 Friends, welcome to today's presentation on political economy of the media. And political economy as we'll see in today's discussion is discusses the interrelationships between the economic sphere, between the social sphere, between the political sphere and the cultural sphere. So it does not give predominance to one particular sphere over the other, but talks of the relationship between these spheres and the totality of relations of human life covering these spheres. So political economy as I just said is a branch of social science that studies the relationship between the different spheres of life and based and specifically it discusses the relationship between the individuals and society between markets and the state. And the tools that we employ in this field are drawn from economics from political science from sociology and even from cultural studies. The etymology is from the Greek word polis, which means state and iconomous, which means one who manages a household or a state. As in many things in economics, the political economy concept is also linked to Adam Smith and his work on an inquiry into the natural nature and causes of the wealth of nations. So in this book, Adam Smith talks about the distribution of wealth and power and how it depends on the political, economic, technological, natural and social factors and the complex interactions between them. So as we will see, political economy draws heavily on the various political, economic, cultural, technological and social factors. So originally as I said it referred to a tradition of economic thinking which addressed the production, the distribution and consumption of resources used to sustain human existence. And one of the very important premises here was that knowledge is not value free or it is not something that is natural but it is always has a critical normative perspective and this is required to find out whether present system sustains the existing social conditions for example or it just allows for a status quo of the conditions that exist or whether it challenges those social conditions for one. So there are different perspectives on how knowledge can be seen in a critical normative perspective and in today's discussion we will talk about that as well. So it examines the social, political and economic pressures and interests that affect the policies. So whenever we have these public policies what are the economic and the social and the political pressures for one and how these influence the political process. And this takes into account a lot of social priorities and even international environments and development strategies and philosophical perspective. So that is more on general context and as I go along we will talk more specifically about the media and the communication field. So one of the dimensions of political economic analysis is studying the policies of nations or policies between nations. So how certain policies within a nation can influence the pattern of national economic growth. Does it favor one group of people over other group of people or it also studies whether as far as international trade is concerned whether these policies favor richer countries over poorer countries. So there are many dimensions of political economic analysis and as we go along we will have a deeper analysis of how this is undertaken. So this is one very popular definition of political economy. This is by Vincent Moscoe in 2009 and this says that it is the study of social relations, particularly power relations. So power relations among the social relations that mutually constitute the production, the distribution and consumption of resources including the communication resources. So it basically studies the power relations that constitute the production of resources. So it could be production of communication resources or production of media content as well. The distribution of those resources. So it could be about distribution of media content and how that is consumed, how different people consume that content for example. So it studies the power relations that are undergird or power relations that are important for these three processes. So it does not for example take capitalism structure as a given or something which is natural, it seeks to explain how it has immersed and what are its implications for human life across societies. So there are three very important things concerning political economy that we must be clear about and one of them is commodification. And commodification means transforming things that are valued for us or that hold value for us and transforming them into marketable product that can bring in exchange. For example, we as consumers of media content are also commodified for advertisers. So this is one perspective of political economy that all these things that have value, they are converted into marketable products that can bring in exchange. Another important dimension of the political economic theory is the spatialization. The process of overcoming the constraints of geographical space. So space is no longer an impediment and for example through television and through global coverage we can overcome this distance, the problem of distance by bringing images instantaneously to every part of the globe. And this is also used especially the information and communication technology and the dimensions of computer media communication to organize business on a worldwide basis. So it allows access to people with capital to all the markets in the world and also the flexibility to move. So when conditions are not favorable in one part of the globe they would move off to another part of the globe. So this is another dimension of political economy which is spatialization. And the third is structuration and this is the process of creating social relations. So mainly the relations of social class relations of gender and relation of race. So political economy basically describes for example how access to mass media and the new communication technologies is influenced by inequalities in income for example, in social class for example and across genders for example. So it sees how access is determined by these factors of class, gender and race for example. So this is another very popular definition of political economy which describes political economy as the study of control and survival in social life. So the control processes are basically political. So we can use mass media content to control social life by suggesting that this is right and this is not right. So they constitute the social organization of relationship between a community. And the survival processes are basically economy because they concern the processes of production and reproduction. So in that sense political economy is the study of control in social life and survival in social life. So there are four different dimensions of political economy which have been described by scholars over the years. So political economy is not as I said not just it does not give priority to one sphere of life over the other. So there are four different dimensions of political economy or political economic analysis. And first is that we study this as a social change in history. So we study the dynamics of capitalism for example, the growth of capital, the state apparatus and things related to that. So we trace the historical processes which have led to the present system and not regarding this as a given or not regarding the present system as a natural system. So for example, there are studies which study how we have translated or how we have grown from or how we have carried forth from industrial to the present information economy. And as we said at the beginning, political economic analysis is also about the totality of social relations. The relations that make up the economic area of life, the relations that make up the political area of life, the social area and the cultural area. So we basically account for the mutual influence of the political and the economic to wider social and symbolic spheres of life. So we do not talk only of the economic dimension but also the political dimension and their mutual influence on each other for the wider social and cultural spheres. This also entails an interest in moral philosophy. So political economy deals with a particular moral philosophy, both in terms of what is the right social behavior and what moral principles we must employ to change the status quo. So it is an interest both in the values that help create the social behavior and the moral principles that are required to guide efforts to change it. So it provides the normative ideas about what society should be or what are the measures needed to reach to that normative. And most importantly, it also talks of social praxis. That means the fundamental unity of thinking and doing. So it talks of intervention, for example. So it does not just only describe the historical process or just does not describe the relationship between the four different spheres of life, but it also talks about social intervention as a form of knowledge that this is a system which exists and we need to change it to this ideal and this is how we do it. So it views intellectual life both as a social transformation and also social intervention. So how that social intervention is carried out is another thing, but it's important to understand that it is not only about thinking but also about doing. So there are two major origins of political economy of communication. For example, one is the tradition in the United States, which is from the Institute of Communication Research and the other, which is known as the Westminster School in England. So as we'll see, the American tradition was started by Dallas Smith and Herbert Schiller and in British tradition we had Nicholas Garnham and Graham Murdoch and Peter Golding and James Curran. So we had two different strands of political economy research and recently we also have the political economy tradition in the developing world also. So here these are some of the important strands in both the American and the British sphere. So this is Dallas Smith's work on dependency and communication capitalism in Canada. This is Herbert Schiller's mass communication and the American empire and Herbert Schiller is also responsible for the New World Information and Communication Order and the McBride Commission that we know of James Curran also from the British tradition. And then of course Nicholas Garnham and Murdoch and Golding's work on a political economy of mass communication in the mid-70s. This is some of the recent work and I've drawn on them for today's presentation. So Robert McChesney's work on the political economy of media, Vincent Moscow's political economy of communication and a recent work on studying the political economy of media and information by Professor Janet Vasco of Oregon University and many other traditions which include Christian folks work and work by Norm Chomsky and others. So this is a very important definition on political economy of journalism. This suggests that political economy of journalism studies how journalists are influenced by the political and economic power relations within an agenda setting context and how that impacts on their responsibility to serve as watchdogs rather than mere lab dogs. So it studies how journalists are influenced by these relations within an agenda setting context because that's an important work that we do as journalists and how that work is influenced by these relations and how that impacts our responsibility to serve as watchdogs rather than mere lab dogs. And this is especially important in terms of financial pressure because there is of course the temptation to create coverage whose objective is to attract advertisers because we are dealing in a structure in which advertisement revenue is paramount and it's of very great importance. So that is of course is an objective but whether we can perform both these objectives of attracting advertisers and also serving readers. So media systems as I said this is again a political economic outlook. This is not a given or it is not a natural order. This is a result of policies that have resulted from an intensely political process. So we have been historically through these political processes and the media system that we have is a result of those policies and it is the job of political economic researchers to scrutinize these policies and what are the contingencies and what are the contradictions and whose interests they serve. So their crucial goal as we say is to emphasize that the power structures are the ones that produce the media system. The media systems are not natural by implication. So it also analyzes the power relations between the media systems, between the information and communication technology and the wider social economic structure within these, within which these operate and the focus is on understanding the historical dimensions and the current state. So how we have reached through these contestations into the present stage of media that we are in. So that our relations are very important in any analysis of media. So according to McChesney, the political economic study of media involves these dimensions. So one of this could be a study of the policy making processes with an emphasis on history, on the historical processes. It could also involve a detailed examination of the relationship of the communication and information to the evolving global system of capitalism. So whether it supports that or whether it is a part of that particular system. It also involves a critique of the market, which is a given and a critique of the media markets also. It is also a critique and study of the advertisement and its relationship to marketing. So how advertisement is defining the communication process and how it is linked to the marketing dimensions. And it also involves integrating the media and communication studies into the larger democratic theory and a rigorous study of journalism in that light. So whether the functions of journalism, they are in concern with what democratic theory is or whether it is good for democracy and things like that. And of course at the political economy of internet, looking at the control dimensions, looking at digital surveillance, looking at the issues of spectrum of copyright of privacy. So all these dimensions are a part of the political economic analysis of media. So political economy addresses in a critical manner and in a future slide, we will describe what critical means. How the media system interacts with and affects the overall nature of power in society. So how does it interact with power and how does it reflect power or how does it aid those in power. So one of the questions that we ask as political economic analysts is that do the media serve as a progressive force to draw people into political debate as informed participants and as effective participants or does it just reinforce elite rule and egalitarian social relations. So does it just support the status quo and or does it involve drawing people into a political debate and to an informed political debate and into an effective political debate which would lead to policy changes to bring or to set or to set right what is not right in society. So what is critical? Critical means that the media system needs to keep a check on people who are in power or who wish to be in power. So that is the job of the media system or at least that is what the critical theory is main crux is. And the media system has to be capable of finding out the truth from lies and that's what as critical theorists we have to look for. So the media system has to provide a range of informed opinion on crucial social and political issues as well as advance out what are the problems on the horizon what are the problems which could arise because of certain policies or which could arise because of certain changes in society for that matter. So the media system has to provide the range of informed opinion also not just as a platform to bring in informed citizens but also to provide a range of opinion on these crucial social and political issues. So one of the exclusive domains of political economy is an evaluation of how market structures, how advertising support, how labor relations, how profit motivations and technologies they impact the nature and content of the news and entertainment. So how all these structures impact the journalistic practices and it requires as we suggested a mastery of microeconomics of history of journalism and policy studies. So in that way it draws on the best practices of these fields. It also examines the policy making processes as we have seen in the past and this is not about whether a given policy is natural but how did it come to be and that is where the notion of critical junctures is important that there have been certain critical junctures and those critical junctures have led to these long-standing policies that we are going through. So the present social, economic and political structure is because of what happened in those critical junctures. So as analysts we have to be aware of what those critical junctures are because those junctures that these long-standing policies are made and sustained and people support those policies. So what are the dimensions of those critical junctures? So these are relatively brief periods in which dramatic changes are debated and enacted upon. So there are a lot of opinions and it is during those critical junctures that people debate about how society should change or how things should change. So generally we have a long period in which there is a little change or there is a change which is slow and difficult then suddenly we have those brief and rare periods in which dramatic changes are debated and also enacted. So as analysts we find out what are those critical junctures or whether we are leading to a certain critical juncture like that in the future as well. So there are dimensions of what critical juncture is. These critical junctures do not last more than one or two decades. So the pandemic that we are in could be one of the critical junctures. So the range of options for society that how our future life should be or how our future society should be or the debate on these ranges is much greater during these critical junctures and the decisions that are made during these periods they establish institutions and rules that put us on a course that will be difficult to change in fundamental change for decades. So these institutions and these rules are likely to sustain for a longer duration. So that's why an understanding of the critical juncture is extremely important. So Mekchesne provides talks about three different dimensions of the critical juncture and at least two of these three conditions must be satisfied for change to take place. So one is that there is a revolutionary new communication technology that undermines the existing system. So when we had internet for example or when we had television for example or when we had radio for example or print for example. So those are the areas where critical juncture is possible and the content of the media system especially journalism is increasingly discredited or seen as illegitimate. So when there is a new system of technology and we are also of the opinion that the earlier system is discredited or is not doing the job that it should be doing. So that is one condition which can be defined as a critical juncture period. And the third is that there is a major political crisis in which existing order is no longer possible or in which these major social reform movements are more widely seen. So these three dimensions are extremely important. The presence of new technology, the disillusionment with journalism and a major political crisis. Mekchesne suggests that if two of these three conditions are satisfied then we reach a situation in which new policies can be formed or in which there is more social acceptance for new policies or change of the status quo. So this is another dimension of political economy in the third world. We have spoken about the first world and you know how we have seen it in the United States and in the British structures. So the political economy study of the developing world basically has been in response to the modernization theory that media would lead to modernization or media would lead to more development. So those western conceptions by Danny Lerner for example, they are challenged by theorists in the developing world because this technological determinism, the belief that technology will be an answer to all our problems is challenged. And what are the power relations that shape the relation between the first world nation and third world nation between the various classes in these nations and among these nations. So they are more important. So the study of power relations is more important rather than a pure and simple technological deterministic idea that if we have new technology that will take care of all our problems. So there are some examples of political economic research. This is from Professor Janet Vasco's work. So there are historical studies. There are studies that study the media and communication business for example. For example, whether there has been concentration or whether there have been diversification and all those kinds of things. Also how globalization works, about how the relation between the media and state and from the audience perspective as well. So one very important distinction of the political economic perspective, for example, from the media economic perspective is about the audience role in consuming content. So these are the new directions in which political economic analysis can take place or researchers in political economy could be interested in. One is the survival of the press media, the media in its present form. So whether it will survive and you know those kind of things. The new business models for digital journalism. So crowdsourcing as we know and there are so many other revenue models. So how are those revenue models working and whether it has any impact on content and distribution and those kind of things. The restructuring of traditional news companies and the changes that have taken place because of the present crisis. The political economic research can also talk about the ethical crisis of journalism, especially in terms of fake content. The role of public sector broadcasting, for example, in the present socioeconomic setup, how viable that is or how necessary that is. These dimensions are an important area of political economic research and also as I said, crowdsourced funding not only for digital journalism, but also for alternative form of journalism. And then also looking as journalism as labor and it's a place in the value production. The role of journalists in the age of social networks and that is such an important dimension. So how do they serve as pervious of information in the social network analysis process? And finally, who are those journalists? So how do we define journalists? So the definition of journalists itself has changed in the present digital structure. The role of women and women journalists is important area of analysis, as is the role of social networks. And we've been having a lot of discussion on platforms, including Twitter. So that again is an important area for political economic analysis and how we can manage the information and media spectacle and to make it a lot more participatory and a lot more effective. The role of Google and Facebook specifically and also Instagram and Twitter, for example. And then I've spoken about this in an earlier video also the issues of digital surveillance and the issues of surveillance capitalism. So that's a very important area for future political economic research. This is from McQuail's book on mass communication theory and he talks of the eight different dimensions of political economy. I'm going to just briefly describe what these dimensions are. So McQuail suggests that economic control and logic are one of the determinants. As we've suggested that, of course, there are the other spheres which are important, the political sphere, the social sphere and the cultural sphere, but the economic control is a determinant according to McQuail. And the media structure always trends towards monopoly. So when it is a part of that global capitalist structure, these media structures, they tend towards monopoly or that's what a political economic analysis sees. Global integration of media ownership develops or these global interactions between media owners, global media owners is seen. And as we've seen earlier, the content is commodified. It's a commodity which has an exchange value in terms of how much TRP does it bring or how much clicks does it bring or how much revenue does it bring. And audience themselves are commodified because we are a commodity for the advertisers and that is the main source of revenue for media organizations generally. And one fallout of this is that the real diversity decreases because when these are the determinants and because these are the factors that describe the media content process, that's why we have similarity in content and similarity in voices and others. And that's where the opposition voices and marginalized voices are not given place because of these political economic dimensions. And the public interest in communication is subordinated to private interest. And the benefits of communication are also unequally distributed. It is not distributed among everybody, but the access is restricted to people as we've seen before, belonging to certain classes, certain genders and certain geographical areas as well. And finally, these are the future dimensions of what political economic research could be. So there's a lot of work on political economy and feminism, for example, on race and ethnicity and how these factors, media production and media consumption about the audience or reception analysis. And that's a very important dimension that we are generally when we are talking about these macro structures, the audience response is a very important way to look at it. And there have been a lot of studies, especially from an anthropological perspective, looking at the historical roots of consumption. And there have been a lot of work on ethnography and political economy as well. So as we've seen, this is a very, very important dimension of media and communication research. Thank you for your participation.