Vietnam films have rewritten the winners and the losers of that saga and action-adventure films reinforce cultural norms of violence and power (175). Despite the increased real presence of women in positions of power, often media representations of women and other formerly disenfranchised groups remain stereotyped or relegated to marginal or token roles, although this is changing. Still, certain outlets like women's magazines often function as advertisements that perpetuate corporate images that make women feel worse, rather than better about themselves (188). Furthermore, a hegemonic ideology is implied by supposedly mainstream news organizations. Consider the construct of 'economic news.' This implies that the 'economy' is in a neat little box, and that social issues of race and political disenfranchisement, limits on wealth and access to education and power, have no role in who possess wealth and who lacks wealth in society. Economics as separate from other issues is essentially an anti-Marxist stance by the modern media, not a neutral one (171). Advertising and corporate sponsorship also plays an ideological role: "Some people are more valuable [as audience members] than others," in short, wealthier Americans buy more things (216). But through some media, such as the arts, alternative points-of-view are articulated and even become popular, as in the case of early, highly combative rap music. Yet it could be argued that later rap has been subsumed by corporations and rendered into a...
However, audiences are not merely passive recipients of meaning. The media may be encoded in hegemonic constructs of gender, class, race, and other assumptions, but audiences can still be influenced by context, from watching television as a family unit to reading a romance novel and identifying with the protagonist in an empowering, rather than a sexist fashion (284-287). And of course the Internet, a disembodied media, has changed not just the way we consume media, but how we relate to one another, and our role in editing the content of what we see, hear, and experience, as well as the images we project of ourselves.
Part V: Globalization and the future
Mass media crosses limits of time and space, particularly in the virtual realm of the Internet, but the global media is not nationally 'neutral' and concerns remain about the cultural imperialism of the corporate media -- and also concerns about how the fight to save local cultures can essentialize these cultures and limit free expression and debate in the developing world (355-363). Furthermore, the only constant in the media seems to be change and attempting to stifle and contain the media's influence in some nations, for good or for ill, seems like a futile project.
