Media, Information and Technoculture 2100F/G Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Netflix, Capitalism, Political Economy
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Professor
Media, Information
and Technoculture
2100F/G
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
January 10, 2017
Political Economy of Media
Three ways to think about media:
- Political economy: how media function as commodities. Goods being made to make a
profit.
- Cultural studies: what the meaning of media is?
- Technoculture: the examination of media as technology
Political economy of media:
- Deals with the relation between power (politics), wealth (economics) and media
- It addresses issues such as:
o Who owns and controls media
o How media get revenues and make profits
o The role of advertising in media
o The situation of workers (from stars to interns) in media
o Conflicts over intellectual property
o The place of media in the global capitalist economy
o How all these factors affect the content of media
But political economy of which media?
- There is an enormous amount of types of media that we can talk about, so we need to
narrow media down
- The term media today encompasses many types of activities/businesses
- Political economy is sometimes referred to as the cultural industries
The cultural industries (Hesmondhalgh 17-22)
- He tries to come to a definition of cultural industries and this list is the core cultural
industries
- Radio and TV: broadcast, cable and satellite, digital streaming
- Film: cinema, DVD, video
- Music: recording, publishing, live performance
- Print: books, magazines, graphic novels
- Video and computer games
- Advertising, marketing and PR
- Web design
- Plus “borderline case” search engines and social media
- For the moment, this list gives us a working definition of the cultural industries
- These are the types of activities that you think of when you think of ‘media’
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- These encompass the major forms of media that you find interesting as enjoyment as an
object of study
- Cultural industries are those involved in the “production of social meaning”, and “deal
primarily with the industrial production and circulation of texts” (Hesmondhalgh 16-22)
- We have become completely used to sense making as an industrial process
- Culture has become an industrial process – is that good or bad?
Golden Globes
- We see a spectacle of the richest, glamourous, celebritries, and the controversy which
grows out of the cultural industries
Why study the political economy of the cultural industries?
1. The cultural industries are a massively important social force, and you want you to
understand the processes that shape them
2. You love (or loathe) some particular cultural object, and want to understand how it is
produced, owned, marketed, etc. to intensify your enjoyment (or disgust)
3. You want a career in the cultural industries
The Culture Industry:
- Worked for the US war effort
- Living in Hollywood, LA
- Appreciative of refuge, but also critical of the US culture
- Saw similarities between US commercial entertainment and Nazi propaganda
- Deep critique of the culture industry
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Political economy: how media function as commodities. Technoculture: the examination of media as technology. Deals with the relation between power (politics), wealth (economics) and media. There is an enormous amount of types of media that we can talk about, so we need to narrow media down. The term media today encompasses many types of activities/businesses. Political economy is sometimes referred to as the cultural industries. He tries to come to a definition of cultural industries and this list is the core cultural industries. Radio and tv: broadcast, cable and satellite, digital streaming. Plus borderline case search engines and social media. For the moment, this list gives us a working definition of the cultural industries. These are the types of activities that you think of when you think of media". These encompass the major forms of media that you find interesting as enjoyment as an object of study.
