Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Political Affiliation and Television Shows





                As years have continued to progress, media has been influenced by the culture that surrounds it- or vice versa. Media, today, is greatly swayed by Ideology- a system of meaning which “defines and seeks to explain the world” as stated in one of the first PowerPoint presentations specific to the Corteau and Hoynes reading. The reading, Marxist Analyses by Arthur Asa Berger, seeks to explain and examine the multiple “principles” that Marxism unravels under the “use of alienation, materialism, false consciousness, class conflict, and hegemony” (Berger).
            As the topic for this week is Marxism in Political Economy, I decided to do a bit of research to try to unravel how political economy as well as media and culture form a part in everyday life; apart from what we have discussed in class thus far. I came across a post from the Huffington Post called Republicans , Democrats Favorite TV Shows which is about a study that was done in order to figure out the favorite watched television shows by the two political parties. After both the Republicans and Democrats completed the survey, it showed no apparent similarities in the types of television shows they watched. For example, Republicans opted for shows such as This Old House, Castle, Fox News Sunday, The O’Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, and Special Report while Democrats preferred shows such as Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, The Daily Show with John Stewart, and Frontline. Here is the link to the post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/06/republicans-democrats-favorite-tv-shows_n_1132283.html#s524269&title=Democrats_9_PBS
            The post by the Huffington Post may not necessarily lend a hand in the further explanation of Marxism or ideology, but I feel like it shows the differentiation of how things affect us as a society which can implement on how we deal with the “psychological terror” we undergo daily.       

 Berger, Arthur Asa. "Marxist Analysis." Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1982. 37-38. Print.

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