Content Analysis On The Ideology Of Hollywood Science Fiction

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Date
2000-03
Authors
Monica King Hung, Lau
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Abstract
Science fiction film is a popular genre with wide audiences as proven by box office collection. Science fiction films are not just entertainment person. In other words, films are cultural commodities with commercially vested interest (since they are a material product of a capitalist economic system). Therefore, it is only legitimate that films are embedded with ideology which helps to sustain the hegemony or to perpetuate the going order in the capitalist environment. Hegemony strives for consensus and the way to achieve consensus is through proliferation of filmic images. The images are reinforced through leitmotifs, sequels and remakes. Since the giant corporation are representatives of the economic power, there seems to be an inevitable synergy between the dominant elite and Hollywood film makers, to make film both an ideological and a material product of the dominant system. The questions of what and how ideologies are embedded in films are central in this study. Film has both manifest and latent meaning. The manifest meaning is the direct meaning that is obvious when we watch a film. On the contrary, the latent meaning is hidden within the film story. characters, settings and dialogue. To articulate the latent meaning in a film, semiology will be used as a methodology to identify the ideologies present. Semiology is a science that -studies the life of signs within a society. Film semiotics proposes to construct a comprehensive model capable of explaining how films construct meaning and signify to audience. In this research, ideologies of capitalism, sexism and American Culture -optimism are found embedded within films. This is done to perpetuate the interests of the ruling class.
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