Marxism & hegemony: blog tasks

 Task 1: Mail Online review of Capital

1) Re-read the Mail Online review of Capital. Why does it suggest that Capital features a left-wing ideology?

 Because in the article it stated that the hardest worker on the street was an illegal immigrant, determined to pay her way and not touch a penny of benefits. She was deported, though she did find time to teach English to some of her fellow saints at the detention centre.

2) Choose three quotes from the review that are particularly critical of Capital and paste them into your blogpost. Do you agree with the criticisms? Why?

While the English residents of Pepys Road were grasping (Lesley Sharp) or deceitful (Robert Emms) or just plain awful (Stirling), the Polish builder had a heart of gold and his Hungarian girlfriend was as honest as Mother Teresa. This shows that immigrants are being emphasised as the good not the bad 

Everything British came in for a dose of loathing. When investment banker Roger muttered something self-deprecating, one of the immigrant characters snarled, with real anger: ‘Ah! The Great British understatement!’ This portraying immigrants are bad not grateful 

3) What scenes or characters from Capital could be read as promoting left-wing ideology?

Quintina as she reached out to petunia in the shop this shows the acceptance within the quality

4) What about the other side of the argument - are there any aspects of Capital that reinforce right-wing or capitalist viewpoints?

 

Rodger can be seen as right wing as he is a traditional white male who want to be the more dominate person and wants to be the only income to his family

Task 2: Media Factsheet - Applying Marxism 

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #66: Applying Marxism. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level or online here (you'll need your Greenford Google login to access). Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What does Marxism suggest regarding power in society?

 

That power was held by a minority who hadaccess to capital and could use their money and power to generate more wealth.

2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?

 

The fact that Sugar has all the powerreinforces the ‘superior’ position of the capitalist elite. He has power as he has used the system to create wealth and he is shown using this power to provide a livelihood for the winner of the competition.

3) Come up with two examples of media texts (e.g. TV programmes, newspapers etc.) that either fetishise working class life (e.g. EastEnders presents quite a harmonious East End community which probably doesn't accurately reflect East London life) or demonise working class life or poor people (e.g. The Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers regularly demonise people living on benefits with headlines referring to 'scroungers'.) Explain what meanings these texts communicate to their audiences.

 

Capital- favours working class people and their values and demonises middle class values
Fox News- demonises the working class and promotes conservative/republican views

4) Look at the bullet points on page 4 of the factsheet:

When making a Marxist reading of a text, look out for representations that:

• show the values of the power elite as beneficial to the mass
• show queries or challenges to the base as meaningless, foolish or anti-social via ‘failed revolt’
• show the subdominant position of the masses as a naturalised idea
• show the values of the power elite as ‘natural’ or ‘right’
• show that being a member of the mass is a good thing
• show the masses accepting the values of the power elite
• show the values of the power elite as being ‘for the good of the masses’ (even when unpleasant)

Now try applying those bullet points to Capital. Think about the setting, characters and narrative strands - how many of the bullet points apply to Capital? Does Capital reinforce or challenge the values of capitalism? Give examples from episode 1 to support your points.

I think that Capital does reinforce some of the representations suggested by Marxism one of the concepts reinforced by Capital is the idea that "challenges to the base are eaningless foolish or anti-social." I feel that this idea is shown through the story of Quintina. Quintina is a illegal immigrant who is living and working in london she is a traffic warden gaining cash. A marxist reading of this would be Quintina being deported which can be seen as a failed revolt it can also be seen as the power the elites witheld e.g the goverment.