Are media free of ideology? Cover Image

Czy media są wolne "od ideologii"?
Are media free of ideology?

Author(s): Michał Drożdż
Subject(s): Media studies
Published by: Norbertinum
Keywords: freedom of media; ideology; ateism; postmodernism; Frankfurt School

Summary/Abstract: Media as a means of conveying definite contents have always been and still are an area of influence of various types of ideologies, political and economic doctrines, cultural currents and philosophical orientations. Contrary to the common conviction concerning freedom, independence, pluralism and tolerance of media and Western culture, they can be perceived as having a lot of ideological burden and influence of a mentality that is both post-Marxist and postmodernist, grounded in a widely understood cultural liberalism and practical consumerist materialism. The present study endeavours to find an answer to whether media are free of ideology. An attempt is made to demonstrate – by looking into the first years after the breakthrough of 1989 in Poland – that media not only reflect negative social processes having all the hallmarks of ideological influence but, unfortunately, they also participate in the creation and spreading thereof. It is in this sense that it can be asserted that on the one hand some media, or, so to speak, media messages, are not free from ideological burden. On the other hand, media are very active in reflecting alarming phenomena of the present world that in a sense have their origins in materialist ideologies, which devoid man of visions of the ultimate sense and aim.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 131-148
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish