Tim O'sullivan et al (1998) - Ideology continued

Ideology helps us to make judgments about the world and the different views people have within it.

It can be argued that ideology is one mechanism by which a ruling group tries to deceive and control the ruled - J.B Thompson (1984)
Ideology implies that a powerful group can choose what messages are in the media and how society view these people in certain ways because of expectations.
As in examples that we looked at when looking at stereotypes, the powerful want 'black' people to be represented as gang members which have negative connotations. This is because 'they have the power to feed this ideology to society and for society to believe it to be true as it is what we are told by powerful groups who control the media.
Ideology is controlled and we consume their opinions as the right ones.
"Nobody has yet come up with a single adequate definition of ideology" - Eagleton (1991)
Eagleton may be right as far as the wording of the concept of ideology is concerned. However, scholars generally agree on the social nature of ideology: It is about social relations, consciousness and power struggle which play important parts in carrying out ideological objectives. Ideology therefore is also about the consciousness of those relations - Kelle and Kovalson (1973); Gouldner (1976); Thompson (1984) and Fairclough (1989)

Ideology and society
Ideology gives us ideas about the world that we live in. Because the media is powerful it can control what and how ideas are portrayed to an audience/consumer. The more powerful you are in society the more control you have over how messages are given to an audience.