Reinvigorating ideology critique: between trust and suspicion

The concept of ideology has historically been a master signifier of critique in media and communication studies. However, the concept's status has been decentred, to the extent that Downey, Titley and Toynbee recently argued - in this journal - there's no ideology critique'. I affirm their call for a reinvigoration of ideology critique in media studies, although I question the force of their claim that contemporary media researchers are indifferent to ideology. I also argue for a theoretically open-ended conception of ideology that interrogates the default hermeneutics of suspicion' of traditional ideology critique.