When consensus frays, media become the terrain of ideological class conflict

Evidence

At the same time, as the rift in the moral-political consensus in the society widens, the consensus ceases to provide the broadcaster with a built-in ideological compass, an alternative source of legitimation. The ruling elites thus have a direct interest in monopolizing the channels for consensus-formation for their preferred accounts and interpretations, thereby extending their hegemony: they also have a vested interest in ensuring that, when left to their own devices, the media will themselves reproduce, on their behalf, the tentative structure of agreement which favors their hegemony. In such moments, the media themselves become the site for the elaboration of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic ideologies and the terrain of societal and class conflict at the ideological level. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 875

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies how hegemony operates concretely through media monopolization of consensus-formation channels.
• XREF: connects to: Media structure enabling deliberative opinion is a constitutional imperative. — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 49; Rival broadcast titans came from different class trajectories within one immigrant community — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 347