Distorted Communication III: Hegemonies

Abstract

Key to a hegemonic meaning structure is to present it as universal. Sectional interests are portrayed as being universally established. Once this is achieved hegemonic meaning structures succeed in establishing a one-dimensional frame of reference.¹⁷⁹ Hegemony explains the ability of a social actor (such as a manager) or a group of social actors (such as management) to articulate their partial or specific interest in a way so that it appears to be the interest of all groups. Since Italian theoretician Gramsci this has been widely debated:¹⁸⁰

Hegemony, for Gramsci, suggests the varied techniques by which ruling classes secure the consent of their subordinates to be ruled so that governing elites control the masses by creating, maintaining, and manipulating a mass consciousness suited to the perpetuation of the existing order.¹⁸¹

Hegemonic tools are communicative tools. Without communication no hegemonic meaning structure could exist. These structures occur via the colonisation of popular consciousness through communicative activities as alternative discourses are subverted or marginalised. They seek to delete, end or negate all other forms of arguments, discussions, dialogues, and discourses.