Ideology and Modern Culture: Critical Social Theory in the Era of Mass Communication

By John Brookshire Thompson

Book Overview

In this major work, informed by materials from several disciplines and theoretical orientations, the author develops a distinctive new account of the theory of ideology and relates it to the analysis of culture and mass communication in modern societies.

In the two centuries since is first appeared in France, the concept of ideology has undergone many transformations. It has been twisted, reformulated, recast, and finally filtered back into the everyday language of social and political life. Although there is much that is misleading and erroneous in the traditions of ideology, the author shows that it still defines a terrain of analysis that remains central to contemporary social sciences and continues to be the site of lively theoretical debate.

The key to his analysis is what he terms the "mediazation" of the culture-the general process by which the transmission of symbolic forms becomes increasingly reliant on the technical and institutional apparatuses of the media industries. Building on the work of Geertz and others, the author asserts that symbolic forms are embedded in such structured social contexts as power relations, forms of conflict, and inequalities in the distribution of resources, and that any discussion of mass communication must embrace its political as well as epistemological content.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804718466
• ISBN13: 9780804718462
• Release Date: February 1991
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Thompson can write

This is a book is a clear, concise study of the major debates in the area of the humanities, the social sciences, media and culture. Academics do not write like Thompson anymore ( at least in critical theory). Thompson puts ideas in context, defines his terms, consider possible objections, gives examples. The writer is generous to his readers by providing them with an intelligible text without sacrificing rigor. Martinez

Many informations. But you will be tired at the end.

For everyone who is interested in matters of ideology and public opinion it is a very useful guide into past and current discussion on the concept of ideology. In the second part of the book you will find quite interesting elaboration of the development of media industry based mainly on data from Braitain, neverthenless vey elucidating. Finally the author's media theory which is trying to consider the inner dynamics of media development against the mainstream of New-Left critics of the mass culture tyranny. The style very clear, so you can follow the author's pace of thoughts quite easy but you can find yourself quite bored going thru three fields of reaserch which will finish in final synthesis.