Political Economy of Communications Media

Vincent Mosco 1995 Narrow definition: Study of the power relations, that influence the production, distribution, and consumption of resources. Broad definition: The study of control and survival in social life

Classic Political Economy Political economists of 18/19 th centuries included Adam Smith, David Ricardo, J.S.Mill, Karl Marx. Focus on social change and historical transformation Examined social whole, the totality of social relations that make up life, particularly the integration of politics and economics.

Commitment to moral philosophy, i.e. values that help create social behavior And to moral principles that ought to guide efforts to change it. Fundamental unity of thinking and doing (social praxis), between research and action.

Values in Early Political Economy Self-Interest Materialism Individual freedom/community welfare “Laissez-faire” Resistance to commodification of human labor Extension of democracy to all aspects of social life

Orthodox Economics: A Definition Samuelson (1976), quoted in Alexander et al. (2004), p.5: “The study of how people and society end up choosing, with or without the use of money, to employ scarce productive resources that could have alternative uses, to produce various commodities and distribute them for consumption, now or in the future, among various persons and groups in society.”

Orthodox economics Formed late 19 th century against political economy. Economics as a science that provides precise explanations. Focus on buyers and sellers setting prices in the market.

Did not address processes of social and economic change that set the conditions for setting prices. Labor merely one factor of production (along with land and capital) Labor valued solely for its ability to enhance the market value of a final product (productivity).

Political Economy of Communication American tradition (Schiller; Smythe)  Institutional and Marxian traditions. Institutional: how institutional and technological constraints shape markets to the advantage of corporations and governments powerful enough to control them. Neo-Marxian: places labor at center of analysis; issues such as automation, deskilling, international division of labor.

Focus on size and power of transnationals and corporatization of media.  Advance public interest concerns before government regulators and policy makers.

European tradition (Golding & Murdoch)  Stronger focus on class power/struggle. Third World:  Stronger focus on responses to Western modernization or developmentalist paradigms.