Assignment 4: Hegemony

1. Watch the assigned video. 2. Read one of the following essays. 3. Read my notes. 4. Write a paper following the directions provided on this page.

Sept. 19 (12 noon)
Assignment 4 (hegemony)

This week’s TV show

1. You can write a paper on a single episode of House of Cards.

2. You can write a paper on a single episode of Downton Abbey.

3. You can write a paper on a single episode of The Daily Show.

4. You can write a paper on the Bad Blood video by Taylor Swift.

Chose 1 of the 4 options.

Your choice of program. House of Cards is available on Netflix. Downton Abbey is available on Amazon. The Daily Show airs at 10 p.m. (central time) on Comedy Central channel. Here is a link to Bad Blood.

ESSAYS

Wikipedia

Antonio Gramsci
By Barry Burke

Gramsci’s Theory of Hegemony
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hfox/gramsci.html

MY NOTES

Hegemony

Hegemony is the process of cultural change through cultural debate. The dominant ideology presents the preferred values, the preferred ways of defining the binary oppositions, and tells us who are heroes. In modern American society, most of the cultural debates occur in the mass media.

The audience reacts to the media messages and makes choices. Television shows fail in the Nielsen ratings and are dropped by the network if people do not watch the show, perhaps because the viewers do not agree with the ideology. The advertisers and the producers of the television shows and the mass media respond to the desires of the audience.

This is still a dominant ideology because a handful of corporations own most of the media outlets in the U.S. They select the programs we have the option of watching. The audience decides which programs are ultimately successful.

good	evil
young	old
attractive	unattractive
justice	injustice
smart	dumb
rich	poor
thin	fat
athletic	couch potato
white	black
men	women
sexy	unsexy
masculine	feminine

This process of cultural change–hegemony–is a complex social interaction. People and our society are reluctant to make changes in our core values. We will accept gradual changes.

Examples

Homosexuality

Generalizing a bit here. Before 1970, the media ignored homosexuality. Homosexuality was not an accepted option within the dominant ideology.

About 1970, a few gay males began appearing in the media. The movie Dirty Harry (1971) had a gay male hanging out in a San Francisco park. The gay man pulled a knife on Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry), who quickly disarmed him. The gay man cried and ran off. Homosexuality entered the mainstream as a totally repugnant idea.

The AIDS epidemic redefined gay males as having the same degree of humanity as anyone else. Philadelphia (1993) featured Tom Hanks, a popular actor. This movie created a hegemonic place within the culture for gay males. Two values accepted within the dominant ideology could be reconciled. Homosexual behavior was still rejected, but more people in the culture accepted the humanity of gay males because they were dying horrible deaths.

The hegemony debate continues over homosexuality. Many gay activists demand full equality and acceptance within the mainstream culture. Some conservatives believe that homosexuality is destroying the moral fabric of the society. The media plays a part in this debate by presenting homosexuality as a binary opposition. Usually, some punishments are still assigned to homosexual behavior. However, rewards have been assigned to some homosexual people.

Role of women

Again generalizing. Women on television in the 1950s had only a few major roles and they played the mother and/or wife.

By the 1990s, we had women as heroes. However, these women heroes still had to fit within the dominant ideology. I will use Laura Croft again. Croft is played by Angelina Jolie, a woman who was then a sex symbol in American culture. Early in the movie, the audience watches her walk nude out of the shower and into her bedroom while the butler watches. In one scene in the movie, the audience sees her alone in bed, tears forming in her eyes because she is alone; she is without a man. As I remember the movie, the scene is interrupted when armed men invade her home and she has to fight them off. She is more “masculine” than the invaders because she defeats them. However, the bad guys are not nude, they do not cry, and they are not lonely.

The movie plays out our culture’s uncertainty about the proper role of women in society. Women can have power, good paying jobs, be intelligent, and assume the symbols of masculinity. Women wear business outfits modeled after male clothing. Men never have to wear a dress to work. Women speak as men speak; men never sound feminine.

When women come home, they are expected to return to traditional female roles. They need to care for the children, be domestic around the house, and be sexually alluring to the man in her life.

Since American society cannot agree on the proper role of women, this hegemonic debate is often presented in the media with different solutions, rewards/punishments being offered.

These 4 shows

All four of these programs present hegmonic conflict to the dominant ideology of the show. The proper role of women is frequently presented on House of Cards and Downton Abbey. Race and class also are common hegemonic debates. The Daily Show usually presents a counter argument to conservatism and/or President Trump. Bad Blood presents Taylor Swift (5-10, 130 lbs) as a superhero.

Questions

What was the hegemonic argument in the episode you watch?

How were the binary oppositions presented?

How were rewards and punishments handed out?

Paper 4:
Applying hegemony to these shows

Section 1: Summarize the episodein one paragraph, i.e., no more than half of a page. 10 points

Section 2: Explain the theory. Tell me which parts of hegemony (from the reading and my notes) you are going to use and how you are going to apply hegemony to this show. 10 points

Section 3: Critique the episode from the perspective of hegemony. Focus on how rewards and punishments are assigned. 20 points

Section 4: Your conclusion should be a logical result of what you have said in the first three sections of the paper. Specifically, what conclusions can you draw from your analysis. Pull your logic together and tell me why the creators presented the hegemonic argument and/or why these shows are popular with their target audiences.

Your conclusion should not be a personal opinion, but a logically developed conclusion based on hegemony theory.

Type: Individual Project

Unit: Designing Interventions

Due Date: Tue, 9/19/17

Grading Type: Numeric

Points Possible: 100

Points Earned: 0

Deliverable Length: 4-5 Body Pages

View objectives for this assignment

Assignment Description

Your employer has been going through many challenges this past eighteen months due to the recent financial crises. There has been major challenges throughout the company including, high turnover, software applications being used are outdated, stress is increasing for those employees who have been staying around, and morale is at the lowest point ever for the company . The remaining executives are planning to do a re-organization of the jobs and responsibilities throughout the company. However, each time the executives want to implement the change; another batch of employees resigns. You have been asked by your supervisor to prepare an analysis of what the executive leaders must do. Present your findings as a 4-5 page report in a Word document formatted in APA style. At a minimum, your paper must:

• Apply the best organizational development process skills the executives should use
• Apply the change strategies within the short-term and long-term
• Evaluate and present the impacts of the resources

Present your findings as a 4-5 page Word document formatted in APA style.

Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:

• Title page: Remember the running head and title in all capital letters.
• Abstract: This is a summary of your paper, not an introduction. Begin writing in third-person voice.
• Body: The body of your paper begins on the page following the title page and abstract page, and it must be double-spaced between paragraphs. The typeface should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics except as required for APA level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 3–4 pages. In-text academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.
• Reference page: References that align with your in-text academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hang indention, italics, and upper- and lower-case usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the reference page is not a bibliography, but it is a further listing of the abbreviated in-text citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-text citation.

Individual Project Rubric

Grading Criteria	Percentage
Deliverable requirements addressed; understanding of material and writer’s message and intent are clear.	40%
Calculation methods, where required, are contextually appropriate, fully explained, and presented in a manner that is easy to understand.	10%
External research incorporated in the paper, if any, supports the writer’s position properly acknowledged and cited; direct quotations may not exceed 10% of the word count of the body of the assignment deliverable (excluded title page, abstract or table of contents if used, tables, exhibits, appendices, and reference page(s).) Inclusion of plagiarized content will not be tolerated and may result in adverse academic consequences.	5%
Critical thinking: Position is well-justified; logical flow; examples provided where appropriate.	20%
Structure: Includes introduction and conclusion; proper paragraph format; reads as a polished academic paper or professional presentation, as appropriate for the required assignment deliverable.	10%
Mechanical: No spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors.	10%
APA: Deliverable is cited properly according to the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.).	5%

Assignment Objectives

Assess organization development process skills, such as providing support, relaying feedback and observations, and reflecting feelings

Construct change strategies for collaborative group relations

Critically discuss the impact of technology on business

The following is Information that our professor posted:

Corporate Change……
As you probably know, Organizational development is about planned change in the organization. To remain competitive and adapt to the changing market demands, organizations are finding themselves having to change the way they do business. We will look at these issues of change by focusing on reinventing the corporation, the challenges of change, and the impact of change on corporate culture. Change Management… Traditionally, change management has focused on identifying sources of resistance to change and offering ways to overcome them. More recent contributions have challenged the focus on resistance and have been aimed at creating visions and desired futures, gaining political support for them, and managing the transition of the organization toward them. One activity involves motivating change and includes creating a readiness for change among organization members and helping them address resistance to change. As you folks probably know, leadership must create an environment in which people accept the need for change and commit physical and psychological energy to it. Motivation is a critical issue in starting change because ample evidence indicates that people and organizations seek to preserve the status quo and are willing to change only when there are compelling reasons to do so. Change-different viewpoints Folks, when we look at the different viewpoints of change we should consider that people and organizations need to experience deep levels of hurt before they will seriously undertake meaningful change. One method that can help generate sufficient dissatisfaction to produce change is sensitize organizations to pressures for change. Innumerable pressures for change operate both externally and internally to organizations. Modern organizations face unprecedented environmental pressures to change themselves, including heavy foreign competition, rapidly changing technology, and the draw of global markets. Sometimes, internal pressures to change include new leadership, poor product quality, high production costs, and excessive employee absenteeism and turnover. Before these pressures can serve as triggers for change, however, organizations must be sensitive to them. The pressures must pass beyond an organization’s threshold of awareness if managers are to respond to them. Organizations can make themselves more sensitive to pressures for change by encouraging leaders to surround themselves with devil’s advocates by cultivating external networks that comprise people or organizations with different perspectives and views. An Agent of Change….. When we look at change agents this “change” issue maybe a little harder to understand then we think……… * One who creates dialogue on the most difficult subjects, because they need to be learned, even though the audience may not initially see the benefits. * One who uses creativity and innovation in trying out new ways, even though the product may not be popular at the start. * One who looks for challenges and opportunities, and translates them into action, even though time does not permit the effort. * One who seeks advice and counsel from the very top, and often gives it, even though the risk may be high. * One who continually searches for personal growth and development, even though the struggle sometimes doesn’t seem worth it. * One who finds satisfaction and fun in human development, and who permeates others with a positive attitude, even in the presence of adversity. Corporate leaders are looking for ways to take advantage of an organization’s capabilities, grow business and stay ahead of the competition. They are looking for more than veiled improvements, quick fixes, and fad programs. In order to succeed in this effort, organizations are reinventing themselves. This means that companies are making long range, strategic plans and core changes to the way they do business which requires a systematic approach to organizational development. Organizational development is a long-range effort to improve an organization’s problem-solving and renewal processes. Through instituting changes, companies take on new characteristics in vision, mission and process. As you probably can guess this does not, however, always happen seamlessly.

Select one of the companies below and conduct some basic research.

• British Petroleum (BP)
• Facebook
• Hyundai
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Netflix

1. State what you believe is the distinctive competence and core competence of your selected company.
2. Give an example of how the values and mission statement help to shape planning. Also give some internal and external factors that may influence the business in the future and explain how they will influence the business. Respond substantively to two other learners
3. Complete a SWOT Analysis for your selected organization; applying each of the categories in evaluating the company.
   

Guided Response:
Your initial post should be at least 200 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Respond substantively to at least two of your classmates’ posts.

1. Why is income in the equity portion of the balance sheet called “dirty-surplus” income?
2. Why can “value be lost” if an analyst works with reported net income rather than comprehensive income?
3. Before it found the practice to be too expensive, Microsoft (and a number of other firms) was in the habit of repurchasing some of the shares that it issued each year as employees exercised stock options. The rationale, according to commentators, was to avoid the dilution from shares issued to employees.

• Do share issues from the exercise of employee stock options cause dilution?
• Do share repurchases reverse dilution?
• Why would Microsoft feel that repurchasing shares is “too expensive”?

BOOK: Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

Discussion on Carr’s Prologue, Chapter 2 and chapter 3. Answer the questions below…

1) What does “the medium is the message” mean? Try to get at this in your own words.

4) What does it mean when Carr says that maps “’advance the evolution of abstract thinking’ throughout society” (41)?

5) How does the invention of the clock change how the mind works? What kinds of changes does he mean exactly? What kinds of changes beyond what even Carr tells us?

6) In talking about intellectual technologies (44) we have to ask: what would it matter if the determinists were right? How would it make us understand (differently than we now do) our smart phones, tablets, laptops and more?