Sunday, February 14, 2016

Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus by Louis Althusser, 1970

Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus by 

Louis Althusser, 1970

By: HAYLEY BUTLER


What is RSA?

According to Louis Althusser, a French Marxism philosopher, RSA stands for “Repressive

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State Apparatus.” Repressive State Apparatus operates by the means of “hard power” or “by violence.” According to Althusser, Repressive State Apparatus is controlled by the ruling class since the ruling class has state power. RSA, according to Althusser, belongs to public domain. Since there is no such thing as a fully repressive apparatus, RSA functions mainly on repression and secondarily on ideology.

RSA includes: Police, military, government

Ideology, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “the set of ideas and beliefs of a group or political party.”

What is ISA?

According to Althusser, ISA stands for “Ideological State Apparatus.” ISA represents churches, schools, families, and all other private domains. Ideological State Apparatus operates by the means of “soft power.”

ISA includes: Churches, media,  family, and law

Which one of these (RSA or ISA) relates to media and 

media studies?

Ideological State Apparatus, or ISA, relates to media and media studies by being the
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dominant position in social formations, according to Althusser’s work. Initially, the church, which is ISA, began publishing and communications and then they started to become independent from the church, according to Althusser. According to his work, “all ISAs contribute to the reproduction of the relations of production.”

Althusser said, “Communications apparatus contributes toward [the reproduction of the relations of production] by cramming every ‘citizen’ with daily doses of nationalism, chauvinism, liberalism, normalism, etc., by the means of the press, the radio and television.”

According to Althusser, ISA uses media to express the ideals of society.

Example of ISA in media and media relations:


My interpretation of ISA in the media and media relations would be the

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representation of family in the media. In the media we often see families with a mother, a father, and a kid or two. Skimming through the channels on you television you can see that in most cases, not all, that the parents are raising their kids as a unit. This is because when we think of “family” the image that comes to mind is a mother and a father with their kids. In the media people often want to be able to relate to the show they’re watching. They’re more interested in something if it “relates” to them in some way. By making the characters in a show traditional, it can reach a bigger audience.