1. Midterm prep COM 327 March 4, 2014

2. Theoretical Foundations
Themes
Theoretical foundations
James Carey: Ritual & Transmission models
Michel Foucault: Power
Political economy
Marxism, the media & culture industries
Labor
Political economy of social media
Political economy of games
Cultural studies
Stuart Hall: encoding/decoding
Gender
Sexuality
Race
Military
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy
Cultural studies

3. Theoretical Foundations #1: Foucault
Discourse Set of underlying, implicit ideas, meanings & beliefs that shape our social, political, economic institutions. Established “truths” about the world. Systems of differentiation Means of dividing people up into categories that are regarded as “natural”, but that reflect differences in social, economic, political power. Eg. Male vs female; heterosexual vs homosexual; white vs black POWER. “management of possibilities”; the conditions by which you have certain opportunities, privileges & rights that others don’t (or vice versa)
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy
Cultural studies

4. Theoretical Foundations #2: Communication as Culture
James Carey. “A cultural approach to communication.”
Key concepts:
Ritual vs transmission model of communication
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy
Cultural studies

5. Communication as Culture
Carey’s theories were rooted in media & cultural studies. Raymond Williams: “Culture is ordinary” – culture is what we do every day. Culture is created through communication. Marshall McLuhan: “Medium is the message” – the ‘content’ of communication is inseparable from the media used to deliver it. Erving Goffman: “Dramaturgical” view of communication – we perform different versions of our selves under different communicational contexts (e.g. at work vs at school vs at the game)
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy
Cultural studies

6. Political Economy #1: Marx & the Media
Based in historical & journalistic observation of conditions of labor in 19th century
Capitalist society is defined by the struggle for power between the ruling elite and the lower (and middle) classes
Those who own the means of production vs those who work for them.
Capitalism is marked by rapid growth (transportation technologies then -> communication technologies now)
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

7. Political Economy #1: Marx & the Media
Key concepts:
Class struggle
Alienation
Commodification
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

8. Political Economy #2: Culture Industries
Adorno & Horkheimer
Ideology
From standpoint of capitalism, ‘content’ doesn’t matter
Goal of culture industries is to make productive workers & willing consumers
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

9. Political Economy #3: Political Economy and Mass Media
Vincent Mosco Neoliberalism is the ideology that says that all aspects of society (education, healthcare, law, etc) should be dictated by market forces, aka “the bottom line”. Labor is the key focus in political economic analyses of media. Understanding the ‘work’ we do that supports corporations, whether or not we are paid for that work.
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

10. Political Economy #4: Working for Play
N. Dyer-Witherford & G. de Peuter.
“‘EA Spouse’ and the crisis of video game labour.”
Key concepts:
Immaterial labor
Affective labor
Precarious labor
Playbor
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

11. Theoretical Foundations
Working for Play
New media industries (like lots of forms of work) demand that workers put in extra time, work longer hours, represent the company when they’re not working, and ‘love their job’. The shift from material labor to immaterial labor means that jobs are less secure, workers have fewer rights, and corporations are less accountable to their workers than in the past.
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

12. Political Economy #4: Let’s be Friends
Christian Fuchs.
“The political economy of privacy on Facebook.”
Key concepts:
Liberal vs Contextual Privacy
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

13. Theoretical Foundations
Let’s be Friends
Facebook relies on the unpaid (and ‘affective’) labor of users Facebook (like MMOGs) require individual users to protect themselves from harm & surveillance
Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations
Cultural studies

14. Cultural Studies #1: Encoding / Decoding
Stuart Hall
Cultural studies involves examining the discourses underlying media “texts”.
Key concepts:
Deconstruction
Close reading
Encoding/decoding
Dominant (hegemonic) vs counter-hegemonic reading
Cultural studies
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy

15. Theoretical Foundations
Reading Culture
Hall used Marxist theory (society is characterized by struggle between ruling elite & working classes) to frame communication as a political struggle over meaning. 1) Mass media serves the ruling class, BUT - 2) People have the power to interpret media in ways that do not align with, and can be resistant to, the dominant ideology.
Cultural studies
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy

16. Cultural Studies #2 Gender
Key concepts:
Sex and gender are not the same thing
Sex = biological category
But there is more variation within sexes than between sexes
Gender = the set of beliefs that reads sex as the most ‘natural’ way of organizing social / economic / political / cultural relations
“Gender discourses” = underlying assumptions about men vs women designed to keep us in our proper place in society.
Cultural studies
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy

17. Cultural Studies #3 Sexuality
Alexander Doty & David Gauntlett
Queer theory unsettles “heteronormative” discourse that views heterosexuality as natural & homosexuality as unnatural
“Queer interpretation” is possible even when characters are not explicitly queer
Key concepts:
queer theory
heterocentrism
homoeroticism
Cultural studies
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy

18. Cultural Studies #4 ‘Militainment’
Mainstream media is characterized by an increasingly close relationship between popular culture & the military-industrial complex
The role of the press to safeguard society from a large & powerful military industry is called into question
Cultural studies
Theoretical Foundations
Political Economy

19. Sample question
Ideology & the “culture industries” According to Adorno & Horkheimer, what role does ideology play in capitalist society? Give examples from contemporary popular culture to support your argument.
Work in pairs to discuss topic / approach
Outline (explain) key concepts
Devise thesis statement
Come up with examples
Write equivalent of ½ to 1 full essay book (double-spaced0