Page 92 - Critical Political Economy of the Media

Media cultures, media economics, media problems 71

Organisation and social relations of labour in media
and communications

working conditions, pay, protection, equality, protection for editorial
independence and for artistic integrity
access and opportunities for employment and training
industrial democracy and worker participation in decision-making.

Content and outcomes
the range and quality of information, ideas and imagery
the nature of journalism and its relationship to democratic practices
depoliticisation of society, knowledge gaps
media representation
voice and access to public communications
the relationship of media to racial, gender and socio-economic inequality
the relationship of media to national government policies, foreign policy and
militarism
the relationship of media to transnational governance
the nature of commercialism and its impact on culture.

Holistic and integrated concerns
the relationship of communication to global and contemporary capitalism
the relationship of technology to media, and to politics and society
the relationship of media to the distribution of power in societies
the relationship of media to popular social movements.

Communication problems and twenty-first century media
For some critics the critical political economy of media tradition is fixed in the
problematics of mass media that informed its creation in the 1960s and 1970s.
The tradition is unable, or in milder versions ill-equipped, to serve as a basis for
understanding changes that have transformed media and communications systems.
In its late twentieth century versions CPE is associated with the critique that
media systems in advanced economies are dominated by a handful of corporate
providers. A central problem is the lack of plurality of voice and diversity of
ownership under a market system. This account is challenged for its neglect of
more recent or pressing problems that fall outside of the ‘mass media’ provision
problematic. Online privacy, state and corporate control over data, Internet
controls, intellectual property and data management all involve the kinds of
relationships that CPE has examined between states, major corporate actors and
consumers. But they all involve relationships between various kinds of commu-
nication users and producers, hybrid identities and relationships with and