Power and Control in and over new and old media..

What is Political Economy?
- Previous theories focussed on text
- Semiology exclusively
- Genre prioritised text but pointed to producers and audiences

Material Conditions

• Market Pressures
• Ownership Structures
• The Drive to Commodify Culture and Information

Material Conditions: impact on text

• Nick Davies - flat earth news
• News as a commodity
• Cost cutting in news room
• Re-versioning and failing to fault check
• It's the material conditions of cultural production

Power - Hard power --> control of Capital, Military, Legal systems etc. (ACTION)

Soft Power --> symbols, discourses, the cultural and semiological  

Political Economy and Power 

• Media hard power exerted through --> ownership structures and concentration (vertical and horizontal integration) 
• Control of production subsides (advertising, sponsorship)

THREE levels of power -->

1. the ability to influence decisions
2. the ability to set agenda
3. structural power 

Berlusconi

Berlusconi can behave in a certain way because he has 'media power' as well as economic ownership and political power interact with 'media power'. 

1. building firms
2. local TV
3. national newspaper
4. AC Milan
5. 3 main commercial TV
6. Forza Italia
7. state television 

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Political Economy and HBO

• An alternative buisness model to traditional US commercial TV
• Subscription channel
• Niche market - educated/affluent people

Hegemony theory 

- Hegemony - when popular ideas or 'common sense' reflects the interests of the powerful - (ideology)-