Page 28 - Cultural Studies and Political Economy

Genealogy of Political Economy 17

cultural studies went their separate ways. With the Frankfurt School of the
1930s and 1940s, there was no such division.
In a classic article first published in 1941, Paul Lazarsfeld (a founder and
practitioner par excellence of administrative media studies) cast further light on
critical media-related studies. Lazarsfeld distinguished between “administra-
tive” media research (research carried out at the behest of large organizations,
generally to help them improve the effectiveness with which they used media),
and “critical” media research. In making the distinction, Lazarsfeld had Max
Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno firmly in mind, the latter for a time being a
colleague of Lazarsfeld’s at Princeton. Lazarsfeld suggested four major differ-
ences. First, unlike administrative research, critical media research supplies a
broad, often historical context. Second, it addresses the “general role of our me-
dia of communication in the present social situation.” Third, it develops “a the-
ory of the prevailing social trends of our time.” Fourth, it insists on “ideas of ba-
sic human values according to which all actual or desired effects should be
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appraised.” It is this last-mentioned dimension—the appraisal of actual cir-
cumstances and practices in light of enduring human values and ideals—that
makes the term, “critical,” so apt.
Unmentioned by Lazarsfeld but also characterizing critical media research
are its dialectical mode of analysis, 31 its interdisciplinarity, 32 its negative
stance toward both concentrated power and instrumental reason, its attempt
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34
to integrate philosophy and social analysis, and its focus on the social total-
35
ity. Practically speaking, a researcher’s self-positioning as administrative or
critical will have a significant bearing on the choice of research projects,
Lazarsfeld himself being a prime example as illustrated by his refusal to study
the relationship between the U.S. Congress, the Federal Communications
Commission, and the broadcasting companies because (as he confided to his
memoirs) “a budding research institute is dependent on the media and must
try to avoid losing their support.” 36

CRITICAL MEDIA STUDIES

Today, however, and this is of course the main point, critical media studies is
split in two. There is both a critical political economy, which has a material-
ist and generally social science orientation, and a critical cultural studies,
which is more closely aligned with the arts, literature, and humanities. In a
very real sense, the Frankfurt School birthed both these modes of critical me-
dia analysis. This chapter traces through the beginnings of critical political
economy of media, while chapter 2 addresses cultural studies.