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

• 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.

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Indiatogether.com

• Zmag.org

• Yes Magazine.

• TheRealNews.com

• www.fair.org (horrible fonts)

Resources

• 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_eight.pdf

• http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2870

• http://indiatogether.org/opinions/psainath/

• Sites polled: CNN, MSNBC, Hindu, TOI, Rediff.

• Other sites: – http://www.commondreams.org/

– http://www.countercurrents.org/

– http://www.democracynow.org/