Contradictions of Communication : Towards a Critique of Commodification in Political Economy of Communication
Abstract
In the current historical epoch contradictions have multiplied. The author emphasizes that contradictions have also broadened and expanded into communication and the communicative sphere, which lay at the centre of this book's analysis.
It is pointed out that social changes and ICTs, which cannot be analysed outside of the wider social relations, need to be analysed in a historical manner, in the context of the existing asymmetries of power, inequalities and by considering key reasons for their emergence and specific historical development. The starting point of the monograph is in the political economy of communication, which is the key critical approach in media and communication studies.
Author provides a critique of the process of commodification, which is defined as one of the key processes in the capitalist societies. It is pointed out that political economy of communication offers a unique and original way of analysing (mass) media.
Only this research tradition offers - with its theoretical insights, conceptual apparatus and existing explanations - a way of holistically analysing structural, historical changes and the most fundamental social relations, with special focus on communication, media, and information. Analyses in the book move between fundamental theoretical insights that build on critical approaches to social sciences, and currently topical issues.
A deep historical insight is offered in the processes of commodification of communication and in the expansion of capital as such. Contradictions and limits in the field of media, technologies and communication are thoroughly analysed, while different aspects of new ICTs are analysed as well, because they make possible both new forms of social surveillance (and surveillance capitalism) and emancipatory forms of political activism.
Reasons, why media can contribute to the stabilisation of the existing order, are analysed as well.