scholarly journals Capitalism and the media: moral, economy, well-Being and capabilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-401
Author(s):  
David Hesmondhalgh

This article aims to contribute to the renewal of the way media and culture are viewed under capitalism, by seeking solid normative foundations for critique via various compatible elements: moral economy, well-being understood as flourishing, Sen and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, and culture value. Normative and conceptual issues concerning capitalism, media, and culture have received insufficient attention and moral economy approaches might help fill this gap with a rich and critical ethics-based approach to economy and society, compatible with the best political economy. The article outlines the approach of the capabilities, analyses its rare applications to media and culture, and explains how these applications might be constructed, by developing Nussbaum’s work in a way that contributes to people’s flourishing by grounding critique in an understanding of the potential value of media and culture’.

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hesmondhalgh

This article aims to contribute to the renewal of consideration of media and culture under capitalism, by seeking solid normative foundations for critique via various compatible elements: moral economy, well-being understood as flourishing and Sen and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. Insufficient attention has been paid to normative and conceptual issues concerning capitalism, media and culture. Moral economy approaches might help fill this gap by valuably providing a richly critical ethics-based approach, drawing on political economy, cultural studies and social theory. Two further concepts, compatible with moral economy, can reinvigorate and renew critique of capitalism, media and culture. The first is a particular (Aristotelian) conception of well-being, understood as flourishing. This is outlined, and its potential contribution to critique of media and culture under capitalism is explicated. The second concept is capabilities, which can provide a basis for dealing with different understandings of flourishing. The article outlines the capabilities approach, analyses rare applications of it to media and culture, and explains how these applications might be built upon, by developing Nussbaum’s work in a way that could ground critique in an understanding of the potential value of media and culture in contributing to people’s flourishing.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Coderre

Contemporary China is seen as a place of widespread commodification and consumerism, while the preceeding Maoist Cultural Revolution is typically understood as a time when goods were scarce and the state criticized what little consumption was possible. Indeed, with the exception of the likeness and words of Mao Zedong, both the media and material culture of the Cultural Revolution are often characterized as a void out of which the postsocialist world of commodity consumption miraculously sprang fully formed. In Newborn Socialist Things, Laurence Coderre explores the material culture of the Cultural Revolution to show how it paved the way for commodification in contemporary China. Examining objects ranging from retail counters and porcelain statuettes to textbooks and vanity mirrors, she shows how the project of building socialism in China has always been intimately bound up with consumption. By focusing on these objects—or “newborn socialist things”—along with the Cultural Revolution’s media environment, discourses of materiality, and political economy, Coderre reconfigures understandings of the origins of present-day China.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-176
Author(s):  
Eka Sri Dana Afriza ◽  
Udi Rusadi

A public apology is a fairly common content found on the YouTube platform to restore the reputation and regain people's trust. At the same time, Youtube can also be used as a commodity-based economic platform that allows organizations, individuals, and Google (the owner of Youtube) to earn revenue either through advertising or direct promotion. These two things reflect the dual benefits of two opposites: genuine demand in the public interest and economic exploitation for the benefit of certain parties. This is well explored by the political economy theory of media which sees the digital platform as a convergence between the moral economy of commodities, the moral economy of gifts, and the moral economy of public goods. This article aims to further explore the three elements of the political economy of the media in the context of apologies on Youtube in five cases that occurred in Indonesia. The five apology cases were analyzed using parameters reflecting the moral economy of commodities, gifts, and public goods. The results of the analysis provide a typology of apology and a model that reflects the interrelation between the three moral economies involved in every apology.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Fuochi ◽  
Chiara A. Veneziani ◽  
Alberto Voci

Abstract. This paper aimed to assess whether differences in the way to conceive happiness, measured by the Orientations to Happiness measure, were associated with specific reactions to negative events. We hypothesized that among orientations to pleasure (portraying hedonism), to meaning (representing a eudaimonic approach to life), and to engagement (derived from the experience of flow), orientation to meaning would have displayed a stronger protective role against recent negative and potentially stressful events. After providing a validation of the Italian version of the Orientations to Happiness measure (Study 1), we performed regression analyses of the three orientations on positive and negative emotions linked to a self-relevant negative event (Study 2), and moderation analyses assessing the interactive effects of orientations to happiness and stressful events on well-being indicators (Study 3). Our findings supported the hypotheses. In Study 2, meaning was associated with positive emotions characterized by a lower activation (contentment and interest) compared to the positive emotions associated with pleasure (amusement, eagerness, and happiness). In Study 3, only meaning buffered the effect of recent potentially stressful events on satisfaction with life and positive affect. Results suggest that orientation to meaning might help individuals to better react to negative events.


1982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey A. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 730-744
Author(s):  
V.I. Loktionov

Subject. The article reviews the way strategic threats to energy security influence the quality of people's life. Objectives. The study unfolds the theory of analyzing strategic threats to energy security by covering the matter of quality of people's life. Methods. To analyze the way strategic threats to energy security spread across cross-sectoral commodity and production chains and influences quality of people's living, I applied the factor analysis and general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis. Results. I suggest interpreting strategic threats to energy security as risks of people's quality of life due to a reduction in the volume of energy supply. I identified mechanisms reflecting how the fuel and energy complex and its development influence the quality of people's life. The article sets out the method to assess such quality-of-life risks arising from strategic threats to energy security. Conclusions and Relevance. In the current geopolitical situation, strategic threats to energy security cause long-standing adverse consequences for the quality of people's life. If strategic threats to energy security are further construed as risk of quality of people's life, this will facilitate the preparation and performance of a more effective governmental policy on energy, which will subsequently raise the economic well-being of people.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174804852199056
Author(s):  
Baruch Shomron ◽  
Amit Schejter

This study examines how media representations of Palestinian-Israeli politicians, can help community members realize their capabilities. The study’s database is comprised of 1,207 interviews conducted with Palestinian-Israeli politicians on news and current affairs programs on the three national television channels and the two national radio stations in Israel, for 24 months (2016-2017). We identified and analyzed the differences in the modes of representation between national and local Palestinian-Israeli politicians and between Palestinian-Israeli parliament members in the Joint List and Palestinian-Israeli parliament members in Zionist parties, all through the capabilities prism. In this study, we demonstrated how different types of Palestinian-Israeli politicians may potentially affect the realization of different political functions and capabilities. Analyzing political representations in the media through the theoretical framework of the ‘capabilities approach’ contributes to a more comprehensive insight into the roles the media can play promoting people’s wellbeing and human rights, relative to traditional media theories.


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