User:Kal Wayne/sandbox

Strategies of Mass Media Hegemony

Mass media has become the most influential force in reaching, persuading and controlling the masses. Mass: a large body of persons in a group b: the great body of the people as contrasted with the elite —often used in plural <the underprivileged and disadvantaged masses — C. A. Buss. Media: a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression. Mass Media: a medium of communication (as newspapers, radio, or television) that is designed to reach the mass of the people —usually used in plural. Mass Media has become a designing tool which uses strategies to succeed. These strategies were taken from Scholars and applied through mass media technology to communicate messages.

Communication Mediums: Throughout human history mankind always had ways of communicating. Communication developed as early human beings evolved. Mediums in which they communicated were gestures, hieroglyphics, carrier pigeon and smoke signals. As we developed, we made technological advances on how to spread messages quicker and easier such as Morse code, telephone, radio, fax, billboards, television, cellular phone and internet. Communication mediums were becoming more sophisticated and very much needed as people began to form civilizations.

Strategies: People became settled, forming villages and countries. Social classes were formed, the social elites/upper class, middle class and lower class. Every civilization took this order. This created a need for control and order. The social elite were seen as most upright and civil and usually richer than other classes. This social class formed governments. All governments needed ways to control and send messages to the masses. These messages were sent through mediums. One strategy governments used to keep masses in check was a form of hegemony on a mass media scale.

Media Hegemony:

•	Hegemony: Influence or control over another country, a group of people, etc. Hegemony, the dominance of one group over another, often supported by legitimating norms and ideas. Hegemony comes to English from the Greek hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai ("to lead"). Antonio Gramsci said “The rule of one class over another does not depend on economic or physical power alone but rather on persuading the rule to accept the system of beliefs of the ruling class and to share their social, cultural and moral values.” With the ruling class dominating economics, giving them the financial ability to own, regulate and produce the means of mass mediums, along with their privilege in the upper social hierarchy, people will look up to them. Their ways of conduct and civilized belief are channeled through mediums for the masses to see and conform to their will. This is also known as engineering consent.

•	Engineering Consent: Persuasion that the interest of the powerful are common sense, therefore normal or natural, creates an atmosphere of less challenge and criticism. Edward L. Bernays wrote an essay published in 1947 called “The Engineering of Consent".

•	Story telling/Narrative: Narratives are the dominant symbolic way we make sense if experience and articulate our values; this is often the vehicle for delivering common sense. •	Stardom: The fame and prestige of being a star on films, sports, etc. People of renown are used to help sell ideas and beliefs to the public through acting as fiction characters masses can relate to or through advertising products. When people look up to a famous person they look to imitate and relate to them. As they see the celebrity behaving and dressing in certain ways, the mass with follow suit because they relate to their idol. This is also part of conditioning masses.

Conclusion: Governments, religious organizations, entertainers and politics of the upper classes use these strategies through different mediums to reach and conform and control the masses. These strategies are what make media so effective and successful.

References: 1.	Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 2.	Encyclopaedia Britannica 3.	Collins English Dictionary 4.	The Consent of Engineering by Edward L. Bernays 5.	An Introduction to Mass Communication by Richard Campbell et al. 6.	‘Mass Media and Everday Life’. Media Impact. Sacremento: California State University. 2015.1-26 by Shirley Biagi