Critical studies: From the theory of ideology to power/knowledge

Abstract

This essay examines the diffuse and varied theories of ideology as presented in Marxist‐based critical studies and focuses on how these theories take up a strategic function within the general project of Marxist theory. The inadequacies of this discourse of “ideological” analysis are examined by way of the work of Michel Foucault. On the basis of this analysis, a new direction for critical studies of the media is proposed, a move away from the uses of the theory of ideology toward the concept of power/knowledge.