political economy of mass media
cultural products
political economy school
considering issues of the nature and effects of the system of
production of media and information
the focus in US-based political economy of communication tends
to emphasize the economic side of equation with focus on
ownership, corporatization, and consumption
while in Britain there has been a spotlight of the political
dimension, with emphasis on public service broadcasting, the
importance of state supported and regulated communications,
and the politics of broadcasting
- Noam Chomsky & Edward Herman
examined the influence of market forces on media content,
developing what they term a ‘propaganda model’ of the
news that connects corporate and state power in a
regulatory nexus
exploding prevailing myths of US journalism that rest on ideas
of pluralism and free agency in a democratic society,
Herman and Chomsky demonstrate that the free-market
economics model of media leads inevitably to normative
and narrow reportorial frames
core point
media tend to marginalize dissent and allow the government
and dominant private interests to get their messages across
the public in ways that promote hegemonic constructions and
suppress oppositional voices
they remind us that in a nominal democracy with serious
inequalities of wealth and power, the media can function to
manufacture consent to policies that rarely represent the
voices or interests of the majority of citizens
- Herbert Schiller
Schiller applied critical lens to the examination of the role of
popular culture in the spread of American dominance
illuminating the links between cultural and hegemonic
processes
core point
the expansion of the capitalist market is a metamorphosis
and expansion of the system of economic domination and
consumption
arguing against the claim that global culture represents a
field of diversity, heterogeneity, and difference, Schiller
argues that US media cultural dominance continues
rapidly and that corporate transnationalism and not an
amorphous globalism is the dominant economic force of
the present moment
- Dallas Smyth
focuses on media consumption: the audience of the media in
the act of consumption constitutes, exchange value
none of the literature on economics or political economy deals
with the role of the markets for audiences, produced by the
mass media, bought and used by advertisers
core point
revisions the audience’s role in the system as unpaid work in
the service of the advertising industry
among the first to examine the connection between the
apparently non-advertising content of the media with the
paid advertisements, noting the symbiotic relationship
between these two supposedly separate functions
- Nicholas Garnham
attempted to counter charges of economic reductionism and
determinism by offering a revision of base/superstructure
model in an attempt to connect media and culture with
developments within industrial capitalism, and thus rethink
relations between economics and culture
his significant intervention is the idea that cultural artifacts are
social and materialist phenomena articulated to specific
historical moments in capitalist development and thus variable
and shifting
core point
the production and dissemination of mass culture is rooted in
the material dimension
we must distinguish between the media as processes of material
production on the one hand, and as sites of ideological
struggle on the other, and the relationship between those
two levels or instances
• cultural industries
institutions that employ the characteristic modes of
production and organization of industrial corporations to
produce and disseminate symbols in the form of cultural
goods and services as commodities
competition drives the search for profits via increased
productivity …
cultural products
… and their contradictory nature
 novelty, difference (maximize audiences)
 public goods (difficulty to establish scarcity)
economic foundation
the mass media are expensive to set up and operate; the
equipment and facilities require major investment
to meet their expenses, the mass media sell their products in
two ways
 derive income from selling a product directly to mass
audiences, as do the movies, record and book industries
 derive income from advertisers who place advertisements
for mass audiences that the media provide, as do radio and
television
advertising revenue
advertisers pay the mass media for access to potential
customers
from print media advertisers buy space, from broadcasters
they buy time
generally, the more potential customers a media company can
deliver to advertisers, the more advertisers are charged for
time or space
… trends
book publishers once relied solely on readers for revenue, but that has
changed; today book publishers charge for film rights whenever
Hollywood turns a book into movie or a television program – profit
indirectly from advertising revenue
until 1950s movies relied on box-office receipts for profits, but
moviemakers now calculate what profits they can realize from
recycling their movies through advertising-supported television and
home videos; they even pick up advertising directly by charging
commercial companies to include their products in the scenes they
shoot
direct audience payments have emerged in broadcasting; cable
subscribers pay a monthly fee (audience support is the basis of
subscription television)
economic imperative
economics figure into which messages make it to print or the
airwaves
to realize their profit potential, the media that seek large
audiences choose to deal with subjects of wide appeal and to
present them in ways that attract great numbers of people
this is a function of economics for those media that depend on
advertising revenue to stay in business
even media that seek narrow segments of the population need to
reach as many people within their segments as possible to
attract advertisers
implications
the drive to attract audiences affect media messages
the economic dependency of the mass media on advertising
income gives considerable power to advertisers (who can
threaten to yank advertising out of a publication if a certain
negative story appears)
lack of advertiser support can work against certain messages
(not to be appeared in media)
advertising affects media content itself in many ways
(quantitatively and qualitatively)
media conglomeration
combining of companies into larger companies; giant
corporations with diverse interests have consolidated the
mass media into relatively few hands
 media ownership consolidation: involves a process of
mergers, acquisitions and buyouts (horizontally, vertically)
 media ownership collaboration: the dominant giant
companies have joint complex deals, having thus intertwined
interests
… issues
 corporate strategies often sacrifice quality content and public service on
the altar of increasing profits
 lack of diverse coverage (sharing stories via news agencies reduces the
cost)
 sameness, imitation of what is already popular
 anti-intellectualism; gatekeepers have unprecedented power to control
media content
 corporate instability; profit-driven companies are quick to sell
subsidiaries that fall short of profit expectations
transnational ownership
media conglomerates that have acquired extensive media
holding in national level extend their reach into other
countries
media monopoly
and,
the global audience …
considerations
potential threat to the cultural autonomy and the free flow of
information and ideas
or,
respect of national characteristics, adapting to local cultures?
media melding
the different mass media are moving into digital transmission;
this technological melding is being accelerated by the
continuing consolidation of companies that own mass
media
 digitization: a process that compresses, stores and transmits
data, including text, sound, and video in extremely
compact and efficient ways
policy concerns
mass media,
their economies of scale,
and their role as facilitators of democracy …
*
notes from the books:
- Durham, M. G. and Kellner, D. (eds.) (2006) Media and Cultural Studies: Key
-
Works (revised edition)
Garnham, N. (1990) Capitalism and Communication
Gurevitch, M. Bennet, T., Curran, J. and Woollacott, J. (eds.) (1982) Culture,
Society and the Media
Herman, E. and Chomsky, N. (1988) Manufacturing Consent: the Political
Economy of the Mass Media
McChesney, R. (2001) Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in
Dubious Times (new edition)
Mosco, V. (1996) The Political Economy of Communication: Rethinking and
Renewal
Schiller, H. (1991) ‘Not yet the post-imperialist era’, in Critical Studies in
Mass Communication, 8
Thussu, D. (2000) International Communication: Continuity and Change
coming next week …
Cultural Studies
key text:
 Williams, R. (1958/1983) Culture and Society 17801950, 2nd edition. Columbia University Press
(Introduction, ch.5 of part III)
thank you
for your attention
questions for discussion
 which is more important for Turkish mass media – profits
or serving the public?
 do you know any types of mass media not dependent on
advertising or consumer purchase?
workshop
let’s say that you have the capital to run a business, and you
want to enter the mass media market (in Turkey)
 can you think of possible ways to do it?
 a few things about your strategy
 and, your perspective