Political Economy (PE) is an approach to studying media that emphasizes how media is produced, distributed, and consumed, rather than analyzing the meanings within media texts. PE highlights the ways in which media texts are produced within specific systems conditioned by interactions between nation states, international organizations, legal institutions, cultural traditions, media corporations, technologies, and economic pressures. In essence, political economy underscores that politics and economics are functionally inseparable and understanding their entanglement is crucial for understanding society and culture.



Core Tenets of Political Economy

  • Interdisciplinary Nature: Political economy is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing upon insights from economics, political science, and sociology.
  • Power Dynamics: It studies the relationships between economics, politics, and society, emphasizing how power dynamics shape economic systems and influence people's lives.
  • Production and Distribution: Political economy looks beyond the production and distribution of media goods and services to focus on power relations within society. It is concerned with the struggle between social good and capitalism as a system of organization.
  • Historical Context: PE emphasizes that media texts are produced within specific and historically contingent systems.

Marxist Perspective

Drawing from Karl Marx, political economy emphasizes the importance of commodities, which are material entities that can be bought and sold. Marx distinguished between the use-value (inherent value in how a good is used) and the exchange-value (fluctuating value attached to goods). Marx's approach reveals how capitalism depends on the exploitation of one social group by a wealthier class that owns the means of production. He focused on social relations between classes and the ways privileged classes exploit the labor of the working class.

Marx also built on a labor-theory of value, arguing that exchange value is derived from the amount of time someone spends creating a commodity. Technological advances can reduce the labor needed, depreciating exchange value and potentially leading capitalists to enforce more repressive conditions to maintain profits.

Structuralism

PE is closely related to structuralism, which posits that social institutions and discourses have hidden structures that can be revealed through detailed research. PE seeks to uncover how the structure of media works in relation to the dominant mode of capitalist production.

Contemporary Applications

Political economists highlight that capitalist societies are organized by a dominant mode of production that structures institutions and practices according to commodification and capital accumulation. Cultural production and distribution are, accordingly, profit and market-oriented. Political economy grounds its approach in empirical analysis of cultural production systems, investigating the constraints and structuring influence of the capitalist economic system and a commercialized system of culture.

Division of Labor

Division of labor involves assigning different parts of a manufacturing process or tasks to different people to improve efficiency. In society, it represents the acceptance of complex interdependence based on specialization, requiring people to meet each other's needs. Specialization has existed since the Neolithic Revolution. Division of labor is limited by the size of the cooperation horizon. The more people involved, the greater the division of labor and the more population that can be supported.

Critiques and Challenges

While offering valuable insights, political economy theory faces critiques:

  • Some argue that it oversimplifies complex media dynamics and overlooks cultural and social aspects.
  • Some contend that the theory needs to adapt to encompass the complexities of online platforms, networked information flows, and changing audience behaviors in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
  • Scholars debate whether the theory adequately addresses issues of intersectionality, considering the impacts of race, gender, and other identity factors on media representation and power dynamics.

Examples of Political Economy in Action

  • Smartphones: The production of smartphones relies on supply chains using cheap labor in other countries to produce products with high markup costs in markets like North America and Western Europe. The use-value remains constant, but the exchange-value varies, allowing a privileged class to exploit the labor of those who produce the goods.
  • The Culture Industry: As cultural goods came to be dominated by industrial production, mass-produced and easily consumed goods have the potential to influence members of society, potentially resulting in an increasingly passive society that can be easily manipulated.
  • Neoliberalism: Neoliberal ideologies have significantly shaped media policies globally, promoting deregulation and market-driven approaches.
  • Price Gouging: High prices lead consumers to seek alternatives, producers to increase supply, and entrepreneurs to find substitutes. However, policies like anti-price gouging laws can prevent supplies from reaching those who need them.
  • Property Rights: Court cases like Hinman v. Pacific Air Transport and Jacque v. Steenberg Homes illustrate the tensions between individual property rights and the broader needs of society.

Concluding Thoughts

Political Economy theory provides crucial insights into the connections between media, politics, and economics. By exploring media ownership, political influence, and commercialization, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of the multifaceted relationship between media and society. As the media landscape continues to evolve, this theory remains essential in deciphering the complexities of the mediated world.