Ideology

When scholars examine media products to uncover their "ideology," they are interested in the underlying images of society they provide. In this context, an ideology is basically a system of meaning that helps define and explain the world and that makes value judgements about that world. Ideology is related to concepts such as worldview, belief system, and values, but it is broader than those terms. It refers not only to the beliefs held about the world but also to the basic ways in which the world is defined. 

When I read this all I could think about was how commercials and ads were. They target people and most of the time we don't even notice what is happening in the ad. But all of of ads and media reflect what we value in society. If you look at a cleaning commercial 90% of the time you see a woman cleaning. Then something about a gym or even food there will be a man in it. It's the worldview of how the woman should still be in the home. It also relates back to our sex positivity reading, when White said how sex is everywhere today as well, and the media shows this the most in ads, movies, music, and so on. Then all theses messages get confusing because you never know what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to act. 

Indeed, prominent politicians routinely identify mass media as a facilitator, and sometimes a source, or social problems. For example, on the campaign trail in 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush suggested that "dark dungeons of evil on the Internet" were partly to blame for school violence (Komblut and Scales, 2000). And after the tragic shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999, politicians from across the political spectrum focused on violent video games as one of the causes of the violence. 

I can understand why people feel the need to blame things like the Internet and violent video games as factors of school violence, but it's really a very small factor. School violence is a bigger issue then just the violent video games people my play. Many more people play those games and don't really take it to real life. I think politicians most of the time are just trying to distract people from real problems. Why not focus on gun control, instead of the violent video game? 

This articulation is accomplished, in large part, by the fact that popular media, particularly television and mass advertising, have a tendency to display a remarkably narrow range of behaviors and lifestyles, marginalizing or neglecting people who are "different" from the mass-meadiated norm. When such difference is highlighted by, for example, television talk shows that routinely include people who are otherwise invisible in the mass media - cross-dressers, squatters, or strippers - the media can become part of a spectacle of the bizarre. 

We normalize behaviors. Most of what is on TV is "normal". It's a man and a woman together with kids, even single parent hood is becoming more normal in shows. But when there is a show of even a character in a show that is gay they act os comic relief most of the time. Today we do have more television shows that portray different types of families and people, but it's taken this long to finally see some change. People still watch shows like Maury to see all the chaos of peoples life, because we find this entertaining, but just as Croteau says it becomes "a spectacle of the bizarre".