In this "Critical Theory" people are regarded as mindless and easily persuaded into adopting sets of capitalistic ideologies. While Antonio Gramsci, another 20th Century intellectual shared several ideas with the Frankfurt School's "Critical Theory" he disagreed that people were mindless and easily manipulated by indoctrination. He instead proposed that audiences acted as discriminating consumers under what he called "Hegemonic ideology". This Hegemonic ideology promoted an idea that the media does not purely suppress dissent and demand obedience to any specific ideology but rather operated to obtain the consent of the majority. His theory leaves room for people's dissent and claims that the relationship between media and popular culture is one of negotiation achieved through audience interpretation.
I agree with Gramsci that the media does not purely suppress dissent and demand obedience to any specific ideology in a democracy. However, because of the structure of the Canadian media, ideas and information can nevertheless be subverted by powerful interests. There are several institutional and cultural mechanisms that the powerful elite can use to promote causes that further their interests while also suppressing dissent of the majority. Arguably, the most efficient of these mechanisms is the media itself.
The media has the ability to alter opinions and perceptions of the general populace and in our democratic society it routinely does. Suppression of, or distortion of information is possible because the media in Canada is centralized, relies upon government owned wire services, is dependent on advertising revenue, and can be manipulated by special interest groups. These dependencies contribute to distortion of the news and affect the public's opinion. The main factors leading to this lack of balanced information in our media are as follows: The reliance of media on corporate and government owned wire services, the reliance of the media on advertising, interference by special interest groups, and the centralization of media ownership.
