Reality Of The Sponsors in The North American Media

Billboard, radio, Television, newspaper, advertisement,media is dependent to existence of racial ideology.
World Wide Web, Book ,CD, video Cassette, SMS,According to the above statistics, I think American
computer game, mobile computer; we are besieged bymedia is becoming more and more dominant on the
these medias.masses and they not only decide what to watch but
The world today is dominated by the media power.also how to think about and believe the "produced
Different images, analysis, news and realities arereality". Also I can say that almost media power is
produced according to the Media's attitudes,controlled by white Americans not the people of the
attachments and ideologies and all these can belong tocolor. This shows how much they are marginalized
the sponsors who are from different racial, ethnical,from the mainstream space of society and how ethno
religious, political, economical and identical backgrounds;racial power exist in media as well.
People who support media financially, ideologically andGramsci, ideology and hegemony
politically. So the produced reality cannot be the realGramsci, an Italian writer, politician and political theorist, in
reality because it is nourishing from sponsors`late 19th and early 20th century, defined hegemony as
ideological viewpoints"situation where historical bloc of ruling class factions
What Baudrillard mentioned as "hyper reality" isexercises social authority and leadership over the
referring to the artificiality of real that blur thesubordinate classes" ( cited by Barker, 2000; 80) .
boundaries between the "real" and the "simulation,He believed representation of formal education
entertainment, and current affairs" (cited by Barker,system as a meritocracy and people of color as by
2001: 212).nature inferior and less capable than white people is
America, as a multicultural society, with varied racialformed by ideology. The hegemonic bloc as he said is
and ethnical groups is matter of concern in this articlenot single socioeconomic category perhaps ideology
with focusing on Blacks and how media as producerplays a crucial role in alliances of the groups. In
of message or transmitters of ' sign vehicle'(cited byGramscian word, hegemony has to be constantly
Rojek, 2003; 94) in this Melton Pot is exercising theremade and renowned.
power of ethno racial construction.To have these two theories as a model, I think Black
Race has been a controversial problem sinceAmerican has experience of subordination toward
exploration of America. It is woven to warp and woofwhites during the history and this historical bloc has
of American society and penetrating to all socialbeen existed since exploration of America. History of
institutions and media is not the exception.slavery and tortures against Black Americans was a
Media with the potentiality of disseminating facts,cycle of remaking and re owning hegemony for white
information and opinions has a special place inAmericans.
American society. According to media policy 101During 1960_70 America experienced race crisis that
statistics, the average American spends over 4 hourscaused so many professionals and journalists to
a day watching TV, 78% of adults listen to radio, 88%arrange series of conferences to consider racial
of Americans believe internet has important role in theirissues. In that time media was deficient in neutrality of
daily routine and average American child view 40000race problems. Carolyn Martindale in his pamphlet "The
commercials per year. About 12 million viewers watchwhite press and Black America" declared that media
nightly ABC, NBC and CBS news (Jacobs, 2ooo; 24).had failed three matters:
And how ethnic and racial groups like Black Americans1.To cover Black as normal part of American society
in this significant place are represented?instead reinforcing and promoting stereo types.
In America, it was not until late 1960 and early 19702.Portraying problems that black Americans face.
that we find any black families in television drama3.Explain causes and underlying condition of black
(Barker, 2000; 267) .The first television programme toAmericans.
feature Black Americans was Amos `n' Andy (Barker,According to Martindale (1986) and Campbell (1995),
2000; 268). Hall believed that, this programme was aAfrican Americans in news cast are represented as
comedy that became a symbol of degradation ofcriminals connected to gun and violence (cited by
black people by the use of humor based onBarker, 2000; 269)
stereotypes. Media representations of people of colorUp to here, by reviewing Althussers and Gramsci
increased during 1980_90.theories I tired to say representation of blacks in
Stuart Hall believes that binary forms of representationAmerican media is implicating existence of ideology
exist between ' them' as white and ' us' as black.and hegemony's concepts. Clearly media such as
White has always been represented as good andnewspaper, TV, web sites and other forms (mentioned
black as bad, respectively civilized/ primitive andin introduction) are dominated more by white power in
attractive/ ugly. Takaki also in ' The tempest in theAmerica and blacks a portion of America's population
wilderness' showed this kind of binary position in caseare subordinated by the white exceptionalism and
of British and Irish (Takaki, 1993; 28). Although thesehegemony of whites for directing and sponsoring the
two are from same origin but British are considered asmedia.
civilized and nurtured but Irish as natural and savage.Also the white media produce the reality which can be
This misrepresentation and ignorance also happens tohyper reality that implicated values and ideologies of
Arabs in Hollywood movies. Norman Solomon indicatedwhites. Media has this capability for two reasons:
that Arabs in Hollywood are always representing as1.Media is managed by corporation's capitals so profit
dirty, untrustworthy, violent and lecherous (Solomon,play important role in producing reality. In my idea media
2004; 4).is a capitalistic phenomenon which is alive just by
Ideologies support mediamoney.
Althussers was a Marxist philosopher who defined a2.Media creates the reality and what is offering to the
concept of Ideology. He believed ideology is one of theaudiences is "hallucinatory resemble" version ( Barker,
three levels of social formation. This concept means2000; 212)
system of representation such as images, myths,According to Nietzsche, pure knowledge is
ideas or concepts (Barker, 2000; 77). Ideologyimpermissible and nothing more than expediency of
constitutes subjects and subjects are fragmented andcertain race and species (cited by Barker, 2000; 199).
have pluralistic subject positions. Ideology is understoodThat's why in media today we have different
to be material phenomenon rooted in daily conditions. Innarrations for one single happening. Every media
his definition, there are four ideological stateinterprets world with its own eyes. This goes back to
apparatuses:the media characteristic. I believe media is not and can
1.familynot be a neutral phenomenon. Basically is profit
2.education system ( transmit ruling class ideology)_oriented, no matter economic, cultural or political.
3.churchMedia as a tool for forming public opinion is more
4.mass mediaconcerning by politicians and governmental agendas.
To me, ideology can be one of the important factorsGovernments can stabilize their hegemony over
of media formation.controlling Medias and persuading masses by
In America since 1975, two thirds of independentideologies. Censorship and articulation of specific news,
newspaper and one third of TV owners haverepresenting minorities as problems, otherization and
disappeared. Merely, 4% of radio station and less thanracial/ethnic discriminations are policies of media
2% of T.V stations are owned by people of the color.sponsors. I think media has this capability everywhere,
Reason of misrepresentation of Black Americansit is not specified to particular part of the world but the
goes back to the hidden ideologies. Existence of racialdifference is in amount and degree of interfere.