Hegemony disguised: how discourse analysis is inadequate in the disclosure of the real locus of social control

The post-modern world is often characterised as being fragmented in a variety of ways. It is clearly a divided and unequal world. It is divided in ideological terms. It is divided in regional terms. It is divided in terms of those who have power and those who have little or no power. Unequal power relationships in terms of class, ethnicity/race and gender, to name but three examples, continue to persist, usually in combination. In postmodernity, the media continue to have a hugely significant role in manufacturing and disseminating dominant and other forms of ideology. Indeed, a critical political economy perspective would suggest that the ongoing processes of conglomeration in terms of media ownership and control have resulted in a narrowing, in ideological terms, of the range of voices and opinions heard and seen in a media setting. Against this point of view is a perspective that celebrates the power of audiences to resist and subvert the ideological content of media texts. Nevertheless, it is the trans-national capitalist class that are largely responsible for the explosion in media terms in people’s everyday lives.