2/2 Discussion Reflection

 1) I have been mulling over Hall's re-reading of Marx in "The Problem of Ideology." Specifically, I'm wondering how useful the circuit model can be for understanding other systems outside of the economic one Hall and Marx write about? I'm thinking here about the use of circuit models in media studies (especially Julie D'Acci's, for my fellow Comm-rades out there...) Hall writes that, "if, in our explanation, we privilege one moment only, and do not take account of the differentiated whole or ‘ensemble’ of which it is a part; or if we use categories of thought, appropriate to one such moment alone, to explain the whole process; then we are in danger of giving what Marx would have called (after Hegel) a ‘one-sided’ account" (36). This seems to not only displace some of the critiques Hall is writing against, but when thinking about this from a media studies perspective, helps us get away from privileging only one perspective of studying media for understanding it as a process or circuit. Especially when thinking about the text-based research that often elides scrutiny of the industrial practices that produced it or the reception practices of audiences, this seems like an extremely fruitful argument for studying media as a circuit rather than focusing on one specific dimension. 

2) From Althusser, I think I have similar concerns as Hall in terms of the ideology and the deterministic functionality of ISAs. It seems that Althusser sees us as "always-already" functioning within ideology, there is no way out: "what thus seems to take place outside ideology (to be precise, in the street), in reality takes place in ideology" (163). Is everything always taking place within ideology? If this is true, it seems that there would be no room for subversion or resisting practices which obviously take place in society, which (I think) is Hall's point about Althusser's argument being too "functionalist." However, I am also hesitant to write this off as too deterministic, because I think there is a point there: we all follow certain ideologies for the most part, but I don't see these ideologies as always disciplining how we act in society.