DPHU1007 Chap.6 Social Media, Ideology and Interpellation
Social Media, Ideology and Interpellation
Week 6 asks why life on platforms feels natural. Kevin Williams' definition in the course list treats ideology as systems of thought or belief tied to social action or political practice, and adds three conditions: the ideas are shared by many people, form a coherent system and connect to the use of power.
Cultural hegemony describes how structures such as patriarchy, heteronormativity, racism and capitalism come to seem normal and natural through law, policy, discourse and culture.
Interpellation, from Louis Althusser, explains how ideology reaches individuals: people are hailed by ideas and begin to inhabit them.
The lecture applies this to becoming a user, the moment of creating a profile, username and password that makes later profiling and targeted advertising possible.
The week's reading, Geert Lovink's essay on social media ideology, argues that platforms themselves now function as ideology.
The chapter diagnoses two common misreadings, that interpellation means persuasion and that ideology means false belief, and rebuilds a weak paragraph about morning-routine videos into a full interpellation argument.
Where this shows up in assessment. The course's thesis examples combine ideological analysis and interpellation with a named structure of power in a single sentence, which makes this week a model for the Week 8 task.
In the viva, expect to be asked how interpellation differs from persuasion, so rehearse a two-sentence answer.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Ideology: shared, coherent beliefs linked to the use of power in society.
- 02
Cultural hegemony: the process by which unequal structures come to seem normal and natural.
- 03
Interpellation: being hailed by an idea and recognising oneself in the role it offers.
- 04
Becoming a user: the profile as the first step that enables profiling and targeting.
- 05
Social media as ideology: Lovink's claim that platforms shape how we see the world.
- 06
Refusing the hail: oppositional readers show that interpellation can fail.
- 07
Williams' test: shared by many, coherent as a system and connected to the use of power.
Worked example · free
Interpellation in a banking app
- +1Hail: the greeting addresses users as investors, inviting them to recognise themselves as people who should trade and grow money.
- +1Shared: the belief that everyone should invest is widely circulated in finance media.
- +1Coherent and linked to power: it forms a system that treats financial security as individual responsibility.
- +1Structure: capitalism, because users who accept the identity generate trading fees while risk shifts onto individuals.
Key terms
- Ideology
- A shared and coherent system of beliefs connected to the use of power in society.
- Cultural hegemony
- The normalisation of unequal structures of power so that they appear natural.
- Interpellation
- The process by which ideology hails individuals into an identity they accept as their own.
- Becoming-user
- The process of joining a platform by creating the profile that later profiling depends on.
- Social media ideology
- Lovink's term for platforms functioning as a hegemonic way of seeing the world.
- Hailing
- Addressing someone so that they recognise themselves in the role being offered.
Social Media, Ideology and Interpellation FAQ
What is interpellation in simple terms?
It is the process by which ideology calls out to people and they answer by recognising themselves in the offered identity. Creating a profile on a platform is the course's example: the user takes up a role before thinking about it.
Does ideology mean a lie?
Not in the course definition. Williams requires ideas to be shared, coherent and connected to power. True statements can still work ideologically when they make one arrangement of power seem inevitable or beyond question.
How do hegemony and ideology fit together?
Ideology is the content of shared beliefs. Hegemony describes the outcome when those beliefs make unequal structures seem normal, and interpellation is the everyday mechanism that recruits individuals into them.
What does Lovink mean by social media as ideology?
Lovink argues that we are entering an era in which platforms are not just tools carrying ideas but a hegemonic way of organising social life, so their logic of sharing, profiling and targeting feels like the natural order.
How do I show interpellation in a short paragraph?
Quote the wording that addresses the viewer, describe the identity it offers, explain why a viewer might recognise themselves in it and finish with the structure of power that benefits when the identity is accepted.
Assessment move
For one week, write down every second-person message a platform or advertisement sends you, such as greetings, notifications and prompts. Choose the three most revealing and write an interpellation analysis of each: the hail, the identity offered, Williams' three conditions and the structure of power. Read Lovink's essay with a highlighter for claims about profiles and users.
Then practise separating the three terms aloud, since confusing ideology, hegemony and interpellation is the most common slip in this topic. Return to your Week 4 myth notes and connect at least one myth to an ideology.
