Welcome back everyone! In this blog post I am going to discuss ideological criticism.

Ideology is a reoccurring theme in the communication field. Assuming that you are not familiar with such a field, ideology is commonly referred to as a means of exerting power, used mainly by elites, to create and maintain power relations. Basically, this just means it is a set of ideas that give some particular account of the world.

With this term in mind, ideological criticism examines how these ideas are embedded in and circulated through texts. Ideological criticism also looks at how they reflect/serve the interests of the dominant elites. This approach to criticizing the media differs from other forms in that it focuses primarily on dominant media elites.

A related concept is called political economic theory which explores how media institutions and media texts practice to establish and sustain existing power relations. This theory is also used to orchestrate how media advances the interests of dominant elites.

To make it a bit more interesting, let’s explore how these practices are used in specific media texts. The two texts that will be broken down are, Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, and Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power.

First, let’s talk about the film, Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood. This film explores how the media exercises their dominance over certain groups of people. The film mainly focuses on younger age groups and how they are increasingly targeted by marketers. The film sheds light on how the target markets are becoming more and more concentrated on younger generations to create a lifelong loyal customer.

The first shocking portion that really grabs one’s attention looks at how infants are being targeted by media experts almost from the womb. The strategies these marketers use include making the ads that are presented visually appealing for infants who cannot understand the actual meaning. The images are planted in children’s heads at such an early age.

This proves how ideology is embedded in media texts and is a reason that ideological criticism is essential in the understanding of such a concept.

There is also a growing market for younger generations of girls that seems to be ever expanding. The film provided information that points to how the target market for young teen girls is stretching to include a much wider variety of girls that seem to be acting older than any previous generation due to the ideas that are put into their heads by media marketers at such an early age.

The picture on the right is an example of an expensive, high-end and well known brand that is marketing to young kids.

This may come across as shocking to many, but it is seen as brilliant in the marketing industry to market to young kids because they are creating “brand loyal” customers, hopefully for a lifetime. This shows how media elites create and maintain the popular ideologies through their power. Ideological criticism is essential in understanding this, and the political economy theory is directly necessary.

The second film that shows these concepts at work is called, Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power. This film really intrigued me and discusses Disney’s role within our society and how it continues to be a powerful force on children’s culture.

Because Disney is in fact one of the largest media conglomerates, it is important to realize and understand that The Walt Disney Company owns the majority of the media that we consume and in turn, is what shapes children’s thoughts and beliefs about the world. Disney often gives children their first exposure to stereotypes of race, gender and class without the children ever realizing it.

When thinking about this, it is important to look at gender representation within Disney films. Throughout the company’s history, the portrayal of women has changed very little. All of the film’s leading female characters have been portrayed in almost the exact same way. Ranging all the way back from Snow White in 1937 to the new present day princess Rapunzel in the movie Tangled , the female leads are illustrated similarly. Built with petite frames, natural beauty and a caring sense of nature, each of the female characters are almost identical.

     

Aside from personality and physical appearance, these female characters are often seen as commodities within a patriarchal society. They are treated almost as possessions of their fathers and are “given” to another male. For instance, Ariel from The Little Mermaid is given to Prince Eric, Jasmine from Aladdin is given to Aladdin, Belle from Beauty and the Beast is given to the Beast, etc.

Another aspect of the female versus male gender role that is repeatedly found in Disney films is that the female characters are treated as damsels in distress and the male characters almost always have to save the female from villains and/or danger. In other words, women are portrayed as being subservient to men.

Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power not only explores gender ideologies, but also stereotypical race and class representations as well. In the majority of the Disney films, the villainous characters are almost always represented as the racial minority. These films also contain racist stereotypical representations of other cultures.

For example, in the 1955 film Lady and the Tramp, the characters of the Siamese cats are treated with extremely stereotypical Asian features: squinted eyes, thick Asian accent as well as sneaky tendencies.

In The Lion King, the hyenas, which are portrayed as the savage animals in the movie, are characterized with African-American and Hispanic accents.

In the movie, these animals reside in an “inner city ghetto equivalent of the jungle.” Their behavior and environment reinforces stereotypes of these two races. In the movie Aladdin, the opening song “Arabian Nights” contains the line “It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” which represents a stereotype of Arab culture.

Below is a video I found titled, What Disney Princesses Teach Girls. It explores the message of what young girls are taught when watching a Disney princess movie. Towards the end, the video explores the message of what young boys are taught when watching a Disney princess movie.

Both of the films discussed are similar in a variety of ways, but they still maintain a bit of difference. Both films use the concepts of ideological criticism and the political economic theory to explore how media texts influence the world as we know it.Both of these films also effectively draw viewers in and create a certain passion for the discoveries that are made throughout the film.

There is a certain appeal that each has, which creates the ideology that our young are being targeted, as well as the rest of us. There is the common theme that we must protect our young and that the media abuses their power.

So what? If this question popped into your head upon reading all of the information I have given you to think about, you are probably not alone. There is the need the express why these concepts are important to understand and how they are used that is important to our world as a whole.

To answer the ever elusive “so what” question, one must go beneath the surface and realize what both ideological criticism and the political economy theory are, what they bring to the table and how they are used.

We explored what these concepts are, but did not talk about exactly why they are so important to us as a society. Without these concepts we would not know exactly how dominant elites can exert their power, and would remain completely unaware of what ideas the media puts into our heads on an almost unrelenting fashion.

These concepts, the explorations of them and how they are commonly used are also useful in challenging us as humans to realize how to remain individuals, make our own choices and formulate our own ideas.

Why does this matter? It’s extremely important to understand the messages that are being portrayed within Disney films and the potential effect that they can have on young children. The characters in these movies become role models to children, and can subconsciously exert negative ideologies onto these children.

By examining these films from an ideological perspective, we familiarize ourselves with the great power that media conglomerates have over our society and the role they play in the media.

Thanks for reading! I will see you at my next blog post! Hope you have a great day!