Values and Ideology lesson review

Hello Everyone,

First of all, well done for the attitude and approach you all took in Friday's lesson on Values and Ideology- you were generally very focused and there was much intelligent discussion of the important and interesting concepts of values and ideology. Some of the things we should have learnt were:

• The definitions of values and ideology, and the differences between them


• We explored and defined our personal values


• We explored and defined the values expressed by various media texts (the Coke and Innocent Smoothie websites, the J17 front cover


• We discussed the idea of texts and institutions expressing 'surface' values, and the way that other, usually less positive values could be uncovered also in most texts


• We considered the definition of Ideology, and brought up the idea of Gramsci's theory of hegemony (more on this available online for extended reading)


• We applied these ideas to the BNP website, and then to the BBC's handling of Values and Ideology in their mission statement, and also the key episode of Spooks

Phew! We covered a lot of stuff here, and it's certainly worth your while reflecting on these ideas this week and in your SIS session on Weds.

Homework (and I'm sorry that I'm posting this on Sunday night and not earlier!), is to choose a media text (can be anything, eg a PS2 game, a music video, newspaper article etc), and to try to identify a clear set of values which the text displays. Be ready to present your findings to the class on Friday.

Well done again on a very promising lesson's work. Have a good week,

Mr Boulter