Ideology: further reading and tasks

Page 34: The World Of Mockingjay: Ideology, Dystopia And Propaganda

1) Mockingjay presents a capitalist society as they have a force that would control riots from occurring that would be called "Peacekeepers". This is quite similar to a police force as they present that power can be used to promote their ideals to the 12 districts that are within "The Capitol". There is an obvious element of power as the article states that "the districts serve The Capitol" to show that President Snow is quite tyrannical as he uses repeats of previous Hunger Games which would distract those plotting a revolution and therefore have continued control over The Capitol. Propaganda is also there as it is represented as Katniss and Peeta's wedding which had also acted as a distraction for rebellion. This would also present Katniss and Peeta as loyal citizens to The Capitol as they show no sign of disagreement. This acts as propaganda as Katniss is seen as an inspirational character after the first Hunger Games which would present her as an image of hope that districts would have faith in to cause a revolution against President Snow. Other elements of propaganda presents its self as Peeta. Peeta is also seen as an inspirational character and since The Capitol have kidnapped him and are using him as a weapon to weaken or prevent the rebellion from causing more damage. Propaganda is widely used in The Hunger Games trilogy and it has been proven once again as the rebels have hacked footage from the Capitol Systems which show The Capitol's dark intentions as they are presented as bombing a hospital. This could encourage people to rebel as they now see The Capitol in a different perspective. There are also other moments of propaganda as the rebellion uses Katniss as a "poster girl" as they dress her up in an appropriate manner for the revolution as they use her to try and promote the power that district members have to go against The Capitol. The main media format that has been used for this is broadcast in TV which would show that the media is a powerful weapon that can manipulate the minds of others as it would depend on the representation and how it can help promote different opinions to the people so that they can make the decision as to whether they should attack or stand down. All this support a capitalist society as they show that they can control what they can do to try and make sure that there is power presented throughout the story of The Hunger Games as The Capitol as they are presented as being greedy since they take the resources from the 12 districts. So overall there is a capitalist society in The Hunger Games. 

2) As previously mentioned, The Hunger Games use the media to their advantage since they choose to use the media to present themselves as a different in comparison to what they actually are. This is evident with the hospital bombing. The rebellion has used this to their advantage to try reinforce their ideologies of President Snow as a tyrannical leader. This would persuade an audience to try and join or support the rebellion. As well as that, I have also previously mentioned the appearance of Katniss being an important part of propaganda. This could mean that appearance is what would give an audience the impression that this "poster girl" presents the rebellion and make them a known threat of The Capitol. The Capitol also uses an element of propaganda with Peeta as previously mentioned. They would present Peeta as weak and use him to portray The Capitol as a powerful force that shouldn't be reckoned with. Since Peeta was also an inspirational character, The Capitol would use this as their image of a rebellion as they force Peeta to tell the rebellion to stand down or else they would attempt a revolution. There are also other means of propaganda with the promotional material for the film presenting The Capitol as a kind and generous community as they salute every district. This can give a false representation of The Capitol and so this would force their ideologies onto their citizens of each district to prevent a rebellion (assuming that The Capitol uses this promotional material in the film). Other forms of propaganda could be the re-runs of The Hunger Games which would enforce their ideals of power towards the viewers as they are presented with fear to The Capitol as they are presented as a dominant force.

Page 48: They Live - Understanding Ideology

1) People should put their families first

• People should work hard for their money
• Women should behave in feminine ways and look after their appearance
• Lead a satisfying life - (Extract from Althusser about dominant ideologies)

2) Those who have lots of power could be seen as the way they want them to be seen. This would then make viewers think that this is normal. This could be the reason that we would see the dominant ideologies and how this would feel normal for an audience as they would normally see money as a source of happiness. And so people would believe this as they would want successful lives because of what money can give to people. This could therefore enforce that money is an essential currency that could help people as the promotional material suggests. However, when the protagonist puts on the sun glasses, he sees through the promotional material and sees the truth within the promotional material that would suggest that the hypodermic syringe model is a truthful representation of an audience. This is enforced as the promotional material isn't forced onto the audiences as the adverts would rather prompt an audience into purchasing the product or services.

3) This suggests that an audience would watch programmes that are regulated by bigger corporations to present their ideologies to an audience so that they can see it from their perspective and assume that this is normal. This would be the Repressive State Apparatuses as they use fear to control an audience. This could be evidenced with going to prison as they would fear going to prison since it is seen as quite brutal and so this would then make an audience obey the law. Another factor of this is the Ideological State Apparatuses which use common sense to their audience as they would use social norms to communicate to an audience rather than using fear. 

4) I agree with this since corporations would use propaganda to their advantage to try and make an audience to do what the product or service is telling you to do. This can be evidenced with the Army adverts that make the Army look like a "cool" place to work in as they don't show the other side of war such as the loss and damage it could do to a person. Another instance could also include perfumes that are objectifying women and presenting men that they could obtain a sexual prowess by using this product that may intrigue an audience. This would further enforce the fact that they would want to try and make sure that the products could do that. This would enforce the Hypodermic syringe model further by making audience appear passive when they consume entertainment.

However I also disagree with this statement as an audiences wouldn't always purchase a product because of the adverts. There are reviewers who act as a two-step flow model as they would want feedback about the product or an overview as to whether this is value for money or not. This could be exploited as sometimes big corporations may offer some money to give the review a good side to it which would then make sure that they are well received. 

Overall I think that the audience of the modern society aren't as passive as it was in the past as there would be adverts that would want to promote this sort of behaviour to an audience but more recently an audience would want an overview first before they purchase the product. In conclusion I disagree that an audience is passive when they consume the media even if the economic elite would have control over it as previously mentioned with the exploitation of the product.