Hegemony in America

Hegemony is a term that gets tossed around a lot in our society today, but it is crucial to understand its meaning in relation to the mass media we come across in our everyday lives and how 'knowing' can help us better develop our own opinion and judgement on what is broadcasted to us. 

BUT, in order to be more educated about hegemony, we need to first understand what it means...

In general, hegemony is what allows the powerful ruling group in a society keep their power; they decide what is acceptable information for the public. By repeatedly giving a certain general message to public, whether it is right or wrong, the message will soon be accepted by the public and seen as common sense. Since the most powerful members in a society are almost always the richest members as well, they have the ability to "fund" the many mediums of mass media the public will see and hear. They are the gate keepers of information: they decide what information is shown, who will see this information (the target market), and usually, how the public will see the information - negatively or positively. 

Hegemony has a strong presence on local, national, but especially international news that is broadcast on television. I believe that there is a general negative portrayal of other countries in American news and this is a prime example of hegemony used to keep our nation's political power under control. The negative portrayals of other countries help the government develop the idea of how great the United States is compared to others, it gives the public a sense of reassurance for being American. Ideas of traveling to Mexico and Columbia are immediately questioned because all we know about these places are related to drug wars, violence, drugs, gangs, and more drugs - how often do we come across some positive news? By telling the same story over and over - drugs, war, and violence - it gets drilled into the mind and becomes common knowledge.