Strategically Communicating

I too was intermittently incensed throughout this week’s reading. But, although, like Lee, my frustration is often evoked by representations of mainstream ideologies in the media, this week what irked me more than anything was that the authors of this book seem to have left out the possibility that the media could accomplish, or at least set out to accomplish, something good.

In chapter fourteen we hear incidents of media activism against ads that portray oppressive ideologies about gender and smoking, but the authors do no mention positive efforts by the media that set out to counteract dominant ideologies, such as Dove’s beauty campaign or graphic anti-smoking ads.

While I do not pretend that the media is all good, far from it, I again wish the authors would place more separation between the different types of media out there, which brings me to ask if, by repeatedly generalizing the aspects of our culture that they wish to analyze, and in so doing, putting down the same aspects, do the authors perpetuate dominant ideologies of our culture, ideologies which are of course often conveyed through these specific mediums that they intend to analyze?