The Effects of Ownership: A Critical Look at Critical Political Economy

Feb

2009

Written by Jesse W Kline

Introduction

Communication is pervasive within our society. There are now more options to access the media than ever before. From reading the news on our cell phones to listening to foreign talk radio over satellites, we are consumed by the media in this electronic age. We also value the media as the watchdog of government. It is the forum whereby citizens can get the information they need to participate in democracy and debate the issues of the day. It is therefore important to have the tools that are necessary to study and critique the media. To understand what gets reported and what does not, why certain points of view are so pervasive, while others are hardly heard at all. Political economy is one tool that allows us to critically examine the media and the biases it espouses. Political economy takes a distinctly Marxist approach to the study of communications. This includes looking at how various economic classes are affected differently and have different levels of access to communications technologies, how the capitalist economic system affects the media and cultural industries, and how corporate ownership affects what the media produces. While approaching the study of communications from the perspective of political economy allows us to gain many valuable insights into the nature of the industry and how it influences society, the implicit normative aspects of the theory make it less than attractive.