HEGEMONY AND THE ‘PRIMACY OF POLITICS’

Large sections of this research have placed great emphasis on media production. This has been based on the assumption that media discourse plays a centrally important role in the propagation and articulation of social identities. At the same time, however, the analyses of Chas, Vesti Segodnia, and Atmoda have revealed very close links between the realms of politics and the media. The analysis of Latvia's Russian-language press, for example, pointed to a close link between the political imperatives of the country's ‘Russian’ parties and the discourses that were published within the newspapers in question. While the mass media of communication are essential for widespread dissemination of discourses, here it is also argued that the field of politics is of paramount importance in framing and constituting these discourses in the first instance. This chapter therefore examines political discourses in order to understand their potential impact on both media messages, and individual and group identities in contemporary Latvia.

In seeking to understand why, and how, the realm of politics is so significant in determining popular, discursive production, it is worth revisiting Gramsci's work on hegemonic formations. As discussed in Chapter 3, Gramsci broadly differentiated between two forms of hegemony: political hegemony and cultural hegemony. Gramsci argued for a re-examination of the Marxist conceptions of class, arguing that classes– or groups of individuals under the banner of ‘classes’– are not entirely concrete and objective entities. Instead they come into existence not only in the political realm, but also as a result of cultural or ideological (discursive) practices. Even within the cultural realm, however, hegemonies are still formed within a political struggle. That is to say that they are formed when a group is striving to achieve hegemony through political ascendency. Gramsci's insights can be extended to the study of numerous group formations, including groups whose membership coalesces around national and ethnic identities.