Page 118 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

IDEOLOGY

. RSAs are the complex of coercive or regulatory forces available to
and directly under the control of the state. They include the penal
system, the police, the army, the legislature and government
administration. These are distinguished by their legitimated
authority to command (whether we like it or not).
. ISAs, on the other hand, are various social institutions that arise
within civil society (the sphere of the private, as opposed to the
state). They too perform regulatory functions, and reproduce
ideology ‘on behalf of’ the state. They include education, the
family, religion, the legal system, the party-political system, culture
and communication. They are characterised by consent rather than
coercion and by their relative autonomy from the dominant
economic class or its representatives in the state.

The function of ISAs is to reproduce our submission to the relations of
production – to discipline us into the kind of subjectivity most
conducive to the maintenance and continuity of the existing relations
of production. They do so by representing class interests as both
natural and neutral. They translate class into other terms. For instance,
education is neutral because all are equal in front of the examination.
But only certain ideologies pass exams. The legal system is neutral
because all are equal in front of the law. But only certain acts are
criminalised, and only certain ideological subjects are convicted. The
media are neutral because their representations of the social world are
impartial. But only certain ideologies are represented as worthy of
impartial treatment; others are not. The party-political system is neutral
because within it all positions and opinions can be voiced: except for
non-party, extra-parliamentary political voices.

Further reading: Althusser (1971)

IDEOLOGY

Knowledge and ideas characteristic of or in the interests of a class. By
extension, ideology can refer to the ideas of groups other than classes –
ranging from gender (male ideology) to jobs (occupational ideology).
Ideology is seen as any knowledge that is posed as natural or generally
applicable, particularly when its social origins are suppressed, ex-
nominated (see ex-nomination) or deemed irrelevant. In cultural/
communication studies, ideology is seen as the practice of reproducing

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