Political Economy of News
Dr. Moses Shumow
mshumow@fiu.edu
Key questions
• What do we mean by the “political economy”
of news production?
• Why is this approach important when we
think about different approaches to media
literacy?
• Within the context of MDLAB, how can we
update older models—developed before the
Internet—for the digital age?
5 A’s of Media Literacy
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Access
Awareness
Assessment
Appreciation
Action
Democratic theories of the press
John Dewey
Democratic theories of the press
“Only in the light of the public sphere did
that which existed become revealed, did
everything become visible to all. In the
discussion among citizens issues were
made topical and took on shape.”
Jürgen Habermas,
The Structural Transformation
of the Public Sphere
Democratic theories of the press
“The existence of some kind of degree of public
interest in the operation of the mass media has
clearly been widely accepted, and it has much to
do with the rise of democracy and of a ‘public
sphere,’ in which opinions are formed and
expressed by citizens on the basis of common
knowledge and of widely held values.”
– Dennis Mcquail, Media Performance
Political Economy
…original term used for studying production and
trade, and their relations with law, custom, and
government, as well as with the distribution of
income and wealth.
Media Ownership
Concentration of ownership
–
Fewer corporations own the media
Conglomeration
–
Media as part of larger business corporations.
Integration
–
Horizontal integration: buying out other companies
•
–
Cross-promotion, synergy, efficiency…
Vertical integration: controlling raw materials
•
Monopoly, autonomy, safety net…
Consequences of Concentration
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•
•
•
•
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Homogenization of Media Products
Concentration of power
Limited media access
Blurring line between news/business
Increased bottom-line pressure
Business-conscious media personnel
Business interests vs. public interests
Flooding in Minot, North Dakota, USA
& Clear Channel Radio
The Media Monopoly
“Five global-dimension firms, operating with
many of the characteristics of a cartel, own most
of the newspapers, magazines, book publishers,
motion picture studios, and radio and television
stations in the United States. Each medium
they…covers the entire country…[T]he programs
broadcast in the six empty stations in Minot, ND,
were simultaneously being broadcast in New
York City” (Bagdikian, 2003, p. 3).
Propaganda Model of the media
• Explain performance of US media in terms of
basic institutional structures and relationship
• Among other function, the media serve, and
propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal
interests that control and finance them
• Structural factors:
– Ownership & control
– Dependence on funding sources (advertising)
– Relationship between media and those who make the
news
• Model describes forces that shape what the
media do; does not imply that propaganda is
always effective
Examples of the Propaganda Model
• Syria conflict and “experts” brought on to talk
about attack
– 89 experts on Sunday program, only 1 anti-war
voice
– Many experts sit on the boards of weapons
manufacturers
• Iraq War: CNN and the Generals
General Jack Keane (Ret.)
• Nine appearances on FOX, late summer 2014
• Special adviser to Academi, the contractor
formerly known as Blackwater; board member
to tank and aircraft manufacturer General
Dynamics; a “venture partner” to SCP
Partners, an investment firm that partners
with defense contractors.
• In 2013, General Dynamics paid him
$258,006.
“…the media have become a significant
antidemocratic force in the United States and, to
varying degrees, worldwide. The wealthier and
more powerful media giants have become, the
poorer the prospects for participatory
democracy…[T]his concentration accentuates
the core tendencies of a profit-driven,
advertising supported media system:
hypercommercialism and denigration of
journalism and public service. It is a poison pill
for democracy.”
- Robert McChesney, 2000, p. 3
“(In 1968) Roger Ailes boasted to a reporter that
television would one day replace the political
party as the most powerful force in American
politics.”
“On the one hand, Ailes is certainly hoping to
produce the best television, which would give the
unpredictable Perry the advantage. ‘People will
want Perry in just because of the ‘oops’ factor,’
one GOP media adviser said, referring to Perry’s
infamous brain freeze from 2012. Others stressed
Kasich’s close relationship with Ailes, an Ohio
native. Before getting back into politics, Kasich
hosted a weekly Fox show. ‘Roger likes Kasich,’ a
Fox insider told me. ‘Plus Roger knows it'll look
awful if the sitting governor isn't on that stage.’”
Arab Media and the Arab Spring
Arab Media and the Arab Spring
“Today, Arab media is divided. Media outlets have
become like parties; politics dominates the business
and on both sides of the landscape and people can't
really depend on one channel to get their full news
digest…The problem isn't who is telling lies and who
is accurate. Media organisations are giving the part
of the story that serves the agenda of their financier,
so it's clear that only part of the truth is exposed
while the other part is buried…The elite are once
again dealing with Arab news channels the way they
used to do with Arab state media.”
- Ali Hashem, The Guardian, April 3, 2012
Al-Jazeera and Bahrain uprising
“Over the past three months the [Bahraini]
authorities have embarked upon a
devastating campaign of repression,
intimidation and torture that…Yet the
coverage on Al Jazeera has been largely
limited to brief mentions and a backstage
examination of why the world’s media has
been so slow to cover the events there.”
- Aryn Baker, Time, May 24, 2011
• Rotana Records (Largest Arab record label, 100+
artists)
• Rotana TV (12 channels)
• Rotana Radio (9 stations, plays mostly music from
Rotana artists)
• Advertising agencies
• Movie productions (40% of local market)
• Arab Ventures (LBC Sat)
• International ventures: Fox
Who owns Rotana?
News Corp (Fox) owns 18.97% of Rotana…
Kingdom Holdings (Walid Bin Talal) owns 7% of News Corp
Middle East Broadcasting Center
Owner: Sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim (Saudi royal family)
13+ TV channels: MBC1, 2, 3, 4, max, action, persia, wanasah, drama,
masr, masr+2, Bollywood, al-Arabiya,
2 Radio stations: MBC FM, Panorama
Other: + Production companies, video on demand, MBC.net…
MBC was started with direct investments from King Fahd
Orbit Showtime Network (prior: Orbit + Showtime)
Owner: Mawarid Holding (Khalid bin Abdullah + Fahd bin Abdullah both Saudi royals)
- 154 television channels with movies, series, sports, documentaries,
news, children's entertainment, and talk shows
- OSN controls access to numerous Arab and Western media via Sat.
- Mawarid Holding: banking, perfumes, cosmetics,
telecommunications, satellite television, restaurants, and radio
network sector.
Arab Radio and Television entertainment network
Owner: Waleed bin Talal + business partner Saleh Kamel (Saudi)
Numerous stations, Sat services, programs, studios, etc.
OSN and ART have several joint ventures
Mobile and ISPs
Emerging oligopolies of Arab Internet media.
Saudi (Saudi Oger, Saudi Telecom) and U.A.E. companies (+
owners from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan) dominate Arab mobile
phones and ISPs.
Kuwait, Bahrain, and France (Orange Telecom/France Telecom)
also have a significant stake.
“Political economy should be the organizing
principle for analyzing the digital
revolution…The profit motive,
commercialism, public relations, marketing,
advertising—all defining features of
contemporary corporate capitalism—are
foundational to any assessment of how the
Internet has developed and is likely to
develop. Any attempt to make sense of
democracy divorced from capitalism is
dubious.”
End of Net Neutrality?
That’s traffic. But what about content?
What do we really read on Facebook?*
*And why?
"If in five years I’m just watching NFL-endorsed
ESPN clips through a syndication deal with a
messaging app, and Vice is just an age-skewed
Viacom with better audience data, and I’m
looking up the same trivia on Genius instead of
Wikipedia, and ‘publications’ are just content
agencies that solve temporary optimization
issues for much larger platforms, what will have
been point of the last 20 years of creating things
for the web?"
“As more content is published directly onto
Facebook, users will gradually lose a sense of who’s
producing what. The most consequential journalism
becomes just another unit of content in a single
stream of music videos, movie trailers, updates
from friends and relatives, advertisements, and viral
tidbits from sites adept at gaming fast-changing
algorithms and behaviors. Readerships that seem
large now will turn out to be as ephemeral as
Snapchats.”
- Josh Dzieza, The Verge
What do we really read on Facebook?
1. Quiz
2. Thing that is basically false, by a site owned by IBT Media that hosts stories
with headlines like “10 Latinas Who’ve Definitely Had Plastic Surgery,” which,
unlike most stories on the site, does not carry a byline
3. Quiz
4. Quiz
5. Quiz
6. Quiz
7. A death hoax from a site that is comprised ENTIRELY of fake stories and
“satire” intended to be shared by people who don’t realize that it’s satire.
8. Quiz
9. EliteDaily :(
10. Quiz
Facebook as the new gatekeeper
MIT Technology Review, July 9, 2015
Facebook as the new gatekeeper
• In the 2nd Quarter of 2014, Facebook drove 20%
of traffic to new sites (How? No one, and they
aren’t telling).
• Google and Facebook together take 52 percent of
all digital advertising.
• In the first quarter of 2015, NYT earned $14
million a month in ad revenue—15 years ago, the
Times was averaging more than $100 million a
month in ad revenue.
• Publishers are giving up their own channels to
become suppliers of content—there is no New
York Times, there are just New York Times articles
Putting it all in context
• The political economy approach to news
production is not an attempt to uncover a
conspiracy—these are the outcomes of a
particular model of news production
• Understanding the forces shaping news
production are key to the AWARENESS &
ASSESSMENT skills that are a core function of
media literacy education
• Healthy skepticism is a more powerful tool
than detached cynicism
Selected Bibliography
Jürgen Habermas, The Structure Transformation of the public sphere.
https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=e799caakIWoC
John Dewey, Education & Democracy. https://books.google.com.lb/books?isbn=0486433994
Denis Mcquail, Mass Communication and the Public Interest.
https://books.google.com.lb/books?isbn=1446232689
David Capuroso & David Levine, Theories of Political Economy.
https://books.google.com.lb/books?isbn=0521425786
Ben H. Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly. https://books.google.com.lb/books?isbn=0807061794
Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass
Media. https://books.google.com.lb/books?isbn=0307801624
Michael Calderone, “TV News Shows Largely Ignored Anti-War Voices In Run-Up To Syria Strikes:
Study.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/14/media-syria-anti-war_n_6160026.html
David Barstow, “Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html?pagewanted=all
Robert McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times.
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1620970708
Gabriel Sherman, “The Fox News GOP Debate Could Draw the Biggest Audience in Cable News
History — and Roger Ailes Is Making All the Rules.”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/07/roger-ailes-primary.html
Ali Hashem, “The Arab spring has shaken Arab TV's credibility.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/03/arab-spring-arab-tv-credibility
Selected Bibliography (cont.)
Aryn Baker, Bahrain’s Voiceless: How al-Jazeera’s Coverage of the Arab Spring Is Uneven.
http://world.time.com/2011/05/24/bahrains-voiceless-how-al-jazeeras-coverage-of-the-arab-spring-isuneven/
Robert McChesney, Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is turning the Internet Against Democracy.
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1595588914
Carolyn Moss, “John Oliver Hilariously Explains The Dire Importance Of Net Neutrality In A Way That
Makes Sense”http://www.businessinsider.com/john-oliver-explains-net-neutrality-20146#ixzz3iWntYtD1
Hank Green, “Theft, Lies, and Facebook Video: Facebook says it’s now streaming more video than
YouTube. To be able to make that claim, all they had to do was cheat, lie, and steal.”
https://medium.com/@hankgreen/theft-lies-and-facebook-video-656b0ffed369
John Herrman, “The Next Internet is TV.” http://www.theawl.com/2015/02/the-next-internet-is-tv
Josh, Dzieza, “Website, Profiled: Why are the most important people in media reading The Awl?”
http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/9/8908279/the-awl-profile-choire-sicha-john-herrman-mattbuchanan
John Herrman, “Cash and Anxiety on the Weird New Internet.”
http://www.theawl.com/2014/10/cash-and-anxiety-on-the-weird-new-internet
Michael Wolf, “Facebook Instant Articles Just Don’t Add Up for Publishers.”
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539066/facebook-instant-articles-just-dont-add-up-forpublishers/
Global Research, The Saudi Cables: Buying Silence. How the Saudi Foreign Ministry controls Arab Media.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-saudi-cables-buying-silence-how-the-saudi-foreign-ministrycontrols-arab-media/5457581