Hegemony: Emergence And Dominance

Words: 467
Pages: 2

Raymond Williams claims, “Hegemony supposes the existence of something which is truly total, which is not merely secondary or superstructural…which saturates the society to such an extent…that it corresponds to the reality of social experience very much more clearly than any notions derived from the formula of base and superstructure” 1428. Hegemony is a theory that focuses on the sole principles of the ‘dominant’ class, their values and beliefs, and how, in turn, this superiority becomes forced upon the lower classes. It is these ‘dominant’ classes who are able to inflict their opinions and views on the inferior class, causing the lower class to adopt these dominating values as their own. Today, the well-known social media website, YouTube, is the most popular video sharing website on the internet. Williams’s theory of hegemony can be linked to the current emergence and dominance that YouTube has generated.
The American culture has shifted over from what was once a producing society to what is now a
…show more content…
On this website, one can find people singing their favorite song, re-enacting a scene from their favorite movie, or creating a parody of a television show. This celebrity culture connects to YouTube because of the inferior public who make or watch these videos are emulating these celebrities. This unconscious act is a clear indicator of the responsiveness and adoption of the ‘dominating’ values. Williams supports this connection between hegemony and YouTube by asserting, “Th[e] notion of hegemony as deeply saturating the consciousness of a society seems to be fundamental. And hegemony has the advantage over general notions of totality, that it at the same time emphasizes the facts of domination” 1428. Media, specifically television, emits specific upper class values by the means of these