ABSTRACT

Television entertainment is a highly political method of social control. George Gerbner, Larry Gross, and William Melody argue in Communications Technology and Social Policy that American culture always conserves society, and that "the dominant image patterns" produced by mass communication "structure the public agenda of existence, priorities, values and relations". This chapter focuses on Gramsci's definition of hegemony and Gross and Fox's conception of television entertainment as a series of messages. Television's presentation of men and women also encourages hegemony. It is clear that the ownership pattern of the three billion dollar a year television industry reflects the ownership pattern of the American corporate economy. It is characterized by local monopolies, regional concentration, multiple ownerships, multimedia ownerships, and conglomerates. Ignoring the violence inherent in slapstick comedy, Gerbner finds that television tends to banish violence to other times and other places.