Re-Engaging Critical Communication Studies With Social Classes

This article is an attempt to reestablish the linkage of the political economy of communication with the field of social classes and class relations. Studies in the field of political economy of communication are mostly shaped within the scope of instrumentalist explanation: Social communication institutions such as communication and media are perceived as a very homogeneous structure and these institutions are directly considered as the apparatus of capital and capitalists. However, in this study, it is argued that in capitalist societies, communication, and media should be understood as a field and medium of class struggle loaded with contradictions. Another point is that the political economy of communication is mostly limited to media studies. However, in today's capitalist societies, the media is not the only structure and actor in which communication forms. In this study, communication practices in capitalist society are discussed in the context of class discussions and the relationship between class struggle, culture and communication is discussed.

A Dialectical Approach to Understanding the Critical Content of Alternative Media

Various definitions of alternative media have been put forward and a number of approaches to determining “alternative” suggested. Many theorists emphasize the administrative/organizational aspects of alternative media. Critics of this approach point out that such organizational structures can also be used in media advancing repressive ideas and argue instead for a focus on content. A more radical approach argues that to be determined as alternative, the content of any media must be critical. However, little attention has been given to what constitutes “critical content.” This study stands in the tradition of Marxist criticism and applies dialectical method to analyzing and understanding the social phenomena of critical content, arguing that only such an approach can reveal the social and political role of media for it to be considered alternative. From this perspective, alternative media can be seen as a theoretical weapon in the struggle for self-emancipation, as is dialectical materialist philosophy.

Advertising Sector in Turkey

Advertising is a growing global industry that aims to create demand for products, goods, and services, and keeps demand alive and promotes and increases sales and profits. Advertising is also an important source of income for the media. The aim of this study is to examine both the development of the advertising industry in Turkey from a historical perspective and to shed light on the economic relationship of advertising within the media industry and consumption. In addition, the study aims to provide a brief descriptive analysis of the international advertising agencies operating in Turkey. In the current study, the economic functions of advertising can be split into two. One of these points to the relationship established with consumption and the other points to the relationship established with the media. Although it is not possible to limit the functions of advertising from an economic point of view, it has a certain limitation in terms of the scope and purpose of the study.

The Other Side of Public Relations

After 1980, as PR was advocating the neo-liberal policies such as deregulation, privatization, and free global trade which were largely implemented, it played an instrumental role. These practices aimed at reducing state control, preventing state intervention in the market and changing existing economic regulations have played an important role in abandoning the Keynesian Welfare economy. These neoliberal policies put into practice were not only for the interest of big business against the common good but also led to a further gap increase between the countries. In the case of global reactions against these policies, public relations were used for consent engineering or manipulation. Perceptions and beliefs are managed with common persuasion methods so that the public cannot understand this. This requires considering public relations in a more complex, national and global framework through economic policy studies which analyze the political economy, politics and social dimensions in a holistic way.

Social Media Economy and Newsroom Convergence in Egyptian Media

In Egypt, for the past 20 years, several news organizations began to diffuse ICT resources in the news-making processes to attract a larger audience. Soon, the utilization of new technologies has altered the traditional newsgathering and production formats changing the nature of journalism practices and routines. The success of newsrooms, especially in post-Egyptian revolution era is measured in their ability to adopt, integrate, and utilize ICTs in all processes of production to satisfy their readers. This study focuses on the diffusion and implementation of social media in Al Ahram newsroom. Further, the study examines if/and to what extent and in what ways did Al Ahram newsroom incorporate ICTs in their daily routine. Other questions are as follows: What are the ICTs components that are diffused and adopted in the Egyptian print media?, What are the form(s) of networking among journalists and their networking strategy –if any– with their sources, editors and audience?, Is there a convergence strategy or strategies within the Egyptian newsrooms? And if so, what is it/are they?

Working to Produce Consensus

This chapter presents an interdisciplinary model involving journalism studies and political economy of communication to understand why news published in mass media reproduces hegemonic values. From this interdisciplinarity approach, the author raises what he calls the critical theory of journalism that has, as its core, the Marxist category of labor. The chapter presents a brief exposition of the epistemological ground of the critical theory of journalism and then demonstrates the specificities of journalistic work under monopoly capitalism. The author then criticizes phenomenological sociology and its use in journalism studies, and concludes his argument by criticizing the ideology of professionalism among newsworkers and its influence on the hegemonic character of news values.

Political Economy of Anti-Refugee in Turkey and Cyber-Racism

In this study, the economic fundamentals of cyber racist rhetoric against the Syrian refugees in Turkey has been examined through the #suriyelilerdefolsun hashtag on Twitter platforms via thematic analysis. According to the findings, state aid, the Syrian refugees as the cause of the economic crisis, and the reaction the “rich” Syrians themes come to forefront. The cause of economic problems in Turkey are linked to the presence of Syrian refugees. The main reasons for the reaction can be listed as: health, food, education and salary assistance of the state for refugees; aid by race characteristics, cheap labor, Syrian employer, tax evasion, unskilled labor, insufficient housing / rent increase, inflaition increase, distinction of needs, and luxury. As a result, it can be said that the young Syrian male population became the target of the reaction in cyber racist discourses.

What Determine Indonesian Commercial News TV Channels' Political News Production and Publication in the Post-Soeharto Regime

This work focuses on structural-systemic factors that have been determining Indonesian commercial news TV Channels' political news production and publication in the Post-Soeharto Regime. A critical political economy perspective of the media and the media behaviours, performance, and content production models were adopted. Articles published in qualified journals, theses and reports released by Indonesian mainstream media related with such issue and in-depth interview derived from five senior editors/journalists of Indonesian commercial news TV channels and interview data collected from Indonesian journalists through online survey were extracted using the qualitative content and thematic analyses. The findings indicate that the following factors systematically determined political news production and publications organized by such private news TV channels. These factors include cartelised political system, party cartelisation, oligarchic media ownership, Pancasila (the Five Principles) as a unitary Indonesian state and government ideology, types and personal characters of the news sources, and religious violence groups.

Political Economy of Communication

There are different approaches and schools in the field of mass communication. Political economy, in itself, is divided into a liberal or classical political economy and a critical—Marxist—political economy. According to the Marxist-oriented critical political economy approach, the economic basis of a society determines the superstructure of that society such as state, politics, culture, and ideology. Since media is very important in producing and reproducing existing relations of property and power in capitalist societies, it is important to analyze the media with a political economy approach. Briefly, in the context of the system of political economy of communication, the effects of capital and state on media contents are explained. In this section, after examining the origins and historical development of the field of political economy as a critical social science, the characteristics of contemporary critical political economy are put forward.

Critical Political Economy and Content Analysis

The analysis of media content is not an integral part of the critical political economy of communication. The reasons can be understood in their historical contexts. Nonetheless, there is a case to be made that there exists an urgent need to remedy this state of affairs. Given existential threats to the planet, especially global warming and the possibility of nuclear war, it is more urgent than ever that critical political economists engage in one of the main characteristics of their subfield, praxis, and find ways to connect to citizens and stimulate them to become active in the public arena. This chapter argues that one way to do so is to produce content analyses of media coverage of current important political issues. By showing citizens evidence of the many problems with mainstream, often commercial media, citizens will be more likely to become involved in movements that aim at radical reform of media and politics.