Political Economy of Mass Media
Prashant Nema
Glossary
• Political economy: Study of production, buying and
selling and their relation with law, custom and
government.
• Media: Plural for Medium. Used to refer to Medium
thru which Information travels or is stored.
• Mass Media: Section of media designed to reach a
large audience.
• Corporation: A legal entity which has legal personality.
Key features are ability to own assets, can be sued,
perpetual lifetime.
• Conglomerate: A large corporation that consist of
diverse divisions.
Brief History of Media
• Ways in which people spread their ideas and
observations.
– Cave paintings
– Writings
– Ballads, Folklores, Doha
– Religious , cultural, political gatherings.
– Printing Press.
– Loud speakers.
– Radio, Television, Internet.
Brief History of Political System
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Kings, Emperors, Knights, Barons, Lords.
Magna Carta.
French Revolution.
Democracy
Workers Right Movements/Industrial
revolution.
• Russian Revolution.
Media by ownership.
• State owned media.
• Private owned media.
• Public owned media.
Expectation from present day Media
• Fair and independent.
• Democratic in nature.
• News choices rest on unbiased professional
and objective criteria.
• Every one has a way to voice his concern and
be heard.
However…
• The current model forces the news thru set of
filters.
• Let us visit them.
First Filter
Ownership Size Filter
• Radical press for working class started in early
19th century.
• Seen as a threat by ruling elites.
• Punitive actions did not work.
• Market forces however worked.
• Newspaper enterprise grew in scale and
capital cost rose.
Media Startup Cost
• 1834(UK) – Less than thousand pounds. Break even
circulation 6200 copies.
• 1851(US)- 69,000 dollars.
• 1867(UK)- 50,000 pounds.
• 1872(US)- St.Louis Democrat sold for 450000 dollars.
• 1918(UK)- Sunday Express spent 2 million pounds to
break even with 250000 circulation.
• 1920’s(US)- Newspapers selling for 6-18 million dollars.
• 2007(US)- Wallstreet journal sold for 5 billion dollars.
( Data till 1920’s by James Curran and Jean Seaton)
Ownership has shrunk over time.
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1983: Fifty corporations dominated media.
1987: Twenty nine corps. Dominated media.
1990: Twenty three.
1997: Ten.
2000: Nine. (350 billion dollars Aol-Time-Warner
merger).
• 2006: Eight.
• The countdown continues…
(Data till 2000 by Ben H. Bagdikian)
2006(closer look)
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Disney (market value: $72.8 billion)
AOL-Time Warner (market value: $90.7 billion)
Viacom (market value: $53.9 billion)
General Electric (owner of NBC, market value:
$390.6 billion)
News Corporation (market value: $56.7 billion)
Yahoo! (market value: $40.1 billion)
Microsoft (market value: $306.8 billion)
Google (market value: $154.6 billion)
Features of ownership model
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Profit seeking.
Integrated in to stock market.
Easy take over.
Cross ownership and control by non media
companies.
• Stocks closely held by controlling group.
• Dependent on government for licenses and
franchises. Hence lobbying and political ties a
must.
Second Filter
Advertising License.
• “Market will promote papers enjoying the
preference of advertising public”- Sir George
Lewis.
• Advertising led to increase in production cost.
• Advertising is NOT a neutral market. The
choice of advertisers are more important than
the audience.
• The news is not a product. The audiences are.
Features of advertising filter
• Drives alternate media out.
– 4 British newspaper with 9.3 million readership died out in 1960s .
– Readership decline was NOT the reason.
– Daily Herald had 8.1% national circulation but only 3.5 % advertising.
• The news is targeted towards the affluent and those who
buy stuffs.
– Neilsen ratings: We collect viewing information for both national and local programs —
not only what's being viewed (tuning data), but also the composition of the audience
(demographic data).
• Advertisers can control the news.
• Newspaper/TV stations learn lessons.
• They tend to avoid programs/discussion that are too
serious or controversial.
• Exceptions may happen in case of recent embarrassments.
Third Filter
Sourcing Mass Media.
• Media has a symbiotic relationship with news makers.
• Resource concentration where most news occurs.
• Source need to be credible. Government and
corporate sources are assumed credible.
• Cost factor tends to make sources that require fact
checking less attractive.
• The preferred sources due to their size generate lots of
news and have services to provide it to media.
• Supply of experts from these sources.
Features of Sourcing
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Special access for powerful to reach the news.
Non-routine sources must struggle for access.
Media may feel obligated to mute criticism.
The powerful sources may use their power over media to
deny critics access.
Sources may flood media with “facts” to chase unwanted
stories away from front page.
Corporates frequently fund “research” institutes that are
cited as sources.
20,000 more PR professionals than journalists in US.
Indian PR industry is growing at 40%(Its expected to remain
so till 2010).
Fourth Filter
Flak and the Enforcers
• “Flak”: negative response to media statement
or program.
• Can be uncomfortable and costly.
• Advertisers may boycott or avoid if media
coverage elicits negative image.
• Complain made to stock holder and
employees.
Features of Flak and the Enforcers
• Ability to produce flak that is costly or
threatening is related to power and money.
• If the media deviates in wrong direction funding
for political campaign may bring the “right”
person.
• Legal Institutes such as “Media Institute”,
“Accuracy in Media”, “Center for Media and
Public Affair” keep watch on media and produce
flak.
• Government itself produces flak and keeps media
in control.
Fifth Filter
Anticommunism Filter
• Prevailing ideology filter.
• Messages that don’t agree with the ideology
may face rejection.
• World issues framed into two sides. Their side
and our side.
• Defectors or informers of “their” side get a
free pass.
• Fear of being tarred with charges of infidelity.
Implementation of the filters
• Media does not function as in totalitarian
state.
• Some dissent and debates are allowed as long
as they adhere to elite consensus.
• Self sustaining system. Filters are internalized.
• People with right priorities are selected.
Covered vs. Not Covered
Covered
Not Covered.
India shining
Farmer suicides
Munnabhai in Jail
Floods of 2007
Aishwarya-Abhishek Marriage.
Kashipur resistance.
India 4th in billionaire list.
India 128th on Human Development Index
Stock market rise and fall.
IPL Cricket auctions
Food availability to Indian household.
Aishwarya’s Karwa Chauth
India 94 on Global Hunger Index.
Shahrukh’s smoking.
Questions about BT Cotton and Monsanto
seeds.
India has highest maternal deaths.
Alternate media
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Indiatogether.com
Zmag.org
Yes Magazine.
TheRealNews.com
www.fair.org (horrible fonts)
Resources
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Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (Paperback)
by Edward S. Herman (Author), Noam Chomsky (Author)
http://thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Manufac_Consent_Prop_Model.html
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/03/and_then_there_were_eig
ht.pdf
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2870
http://indiatogether.org/opinions/psainath/
Sites polled: CNN, MSNBC, Hindu, TOI, Rediff.
Other sites:
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http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.countercurrents.org/
http://www.democracynow.org/