. objects are being seen as a reflection of people personalities and status rather than the actual person and their personality alone. THE OBJECTS THEMSELVES ARE BEING ASSOCIATED IN SEMIOLOGICAL TERMS AS A SYMBOL OF WEALTH AND POWER!
Williamson says this is a false status; no matter what you buy still don't really move classes, its just a false pretension created by the state to make you believe you could become more powerful and desirable but in reality you never really will. i agree with this theory, thinking about it in material terms, will having the latest audi or iphone take me one step closer to becoming prime minister?! no.
