A System We Live In

When it comes to understanding Hegemony, Agenda Setting, and Framing there are only a couple things that need to be understood. First of all: Hegemony. It's a power system. In power systems there's always a top dog, and Hegemony is not any different. The top dogs in Hegemony rule with both force and consent. Ruling with force can easily be pictured by looking at any military dictatorship. Those who do things that those in power don't like, get killed. Consent is easily pictured by looking at a voting booth in any democratic society. The consent of the public helps everything run smoothly for the leaders. That's the main idea of Hegemony.

But Payton what does this have to do with Media?

Good question. Those who have power usually have some stake in mass media so their thoughts and views can be made.

But how can they use force with just a TV or the Internet?

Ah, well that's where Agenda Setting come's into play. Ya see in media it's not a physical form of force. It's a matter of forcing the viewers to see what those in power want them to see. When one controls the media that person or group is the one who makes the people see what they want them to see. Those in power "set the agenda" in a way.

Oh...okay...but what about the consent part?

Well that's what Framing is all about. The viewers have everything placed in front of them by those in power, now it's the time to shape what's in front of the people into something that the people can enjoy and go along with. You've shown 'em what to look at, now show 'em how to look at it. Make the people see it the way those in power want them to see it.

There ya go. Hegemony, Agenda Setting, and Framing. How the 3 go together and relate to media. Still confused? Aight well remember the movie Full Metal Jacket directed by Stanley Kubrick? Good film right? Yeah, well there's this certain scene in the movie that demonstrates all of this PERFECTLY.

No...not this scene.

In the scene Pvt. Joker, a combat correspondent, is sitting in a meeting with some higher up media men. They are all discussing what they are about to put into the news for the next day. One man suggests they add in a kill to a certain story they are talking about "because the men like to hear about a kill." Another then suggests they should make it an officer to make the men a little happier. The leader tells Pvt. Joker that they are already fighting an unpopular war and they need to make everybody feel good about what is happening so that the war can continue on with as little public resistance as possible.

All this goes perfectly with Hegemony (the army officials are the one's in charge), Agenda Setting (the Vietnam war is the main news topic), and Framing (putting a good spin on the particular war story so that the public goes along with it).