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The Political Economy

The Political Economy has been defined in many ways, however according to Long (2012) the political economy, when being into put into media terminology, has been deemed to be summarised as the ‘business of media, is business.’ This concept suggests that even though we see and interact with media every day, we still need to remember that it is also a business and because of this, it has set out goals and profit to gain. Fenton’s (2007) approach also suggests that the media industry is mainly focused on making revenue and how it affects society. Both works have different approaches to this subject however they also have many similarities, which I discuss further on.
The key points that were highlighted in both works were, the conducting of revenue, the use of competition and the culture that lays behind it. Throughout her work, Fenton argued that the use of financing is a scheme that has been put into place to reveal our unequal society, she then states that it is known to be a capitalist society. I strongly agree with her argument, and believe that because of the positive correlation between the political economy and cultural studies, we struggle with representation and consumption.
On the other hand, Long, focused on the pivotal fact of media business which, in agreeance with Fenton’s work suggests that media products generate profit, however so does the sale of audiences especially by advertisers. In addition to this, the culture of production has shaped how ethnography has been used as a way for us to make sense of many things. For example, the newspaper ‘The Daily Mirror’ supports the Conservative party suggesting that the content that has been placed in their outlet maybe placed, to change the minds of the reader and persuade them to vote in a particular way.
Overall, I found the topic of political economy very interesting, it really opened my eyes into the way society works and how easy it is for us to be manipulated and categorized through class and audience. The political economy is a great topic to research and delve into. For research purposes, I believe that it would be a great idea to analyse the affect that newspapers have in politics and map out the areas in Birmingham that differentiate from each other and compare it to class and culture.

References
Long and Wall, (2012) Media Studies, Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition) London, Pearsons, Oxon, Routledge, pp 168 – 203
Fenton, Natalie (2007) Bridging the Mythical Divide: Political Economy and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of the Media, Key Issues and Debates, London, SAGE pp 7 – 51

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