Page 15 - Cultural Studies and Political Economy

4 Introduction to Part One

record at an auction—all these are admired, acclaimed, and in turn promoted
for their success in the marketplace, illustrating by example the doctrine of
consumer sovereignty and validating the meaning of success in a pecuniary
culture. 4
As well, within their narratives and visual representations, symbolic wares
often depict the ontology of consumerism—product placements in movies be-
ing but one example of a surreptitious if not always subtle mode of persua-
sion. Furthermore, popular songs, famous paintings, literary allusions, star
athletes, and celebrities increasingly are used by advertisers to help brand
products, again affirming the nexus of popular culture and the broader polit-
ical economy.
McLuhan’s “mentor,” economic historian and media theorist Harold
5
Adams Innis (1894–1952), went further. Innis maintained that throughout the
course of human history, cultures, cultural artifacts, and cultural processes
have generally supported, and were supported by, their society’s predominant
mode of economic and political organization. Within each civilization or so-
ciety, according to Innis, there is and always has been a symbiosis between
economy/polity on the one hand and the dominant culture/mode of commu-
nication on the other. If and when these grow out of synch, Innis maintained,
transformation, transition, or even revolution follows. Later in the book, we
will look more closely at Innis’ media thesis.
Culture is our business, and business is our culture. Few today would deny
at least some interactivity between culture/cultural artifacts and the econ-
omy/polity. Nonetheless, in the scholarly fields of communication and media
studies, there has been, famously, a split—indeed, an at times bitter rift—
between those analyzing the economic, financial, policy, and power dimen-
sions of cultural production and practice (“political economists”) versus “cul-
tural studies” scholars. Cultural studies may be loosely defined as the multi-
disciplinary study of culture across various social strata, where culture refers
to arts, knowledge, beliefs, customs, practices, and norms of social interac-
tion. Studies in political economy of media, in contrast, focus on the eco-
nomic, financial, and political causes and consequences of culture. Exploring
the rift—the causes, dimensions, consequences, and possible resolution—is
the central topic of this book.
I argue here that in their formative years, political economy of media and
cultural studies were fully integrated, consistent, and mutually supportive, but
the poststructuralist turn in cultural studies caused media studies to split into
hostile political economy and cultural studies camps. I also claim that that
split today, however, is no greater than the current division within cultural
studies itself—between poststructuralism and cultural materialism—those
terms being defined below.