The Critical Political-Economy of Communication

Political Economy

• Kajian mengenai hubungan-hubungan sosial, khususnya hubungan-hubungan kekuasaan yang saling membentuk atau mempengaruhi produksi, distribusi, dan konsumsi sumberdaya.

• . . . the study of the social relations. Particularly the power relations, that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and consumption of resources (Mosco, 1996; p.25).

LIBERAL: Individu sebagai principal units of analysis, dan market sebagai principal structure; dan pertemuan keduanya dalam proses-proses ekonomi. Concern: Kedaulatan individu dalam melakukan pemenuhan kebutuhan

LIBERAL:Kritik thdp “ineffisient and unproductive mercantilism”

NEO-LIBERAL: Penentuan kombinasi factor-faktor produksi demi effisiensi dan produktivitas, dimana manusia merupakan salah satu factor produksi. Concern: Kedaulatan individu dan pengembangan the science of economics dan pengembangan the science of economic

Political Economy

INSTITUSIONAL: Institusi dan teknologi sebagai pembentuk pasar yang menguntungkan bagi mereka yang menguasainya Concern: penguasaan institusi dan teknologi yg berimbang.

CRITICAL Kritik terhadaLiberalisme

MARXIAN: Proses dehumanisasi buruh/pekerja dalam kapitalisme: Concern: pengembalian manusia ke hakekat yg sebenarnya

NEO-MARXIAN: Proses dehumanisasi, hegemoni, dominasi kapitalisme. Concern: kepentingan publik, mengakhiri monopoly capitalism, penataan internasional division of labor

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Liberal or “Positive”(mainstream)

Political Economyof Mass Communication

Instrumentalism(e.g., Herman, Chomsky)

Critical Structuralism(e.g., Schudson)

“Constructionism”(e.g., Golding, Murdock)

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“Theory” in Critical Theories

Theory is not a deductive system of interconnected axioms and laws, but a critique that reveals true conditions behind “virtual reality”, false consciousness and beliefs. (Golding and Murdock, in Graham 1992; p. 15).

Criteria of Adequacy Horkheimer (dalam Bohman, 2005; hal. 1)

Explanatory: harus menjelaskan apa yang salah atau tidak seharusnya dalam realitas sosial yang ada.

Practical: antara lain mengidentifikasi metode dan aktor-aktor sosial yang mampu merobah Dan mengoreksi realitas sosial yang ada.

Normative: suatu teori kritis jelas harus menyajikan norma-norma yang jelas, yang dipergunakan sebagai dasar melakukan judgments dan kritik terhadap suatu realitas sosial, maupun mengetengahkan tujuan-tujuan praktis yang bisa dicapai melalui suatu transformasi sosial.

VALIDITY

“The test of validity in the case of critical constructivist research is directly related to its stated purpose of inquiry. The research is valid to the extent that the analysis provides insight into the system of oppression and domination that limit human freedoms, and on a secondary level, in its usefulness in countering such systems.” (Clark, 2005):

• Teori yg menjelaskan adanya kesadaran palsu

Theory of • Teori yg menjelaskan terbentuknya kesadaran palsu

False Consciousness • Teori yg menggambarkan adanya kesadaran alternatif

• Teori yg uraikan konsepsi tentang krisis sosial

Theory of Crisis • Teori tentang adanya krisis sosial tersebut

• Teori latar historis krisis dan kaitannya dng kesadaran palsu

Theory of Education • Teori ttng necessary conditions u/ pencerahan masyarakat

• Teori ttng pemenuhan kondisi-kondisi tersebut

Theory of • Teori ttng aspek-aspek yg harus dirobah

Transformative Ation • Teori ttng program aksi untuk transformasi sosial

Struktur Teori Kritis

(Fay, 1987; pp. 31-32)

Critical vs Liberal Political Economy

Liberal Political Economics Critical Political Economics

Epistemology •Partial: the “economy” as a separate and specialised domain

•“objective”

•Holistic: interplay b/w economic organization and political, social and cultural life •Social construction

Historicity •A-historical analysis . . . detached f•rom the specifics of historical time and place

•Historical analysis . . . especially interested in the investigation and description of late capitalism

Issues and Focus •Market structure and mechanism in which consumers choose b/w competing commodities on the basis of the utility and satisfaction

•The ways that communicative activity is structured by the unequal distribution of material and symbolic resources

Concerns • Economic Efficiency• Individual sovereignity “ . . . the greater the market

forces the greater the freedom of consumer choice”

• The balance b/w capitalist enterprise and public intervention

• Justice, equity and public good

Positive Political Economy• ‘. . . Seeks out principles and propositions against which

actual experience can be compared in order to understand and explain, not judge, that experience . . . Is explicitly theoretical. Its focus is on microfoundations, and it is grounded in the rational-actor methodology of microeconomics . . . and its concern with explaining regularities. (Alt and Shepsle, 1990. Perspective on Positive Political Economy. Cambridge, New York:

Cambridge Umniversity Press; p.1).

INSTRUMENTALISM “CONSTRUCTIONISM” STRUCTURALISM

•Focus on the ways that capitalists use their economic power with a commercial market system to ensure that the flow of public information is consonant with their interests.•See the privately owned media as instruments of class domination.

•Structures: dynamic formation which are constantly reproduced and altered through practical action.•Structural level of analysis is only part of the story . . . economic dynamic is not a complete explanation of the nature of news production activities.•. . . structures are constituted through action, and reciprocally how action is constituted structurally” (Giddens, 1976, quoted in Golding and Murdock, 1991; p.19)

•Conceive of structures as building-like edifies, solid, permanent and immovable which constrain and determine the outcome of new process.

Herman and Chomsky’s “Propaganda Model” (1988): “. . . the powerful are able to fix the premises of discourse, to decide what the general populace is allowed to see, hear and think about, and to manage public opinion by regular propaganda campaigns” (p.xi)

Golding and Murdock (1991): “The state and the capitalist class operate within structures which constrain as well as facilitate, imposing limits as well as offering opportunities” (p. 19).

Schudson (1986): Relates the outcome of the new process directly to the economic structure of news organizations, and that “everything in between is a black box that need not be examined” (p. 161)

INSTRUMENTALISM(e.g., Herman, Chomsky)

“CONSTRUCTIONISM”(Golding, Murdock, Mosco)

STRUCTURALISM(Schudson)

•Economic determinism . . . everything can eventually be related directly to economic forces

•Economic forces is not a complete explanation

•Economic determinism

•Privately owned media as instruments of class domination ... capitalists use their economic power with a commercial market system to ensure that the flow of public information is consonant with their interest

•The state and the capitalist class can not always use media as their instrument as they would wish. They operate within structure which constraints as well as facilitate•Acknowledge the contradictions in the structure/system

•idem “Constructivism”

•Structures: dynamic formation which are constantly reproduced and altered through practical action

•Structures: solid, permanent, and immovable

•Structures are constituted through action, and reciprocally action is contructed structurally

•Political economy relates the outcome of the new process directly to the economic structures of news organization . . . everything in between is a black box that need not be examined

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Change in the Media Industriesstructure vs agency

• Economic determinism/reductionism: faktor-faktor struktural industri media sebagai penentu perobahan produk yg dikonsumsi dan mempengaruhi khalayak.

• Cultural determinism/reductionism: perobahan nilai dan selera khalayak sebagai penentu perobahan industri media.

Re: structuration

“The critical perspective holds that knowledge must be situated historically and cannot be a matter of universal and timeless abstract and abstractly related . . . knowledge, and the justification given to knowledge claims, must be ‘historize’ . . .” (Smith, dalam Egon Guba 1990; hal.. 167).

HISTORICITY OF THE CRITICAL POLITICAL-ECONOMY PERSPECTIVE

Critical Political economy is also necessarily historical, but historical in a particular sense Critical Political-economis analysis is a historical analysis . . . especially interested in the investigation and description of late capitalism . . . (Golding and Murdock, in Curran and Gurevitch, 1991; p..19-20)

Capitalism is a dynamic system which is still in the process of development. Analysis needed to be both concrete and specific. It is not enough simply to outline the general features of capitalism; it is also necessary to show how they were developing and changing in response to concrete historical situation (Bottomore and Rubel, 1963; pp. 96-97).

SPECIFIC HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• Neo-Liberalism• Global Economic Structural Transformation

NEO-LIBERALISM

A belief in the legitimacy of markets . . . the belief that unregulated free market is the essential precondition for the fair distribution of wealth and for political democracy (Hudson, Mark (1999). “Understanding Information Media in the Age of Neo-Liberalism: the Contribution of Herbert Schiller”. Progressive Librarian, No. 16. Fall)

The main points of neo-liberalism:Martinez, Elizabeth, “What is Neo-Liberalism? A brief definition”. Global Economy, February 26, 2000.

•The rule of the market. Liberating “free” enterprise or private enterprise from any bond imposed by the government (the state) . . . Calls for total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services . . . unregulated markets is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone.

•Cutting public expenditure for social servicesReducing the safety-net for the poor

•Deregulation: Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminish profits . . . including protecting the environment and safety of the job.

•Privatization. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors . . . in the name of greater efficiency.

•Eliminating the concept of “the public good” or “community” and replacing it with “individual responsibility”Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves – then blaming them, if they fail, as “lazy”.

Global neo-liberalism

phenomenon

The essence of the neo-liberal position on international commerce is the

proposition that economic growth will be most rapid when the movement of

goods, services and capital is unimpeded by government regulation.

MacEwan, Arthur (1999). Neo-Liberalism or Democracy? Economic Strategy, Markets, and Alternatives for the 21st Century. London: Zed Books; p. 31

. . . the International Monetary Funds and the World Bank : “. . . built-in systemic mechanism of economic liberalization, opposing not only socialism but national capitalism as well, in favor of the progressive extension of international market forces”.Robert E. Wood, “The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in a Changing Wolrld Economy”. In MacEwan and Tabb. Eds. 1989. Instability and Change in the World Economy. New York: Monthly Review Press; pp. 298-315.

NEO-LIBERAL MYTHS

. . . every human being is an entrepreneur managing their own life, and should act as such . . humans exist for the market, and not the other way around . . . it is good to participate in the market, and that those who do not participate have failed in some way (Paul Treanor “Neo-liberalism”: http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/neoliberalism.html)

. . . neo-liberal treat markets, usually without explicit acknowledgement, as existing outside society and outside history . . .The market is simply there (MacEwan, 1991, p. 11).

Facts:•The market is a historically contingent phenomenon•The market is socially constructed

The Global Economic Structural Transformation

•high degree of capital mobility . . . a huge increase of capital and financial markets that are continuously on the lookout for profitable ‘investment’ opportunities, however transitory they may be; the World Bank estimated them at about US$14 trillion dollars (see, e.g., Chomsky, 2000) . . . the daily turnover on the world’s financial markets has reached US$1.5 trillion per day (Beeson, 1998).

•increasing separation of the entire financial sector from underlying real economic activity (where goods and services are produced), be it domestic or international.

•In addition to a huge increase in the amount of unregulated capital, there was also a very radical change in its composition. In 1970 – before Nixon dismantled the Bretton-Woods system – about 90 percent of the capital used in financial transactions, internationally, was for long-term investment trade and about 10 percent for speculation; but now figures have reversed: it is 90 percent for speculation, and about 10 percent for investment and trade (Eatwell, quoted in Chomsky, 2000)•A good deal of what is described as ‘investment’ has nothing to do with long-term plans to actually produce commodities for sale in markets. •All that matters to financial players are knowing which way markets are moving – no matter what is driving them To some extent, the driving forces for capital mobility are fears, greeds, perception or ‘sudden changes of heart’ (see, for example, Beeson, 1998; and Borsuk, in Emmerson, 1999).

“Economic fundamentals”

The economy becomes determined more by factors which are subject to the change of

perception and the flows of information and less by orthodox economic measures such as

foreign reserves, current account deficit, trade balance etc.

How does global neo-liberalism relate to mass media?

Mass Media & communication technologies contribute to the general process of global neo-liberalism ( re: hegemony and legitimation)

Neo-liberalism at work in the society as a whole penetrate media practices institutions, and influence communication as a social practice

Three entry concepts (Mosco, 1996)

Commodification

The process of transforming use values into exchange values (i.e., through commercialization, liberalization, privatization, and internalization)

Spatialization

The process of transforming space with time . . . Refers to the growing power of capital to use and improve the means of transportation and communication

StructurationThe process whereby structures are mutually constituted with agency

CommodificationRe: State constitutive activities

CommercializationThe state replaces regulation which based on public interest with market standards and establish market regulation

LiberalizationState intervention to expand the number of market participant

PrivatizationState intervention that sells of public/state enterprises

InternationalizationState policy to integrate the economy into the global economic system

How does commodification relate to communication industries

• “Communication processes & technologies contribute to the general process of commodification in the economy as a whole”, and vice versa . . .

• “Commodification processes at work in the society as a whole penetrate communication processes and institutions . . . . e.g., deregulation, liberalization of media industries & telecom sectors

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How does Spatialization relate to communication industries

• institutional extension of corporate power in communications industry

• corporate concentration• horizontal and vertical integration• conglomerization, cross-media

ownership

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How does the concept of Structuration relate to the study of communication industries

“A process by which structures are constituted out of human agency, even as they provide the very ‘medium’ of that constitution” (Mosco, 1996, 212)

• Looks at agency, social relations, social process, social practice, social movements . . .

• Looks at economic structure, class, gender, hegemony…

In the social construction of communication industries

Issue of concern:

Corporatization of public sphere

Public Sphere - The Ideal Communication Situation

• Requires freedom of speech• All people must have equal accessequal access to speaking.• Norms and obligations of society are not one sided but

distribute power equallydistribute power equally to all strata in society.

The above are not fully possible, but still necessary for complete emancipatory communication to take place.

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end of part 1

History• How to understand the global political

economy• How has social change happened?• What have been previous struggles and

how are they the same or different than current struggles?

• E.g., is globalization new?• When looking at ‘new’ technologies, can

the past illuminate the present (radio: Internet)…

Social Totality

• Holistic analysis• Relationship among commodities,

institutions, social relations, and hegemony

• What are the connections between the economic and the political?

Commodity form

• Use of wage labour to produce goods that are sold in the marketplace

• Media forms: television genres, databases, PPV

• Commodification of information• Corporatization of public space

Institutions

• Those that support, sustain, subvert public and private activities

• Tensions between public vs. private

• Globalization exacerbating nation-state, capital, labour relationships

• Closely interpenetrated regimes of power and control in media systems

Social Relations

• How do people engage with the media?

• Issues of race, class, gender• Have’s and have-not’s

That H Word – Hegemony

• Process of constituting the common-sense

• Origins from Gramsci – how to understand capitalist society

• Used in analysis of social control• Beyond ideology – appears natural

Some examples from everyday life…

• We take for granted that…• Voting = democratic process• Capitalistic marketplace =

productive & fair society• Objectivity as cornerstone of

journalism• (Now, let’s challenge these dominant

hegemonies!)

Moral Philosophical Outlooks

• Social values• What are appropriate social

benefits?• An ethics of information in

society…• E.g., who are the winners and who

are the losers?

Praxis

• In essence, practice & action• Concerned with social justice• Fighting for the public interest• Public intellectual stance

Mosco and Reddick

• “…the study of control and survival in social life”

• Social transformation, social totality, moral philosophy, praxis

• Argues for a rethinking of p-e of communications with entry points of commodification, spatialization, and structuration

Commodification

• How capitalism accumulates capital and realizes value through the transformation of use values into exchange values

• In short, the process of transforming use values into exchange values

How does this relate to imcommunication?

• “Communication processes & technologies contribute to the general process of commodification in the economy as a whole”

• Ex: just-in-time manufacturing, quick-response systems, e-commerce, information entrepreneurial

And, (this is from Mosco, 1996, 142)

• “Commodification processes at work in the society as a whole penetrate communication processes and institutions, so that improvements and contradictions in the societal commodification process influence communication as a social practice”

• E.g., deregulation, liberalization of media industries & telecom sectors

Commodification research

• Class power• Media elites• Ownership patterns • Audience commodity• Government-lobbyist liaisons

Policy Research…

• Policy – how this has contributed to media commodification (neoliberalism)

• Tensions between public and private spheres

• Media & democracy

• Public interest (whither the…) – ex: Aufderheide on US Telecom Act of 1996

Spatialization

• Overcoming the constraints of space and time in social life

• Coined by Henri Lefebvre• Innis’ work on time-space• Castell – “space of flows” in

describing network society

Spatialization related to communication studiesSpatialization related to communication studies

• Addressed in institutional extension of corporate power in communications industry

• Analysis of corporate concentration

• Horizontal and vertical integration

• Conglomerization, cross-media ownership

• Media ownership mapping

Spatialization….and policy

• Commercialization• Privatization• Liberalization• Internationalization

Structuration

Structuration• “A process by which structures are

constituted out of human agency, even as they provide the very ‘medium’ of that constitution” (Mosco, 1996, 212)

• Looks at agency, social relations, social process, social practice, social movements

• Looks at class, gender, hegemony…