Page 172 - Critical Political Economy of the Media

Marketing communications and media 151

conservative content and values and tend to be hostile to criticisms of con-
sumerist ideologies and arrangements of which they are major beneficiaries
(Herman and McChesney 1997: 6–7). In these ways advertising reinforces the
tendencies in corporate media that filter content. Herman and McChesney
describe a media/advertiser complex that prefers entertainment over cultivation
of the public sphere. ‘Advertisers have ideological – and practical – biases that
have nothing to do with viewer demand’ Lewis (2010: 343).

Renewing the critical tradition

Critical political economy has insisted on examining the economic, political and
cultural aspects of media and advertising relationships. Yet, the radical tradition
needs to be revised and renewed to take account of changes in media and to
offer a suitably rich and compelling analysis and theorisation of media–advertising
relationships.
Radical perspectives lost ground in the 1980s subject to revisionist attacks from
media and cultural studies. Culturalist approaches emphasised people’simmersion
in branding and brand culture, and turned away from what were regarded as
crude, Marxian domination theories. Critical accounts of advertising have been
critiqued as misplaced and displaced: misplaced because they focus on selective
visible aspects (advertising texts) to the detriment of analysing production, labour and
consumption (Nava 1997); displaced because ‘[s]ociological critiques of advertising
are, in any event, really critiques of market society’ says McFall (2011: 93).
The culturalist critique makes valid points but the attack is lopsided. Critical
scholarship is not wedded to presumptions of strong ideological effects or
manipulation associated with mass media domination paradigms. Instead, it is
distinguished by the concern to identify and address problems arising from the
manner in which resources, including communication resources, are organised in
social life. The radical tradition can be renewed by addressing the ways in which
marketer power can be realised and undermined, challenged and contested.
Marketers’‘economic surveillance’ combined with social segmentation presents
profound challenges for democracy, social inclusion and cultural exchange (Turow
2011). At the same time, the marketing communications industries are adapting
to challenging new conditions and volatility across markets. US consumers are
spending nearly 30 per cent of their time online with media but while part of
that time is spent with ad-supported destinations, such as branded websites, most
is spent on communications including email and social media. ‘As a result, only
eight per cent of total ad spending is going to online media’ (Mandese 2010).
The challenges for advertising, and the work of creative professionals to achieve
advertising effectiveness, must be fully addressed and incorporated into analysis.
CPE attention to advertising as a support mechanism for media remains of
central importance but needs updating as ‘possibilities for the direct influence of
content keep changing’ (Leiss et al. 2005: 120) and, as contemporary environ-
ments, involve the blurring of pro-am identities, co-creation and networked