Thursday- Post Class

In Thursday’s class discussion on Ideology, we discussed the power of those who control the means of production. As we discussed with Marx and “The Golden Rule,” those who are in power are able to make all of the calls. The dominance of the ruling class allows for there to be a dominant ideology that is very difficult to overthrow. I think this is very relevant in our society today since power is located in the hands of very few people in many different industries. For instance, the media industry, and the food industry out of all have some of the most dominating tactics. Only a few media companies control all of the media that we see. Including films, music, news, and television. That monopolizing control allows for a small percentage of people in the ruling class to decide what media the entire country views. With that control they are able to portray through media what they think everyone should focus on, emphasize certain issues while downplaying others and whatever else they choose to feature. The same kind of control exists within the food industry. Only a few companies control all of the food that is distributed within the United States. They have control over how the food is labeled, not telling consumers the whole truth behind the food they are eating. Whether the food has been genetically modified or what fertilizers and hormones have been put in their food. Especially with the control of the media, if the consumers are not active agents it is very hard to see what ideologies are at play because they are overarching through so many outlets that are provided by the media. An example of this is Time Warner. They are the largest cable company in the United States. They control CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Headline News and they have a partial ownership of Comedy Central. They control HBO and Cinemax. They control 24 magazines. They are the second largest book-publishing company in the world. There are many more media outlets that they control but those are just to name a few. This shows how much domination that those who are in power have. Many consumers most likely are not aware of how much control companies like Time Warner actually has.