Media: The Political Economy Method - Literature review Example

Strengths and Limitations That the Media Faces from the ‘Political Economy’ Method Strengths and Limitations That the Media Faces From the ‘Political Economy’ Method The media approaches in the world of business through news services are turning complex. The earlier culture of conveying information in the right form is phasing out and under repression of the urge to make money. The idea of conveying information in a way that benefits the media institutions follows the continued competition in the news industry. Studies depict that the media units reach the reader through catchy information that propels the purchases and drives out competition. However, the act is often a tricky affair as the media may employ propaganda to enrich the information and reach the reader with the desired degree of perception (Skinner, 2005, p. 2). The context documents the theories and theorists on the limitations and strengths of the media in relevance to the political economy method and the general environment. The Political Economy Method Media channels release news to the environment meant to convey information on the actual outcome of events that affect the lives of individuals. In the competitive media industry, the channels shift concerns towards profitability rather than practice the right approaches to the environment through abiding by the code of conduct. For example, the readers do not expect that the information conveyed to them could be ill yet interesting, but on the other hand, it is a criterion approach that only catchy information would sale to the readers profitably (Mcchesney, 2008, p. 45). The practice implies a conflicting situation to the ethical code of conduct and the prevailing cultural values and the extent upon which the media practices further contrast with the will to deliver information and that of amassing profits (Plappert, 2010, p. 3). The media practices of the political economy method meant to derive the following set of views. The media industry depicted a continuous overflow in the market that threatened concentration, as this would normally implicate negative returns on revenues. The media depicted that globalization pursued the industry and based on the decreased diversity, chances were that the international audience would tend to react towards information in a similar manner (Wasko, Murdock and Sousa, 2011, p. 24). Prospects were that the method would hinder any negative influence from the opposition and other groups that would perceive a chance to indict charges towards the media practices. According to the team on political economy, Raymond established that the media and the public established different interests, but the extent to which the public would affect the media, was dependent on private interests of the media stakeholders (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 76). The Problem Approach of the ‘Political Economy’ Method in Relation to the Media The method of political economy in relation to the actual consciousness of the society through media communication raised a heated debate in the 1970s. The theorists of the political economy approach outlined the importance of the method and that it enhanced the welfare of the individual society members negatively. In a way, the media would articulate communicative programs to monetary related objectives and ensure that the public felt the salient role of the information in the society (Wasko, Murdock and Sousa, 2011, p. 28). The media would evolve accordingly through the processes and programs that related inversely to the economic propulsion but ethnically contrasted with societal beliefs and norms. The theory of ‘political economy,’ as initially indicated by Marx and Engels, targeted to realize ethics alongside economic values. This would further imply the aspect of consciousness towards the society. The contrast is that towards the end of implementation of the theory, the result was a positive economic approach to the business culture with less relation to the societal welfare, thus indicting consciousness. The theorists indicated that the approach would coerce individual societies to a mindset that the theory purported a reasonable positive influence. Marx and other western Marxists established the approach of media culture to the political economy to reflect positively on the business units involved (Wasko, Murdock and Sousa, 2011, p. 28). Smyth established a theoretical approach towards the media publication units with an exemption to the Marxist approaches, although indications reflect that different approaches lead to the same goal and objective. The theorists depicted that the media industry and the advertising units are relative and conduct business at the expense of the actual buyer (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 80). He pointed the fact that the audience gives information to the media houses and in exchange shall receive the enhanced information, although on a diverse spectrum. The media houses would perceive this as an opportunity to conduct programs in the public in the form of advertising, and the factor would be a costly approach to the public. The fact is that the person willing to make advertising had to pay the media while those targeted as the segments had to purchase the information (Mcchesney, 2008, p. 145). Although the media prospers through the political economy approach, theorists criticize the factor of labor exploitation as the public does not benefit from the information rendered to the media houses. The factor perturbing such a theory is that the public economic capabilities are of less concern compared to the profitability that the method brings to the media houses (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 87). The approach of political economy is advantageous to the media channels but fails to establish relevance to the general human communication aspects as regards as social existence and the taming of inhibitions to pave the way for societal goodwill. The media might tend to crave for the catchy informative sources and relay them to the audience with the view that the approach would coerce positive attitudes towards the programs, thus implicating loyalty and profitability (Mcchesney, 2008, p. 146). The theorists establish that the process relays the most pertinent information, which indicates the high levels of transparency. Culture and the Political Economy Method The media integrates culture as a prospective tool of inclining and achieving the set objectives in the economies. For example, Marx and Engels established societal theories that induced media performance in the cultural approach (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 89). They indicated that individuals may not induce change to a given set of the society but would, in turn, behave in a way that the society induces them. The aspect that affects the consciousness of individuals is the general society and the consequences are that they would establish such traits towards the general material wellbeing. The theories influence the media approach through culture by integrating a phenomenon which they would perceive controllable over the public and ensure stringent measures that would drive any possible threats towards achieving the general media objectives (Plappert, 2010, p. 6). The theorists further established that interrelating ideas with material relationship would imply mental provocation of individuals who lacked the power of aggression and mental competences. The approach would effectively serve as a media political advantage to the extent that the ignorance of the subjects would enhance progress as the media programs expected less or no repellent forces from the global economies. According to the method, media had to tame culture and communication to imply a transformation of the ethical norms of the society into the intellectual capacity so that humans could perceive the desired importance (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 109). The meaning of culture in the media and in relation to the political economy paves the way for a repressive approach upon which the media establishes propaganda with fewer considerations to the social beliefs, norms, and attitudes with the aim of articulating the desired information effectively. Marx and Engels stipulated that culture might lose value to the extent that it would probably induce negative factors to the media method (Wasko, Murdock and Sousa, 2011, p. 34). They stipulated that in a capitalist economy, any prohibitory factors to success should remain inconsistent with those factors which seemed favorable to the overall process of business, and pin this context, i.e. the media industry. Through the approaches of theorists Max Webber, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Derrida, the political economy approach took a distinct dimension. They expressed the modernity approach which realized the importance of a business as more impacting a nation than the social welfare. The approach did not drive out the social factors but depicted their irrelevance to the supervening inconsistency with the economic trends. In relation to the media, the opportunity implied that transactions on information would realize a greater dimension of success with the prevailing democracy implying profitability (Mcchesney, 2008, p. 126). The post-structuralism emphasized the importance of the structuralism approaches towards the realization of the salient role of society and culture, and the political economy. The theorists restricted concern to the culture but would influence the method at a lower rate since the capitalist economists established a coercive theory to ensure economic progression against all other restraints (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 112). The aspect serves to pave a progressive approach of the media to the public through the political economy approach despite the continuous repelling factors. The media further contradicts on the general purpose of the economic interest of the media houses and the interests of the democratic nations. For instance, the media exploits the freedom that is has in most societies to publicize critical information for economic gains; however, such an approach poses danger to the entire nation and the globe as some information may cause unnecessary yet adverse calamities to the society. Therefore, it would be beneficial to restructure the media maneuvers towards economic interests as the ideal nature of relaying information may halt the value of ethics (Mcchesney, 2008, p. 156). The Political and Ethical Implications of the Media Approach Initially, the media approached information as an exercise of enlightening the societies they co-habited. However, the continuous evolution diverged the view of the media stakeholders to hold to the existing world phenomenon that all businesses targeted programs that would cause positive propulsion. Notably, the media units adapted to the method of holding to business practices instead of socially implied practices. Consequently, the media houses deviated to profitable and strategic exercises that would propel the performances competitively. This followed the dawning that privately held media houses competitively targeted the scarce market opportunities for profits and market share growth (Plappert, 2010, p. 10). At the other extreme, the society lived in darkness on establishing the degree of clarity of the information availed to them by the media houses. The houses differed based on whether being owned by the state or private investors. The different practices postulated different ethical concerns towards the civilized and democratic means of enlightening the entire society. The privately owned media houses established a continuous and competitive approach while targeting the purchases and prevailing market profits as opposed to the actual relay of the right information (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 120). On the other hand, state owned media houses do not enhance fair relay of information although their goals deviate from making profits. The state owned media establishes that the right information to relay to the public understanding should promote the trust of people despite any negative attribute of the leadership. The approaches hinder ethics and the purported understanding that the media is a trusted model of enlightening and passing information to the global understanding (Plappert, 2010, p. 12). Marx established value as a factor emanating from the amount of costly variables employed in production to be calculable on monetary terms. He emphasized political economy as an approach to depict the value of labor and the consciousness of the society, and the base to measure a product should incorporate intrinsic or extrinsic characteristics towards assimilation into the society. In relation to the media business, the measure may depict injustice to the society depending on the pricy approaches, the ill-fated information, and the notion implicit to the consumer that they should ensure trust to the media to which they are loyal (Winseck and Jin, 2011, p. 124). Conclusions The ‘political economy’ approach to the general business performances influenced positive propulsion in terms of profitability and growth towards success. Given that capitalist economies encouraged the theoretical approach, the media paved the way to establish a business approach despite the initial social purpose of the economy. The current media approaches abide by the political economy method, thus enjoying an uncultured method of making revenues irrespective of the unethical approaches in practice (Plappert, 2010, p. 13). References Mcchesney, R. W., 2008. The political economy of media: enduring issues, emerging dilemmas. New York: Monthly Review Press, p. 589. Plappert, S., 2010. Political economy of the global media business: why corporate interests shape the news. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH, pp. 1–13. [Online] Available from: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:101:1-201009164352 [Accessed November 27, 2012]. Skinner, D., 2005. Converging media, diverging politics: a political economy of news media in the United States and Canada. Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 1–87. Wasko, J., Murdock, G., and Sousa, H., 2011. The handbook of political economy of communications. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 1–92. Winseck, D. R. and Jin, D. Y., 2011. The political economies of media: the transformation of the global media industries. London: Bloomsbury Academic, p. 272. Read More