Week 2: The Political Economy of Film and Television: Production and Consumption

In this week’s lecture we have looked at the context of film and television while looking closely at the political economy of the media and media institutions. Through the lecture the idea was discussed that media texts are seen as cultural commodities meaning that they are made to be sold to make a profit.

Revenue can come from two sources. The first is directly from the final consumers, made in some form of payment for a physical artefact.... The second is by selling some of the space in the physical artefact to advertisers, who wish to communicate with the audience.

                                                                                                           (Long and Wall 2012, 174 - 175)

Political economy 'concerns the nature of production and the wider social conditions under which it takes place.' (Long and Wall 2012, 172) This relates to what was discussed in the lecture of the three key aspects to political economy which are: funding, organisation and regulation which can be seen as the social conditions.

However another definition of political economy is concerned more with the power relations of media texts. Vincent Mosco has defined political economy as 'the study of the social relations, particularly the power relations, that mutually constitute the production, distribution and consumption of resources.' (Long and Wall 2012, 173)

This relates to how political economy is known to be 'concerned with exploring the relationship between the range of meanings available in media and the underpinning economic interests and ownership patterns across the different media spheres. (Long and Wall 2012, 173)

From the key reading I have found that many meanings developed from audience members consuming texts relate to the ideologies presented through the text:

A paternal system, Williams states, is

An authoritarian system with a conscience: that is to say, with values and purposes beyond the maintenance of its own power.' In this philosophy, the institution-audience relationship is primarily defined in cultural and ideological terms: 'the paternal system transmits values, habits, and tastes, which are its own justification as a ruling minority, and which it wishes to extend to people as a whole.'

(Ang 1991, 3)

From my own reading I have found that values are transmitted more easily now due to synergy. 'Synergy is a number of processes working together within a system for greater benefit than they could achieve individually' (Long and Wall 2012, 177). Tying in with the fact that 'films are produced by the same companies that are involved with other media and communication activities, and it is no secret that fewer and fewer giant corporations control these activities.' (Wasko 1999, 230)

Bibliography

Chapter 2 ("Audience-as-market and audience-as-public") in Ang, Ien (1991) Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge.

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) ‘Political Economy of the Media’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2^nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp. 172-185

Wasko, J (1999) ‘The Political Economy of Film’ in Miller, T and Stam R (1999) A Companion to Film Theory. Oxford: Blackwell