CULTURAL STUDIES In A First Look at Communication Theory

CULTURAL STUDIES
Stuart Hall
In
Em Griffin, A First Look at
Communication Theory, 6th ed.
CLICKER
Hall is “deeply suspicious of and hostile to
empirical work that has no ideas because
that simply means that it does not know the
ideas it has.”(p. 371)
This quotation from Hall means:
A. Ideology underlies all research, whether
we know it or not;
B. Empirical research without ideas is less
likely to prove its hypothesis;
CLICKER QUESTION
Griffin has written this about Stuart Hall and cultural studies:
"Ever since Copernicus thought the unthinkable, that the
earth is not the center of the universe, truth has prospered
by investigating what is separately from what we think it
ought to be. Hall seems to blur that distinction." (A First Look
at Communication, p. 380).Explain what Griffin is saying
above and try to make clear what the essence of Hall's idea
is all about.
THE QUOTE ABOVE MEANS:
A. It’s impossible to think the unthinkable;
B. In seeking the truth, it’s not a good
idea to combine what ought to be with
what is found to be;
Underlying Ideas
• Stuart Hall doubts that social science
can find useful answers to important
questions about media influence;
• He rejects the objectivist approach-counting, survey research;
• For Hall the question is how does the
media create support?
Underlying Ideas
• Cultural Studies is influenced by a
Marxist interpretation of society, which
is suspicious of any analysis that
ignores power relationships;
• Cultural Studies wants to do more than
interpret. It seeks to change things;
• It wants to empower people who are on
the margins of society;
THE MEDIA AS POWERFUL
IDEOLOGICAL TOOLS
• HALL holds that the media maintain the
dominance of those already in power--the
media maintain the status quo;
• That mainstream media research masks the
struggle for power;
• Hall wishes to gain public place where the
voices of the masses can be heard;
• Hall wants to liberate people from an
unknowing acquiescence to the dominant
ideology--this is much like Critical theory of
Deetz;
FRAMEWORKS OF
INTERPRETATION
• Think of the idea of framework as a
context, the ideas behind symbols;
• The framework people use is provided
through the dominant discourse of the
day;
MEANING MAKING
• Words and other signs have no intrinsic
meaning;
• Words don’t mean; people mean;
• Hall asks, “Where do people get their
meanings?”
• Hall’s answer: through communication and
culture--through discourse;
• Culture is concerned with the production and
exchange of meanings;
Meaning is Created in
Discourse
• For Hall, we must examine the sources
of discourse;
• People with power get to draw arbitrary
lines between things (e.g., normal and
abnormal);
CORPORATE CONTROL OF
MASS COMMUNICATION
• In the U.S., the vast majority of
information we receive is produced and
distributed by corporations;
• Hall would say that corporate control of
influential information sources (e.g.,
Sports Illustrated, CNN, HBO,
Hollywood Studios) prevents many
stories from being told;
THE MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF
THE GULF WAR
• THE MEDIA FRAMED THE
WAR AS AN EXCITING
NARRATIVE;
• THE GULF WAR WAS
PRESENTED AS A WAR
MOVIE;
• THE SHOWING OF
SOPHISTICATED
WEAPONS DISTRACT
ATTENTION FROM THE
MORALITY OF THE WAR;
• THE NARRATIVE FORM
WAS “GOOD GUYS VS.
BAD GUYS”;
• HALL BELIEVES THAT THE
MASS MEDIA PROVIDE
THE GUIDING MYTHS
THAT SHAPE OUR
PERCEPTION OF THE
WORLD & SERVE AS
INSTRUMENTS OF SOCIAL
CONTROL;
AN OBSTINATE AUDIENCE
• Just because the
media present a
preferred
interpretation, does
not mean the
audience will accept
that interpretation;
• The audience can:
– Accept the preferred
reading;
– Accept the leading
ideology but oppose
its application in
specific cases;
– Substitute an
oppositional code-see through the bias;
CRITIQUE
• Do such explicit value commitments (taking
sides) inevitably compromise the integrity of
research? (Griffin, p. 380)
• Ever since Copernicus thought the
unthinkable, that the earth is not the center of
the universe, truth has prospered by
investigating what is, separately from what we
think it ought to be” (p. 380).
• My summary of the critique above: Don’t mix
research and politics!