MDSA01H3 Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Media Industries: Marxist, Organizational, and Pragmatic Perspectives
Marxist Analysis
• Marxist media scholars are interested in how economic contexts and imperatives impact the
production and distribution of media content. Books, films, and television shows do not just
spontaneously occur: all are created as products to be bought and sold in a greater system of
commodity exchange
• Marxist scholars are concerned with how the idea of media content as product, in turn, shapes the way
it looks and circulates
Marxist Theory
Marxism – is both a social theory and a political movement rooted in the idea that “society
is the history of class struggles” Its origins lie in the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels, who collaborated on The German Ideology in 1845 and the Communist Manifesto in 1848
• Central premise of Marxism: mode of production in society determines the social relations of
production
• This theory understands and makes sense of the world through the perspective of historical
materialism – the character of social life to be a reflection of the material conditions that exist at a
particular historical juncture
• Marxism is considered a materialist philosophy
• Marx believed that the material conditions od societies change over time and must therefore be
viewed in historical context
• Marxism holds a cultural super structure – social consciousness, as encoded in institutions such as
religion, politics, government, education, law, and art and media; and the economic base – reflects or
mirrors the material conditions of society
• The mode of production in a society is characterized by 2 elements:
o Forces of production – the land, natural resources, ad technology needed to produce material
goods
o Relations of production – labor practices and ownership
• A society based on a capitalist mode of production is inherently exploitive because it creates 2 classes:
o Working/ Proletariat class
o Ruling/ Bourgeois class – exploits the economic value of the working class to increase surplus
value or profits
• Labor Theory of Value
o Middle class – the petty/petite bourgeoisie, of small business and white-collar workers; they
appear to be less grounded in their working conditions
o This led to the rejection of the deterministic models called “vulgar Marxism” – see the
superstructure as having no autonomy from the economic base
• Capitalism is driven by the continuous desire to increase capital, an ideology known as the profit-
motive
Patterns of Media Ownership
• Marxist analysis of mass media begins by examining the means and relations of production under
contemporary capitalism, or what Marxist critic Fredric Jameson calls multinational capitalism
o Capitalism changes over time
Four current and deeply intertwined patters of media ownership:
1. Concentration
2. Conglomeration
3. Integration
4. Multinationalism
Concentration
• The media and entertainment industry in the USA and much of the world is highly concentrated – it is
owned and controlled by a small group of powerful companies
• The domination of an entire industry by just a few companies is sometimes referred to as an oligopoly,
as opposed to a monopoly in which one company dominates an entire industry (eg. Microsoft’s
domination of the software industry)
• Concentration occurs both within particular media industries such as music, which is dominated by
three major companies (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group),
and across the media industry as a whole
Conglomeration
- the corporate practice of accumulating multiple companies and businesses through startups, mergers,
buyouts, and takeovers
- describes a corporate structure in which a parent company owns and controls a host of subsidiary
companies
• Some scholars reserve the term conglomerate to describe large corporation whose media holdings
reflect one dimension of their overall corporate portfolio
Integration
- is an ownership pattern in which the subsidiary companies or branches within a corporation are
strategically interrelated
• Corporations can be integrated vertically, horizontally, or both
o Vertical integration – describes a corporation that owns and controls various aspects of
production and distribution within a single media industry like publishing or broadcasting; it can
significantly increase the profits associated with a media product by allowing the parent
corporation to oversee all stages of its development, everything from its production and
marketing to its distribution and exhibition
▪ eg. a media conglomerate that owns record copyrights, record labels, sound recording
studios, and record clubs, stores, or other distribution outlets would possess strong
vertical integration in the music industry
o Horizontal integration – describes an ownership pattern in which a corporation dominates one
stage (or level in the value chain) of the production process; enhances synergy
▪ Some firms achieve horizontal integration through ownership of multiple media outlets
in one market, thereby reducing competition
▪ A second way for a corporation to achieve horizontal integration is to own and control
companies across various media industries, but typically at the same level of production,
distribution, or exhibition
• This corporate structure is referred to as cross-media ownership
Multinationalism
- a corporate presence in multiple countries, allowing for the production and distribution of media
products on a global scale
Document Summary
Marxist analysis: marxist media scholars are interested in how economic contexts and imperatives impact the production and distribution of media content. Marxism is both a social theory and a political movement rooted in the idea that society is the history of class struggles its origins lie in the work of karl marx and friedrich. Patterns of media ownership: marxist analysis of mass media begins by examining the means and relations of production under contemporary capitalism, or what marxist critic fredric jameson calls multinational capitalism, capitalism changes over time. Four current and deeply intertwined patters of media ownership: concentration, conglomeration, integration, multinationalism. Conglomeration the corporate practice of accumulating multiple companies and businesses through startups, mergers, buyouts, and takeovers. Strategies of profit maximization: ownership and control of the mass media is driven by a profit-motive. Five key strategies of profit maximization in the media industry are: synergy, planned obsolescence, the logic of safety, celebrity and spectacle, joint ventures.
