Ideology and the Image: Social Representation in the Cinema and Other Media - Softcover

Nichols, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253202566 ISBN 13: 9780253202567

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1981

Synopsis

To what degree, Nichols asks, does ideology inform images in films, advertising, and other media? Does the cinema or any other sign system liberate or manipulate us? How can we as spectators know when the media are subtly perpetuating a specific set of values? To address these issues, the author draws from a variety of approaches―Marxism, psycholanalysis, communication theory, semiotics, structuralism, the psychology of perception. Working with two interrelated theories―ideology and image-systems, and ideology and principles of textual criticism―Nichols shows how and why we make emotional investments in sign sytsems with an ideological context.

About this title

Review:

"Nichols employs current theories of narrative ... in a wide-ranging exploration of the various codes of cinematic representation... His work with the structure of documentary and ethnographic film is ... innovative." Library Journal "What makes this book so interesting is the care given to explaining theoretical principles... [Nichols's] textual analyses are useful models not only for film criticism, but for a more broadly contextual analysis of the relationship between art and ideology." Afterimage

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0253202566
• ISBN 13: 9780253202567
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356