Page 168 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

IDEOLOGICAL APPROACH

municator. However, popular genres may also contain latent ideological
functions that are not part of a grand design on the part of the media
communicator. Nevertheless, these latent ideological functions reinforce
cultural attitudes. For instance, one cumulative ideological function that
underlies many popular genres is social control. As an example, one
latent message of transplantation reality shows like Wife Swap is: be
content with your social/economic position. These programs discourage
individuals from moving up in social/economic class. TV critic Gail
Pennington explains:

Family swapping is the newest wrinkle in a growing genre of television
that asks: What better way to learn something about ourselves than to
step outside our comfort zone? . . . For viewers, both “Trading Spouses”
and “Wife Swap” provide important reminders that we should appreciate
what we have and that money doesn’t buy happiness (although it may
buy a hot tub), but also that cheap shoes and expensive ones may pinch
just the same. 48

In the Western market-driven media system, it is not uncommon for
the original ideological function of a genre to be co-opted, replaced
by a consumer ideology. As an example, in the early 1970s, rap music
emerged in the Bronx as a grassroots art form of the African American
and Puerto Rican communities. Rap music originally expressed a radical
ideology. The lyrics were angry, decrying social inequities in America
and defying the social order. The graphic language and violence were
perceived as dangerous by the white, middle class.
Over time, however, the political function of rap music has been re-
placed by a consumer ideology. Although the music of artists like Dead
Prez and Mos Def continues to convey political messages, they largely
remain out of the media mainstream. Instead, rap music is now used in
commercials to sell everything from potato chips to air fresheners.
Regardless of its particular political ideology, a latent ideology of
Western news programming is always profit. For instance, in the fall of
2005, New York state district attorney Jeanine F. Pirro announced her
intention to run as the Republican candidate against incumbent Demo-
cratic senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Surprisingly, the New York Post,
a conservative newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corpora-
tion, was publicly critical of Ms. Pirro, reminding its readers that Ms.
Pirro’s husband had served prison time for tax fraud and, in addition,

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