A Marxist analysis of an editorial column as a site of struggle for meaning

This study calls into question the repressive authoritarianism of state-corporate capitalism and the "march of the megamedia" by investigating the media's role in perpetuating and sustaining hegemony. According to Marxist critics, the collective operations of the culture industry have worked to destroy the revolutionary potential of the working class. In a resistant textual reading and content analysis utilizing Gramsci's theory of hegemony, this study looks at how a newspaper editorial fatalizes readers into passive acquiescence of the prevailing political and socioeconomic system. To gain the willing consent of the masses, the technocratic elites of media systems create a world that appears natural and inevitable rather a social construction. By reading the editorial column through the deconstructive lens of critical Marxist thought, this study finds a text infused with an ideology that serves the interests of those who possess social, political, and economic power.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

2000

Author dc:creator

• Pfeifer, Theresa Hubbard

Contributors dc:contributor

• Richard Jensen

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/1128

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-2127