humanistic approaches final

culturalist perspective

- "relative autonomy" of base and "superstructure" - changes in ideologies CAN lead to changes in economic realities

3 types of discourse analysis

- Foucauldian discursive analysis - critical discourse analysis (CDA) - conversation analysis

critical approach to research

- contests power relations - aim toward a egalitarian society

skeptical ideological analysis

- goal is to map the terrain of ideological struggle, including silences - ideology as inescapable, dominant, and subordinate - ideologies emanate from social institutions, and are inconsistent - what ideologies are present/absent in media, how are they treated?

confident ideological analysis

- goal is to uncover the reality of ideological manipulation - "false consciousness" - ideologies emanate from social interactions and happen subconsciously - how do media ideologies interpellate us as a subject in ideology?

historical-materialist perspective

- ideologies reflect the economic base of society - when the base changes, ideologies change - ideology as false consciousness

interpretive approach to research

- personal/ idiosyncratic - systematic, but not fixed

approaches to research (3)

- qualitative - interpretive - critical

qualitative approach to research

- textual criticism - interviews - observations

what are the humanities?

- the arts (performance studies) - cultural studies (history, communication, etc.) - speculative theory (philosophy, law)

2 main approaches to ideology

1. historical- materialist perspective 2. culturalist perspective

steps for conducting ideological analysis

1. identify media text or set of texts 2. identify the ideologies present in text(s) 3. identify how different ideologies are "structured in dominance"

discourse

all forms of talk and text

discourse analysis

name given to a variety of approaches that take language and social constructions as their object of study

what is the difference between humanities and social sciences?

social sciences - uses scientific methods to answer questions - the truth IS possible - mostly quantitative - a cooperative view of society

ideology

the intersection between ideas and social power- a set of related ideas about society

social constructionist theory

theory that people develop knowledge of the world in a social context, and much of what we perceive as reality depends on shared assumptions

what is the main question of the humanities?

what does it mean to be human?