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Revising the Political Economy of Communication in the Era of Globalization

Review by
Ammina Kothari 
Indiana University

The Political Economy of Communication, by Vincent Mosco. London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4129-4701-5. 268 pp.

Scholarship on political economy of communication has seen a substantial increase over the past fifty years. Specializations in area studies, inclusion of new media analyses and the globalization of the field have diversified the work of political economists and their theoretical contributions. For the newcomer to the study of political economy, it can be challenging to keep up with new developments while trying to understand the historical context for the diversification of this field and its contributions to communication scholarship.

The 2nd edition of The Political Economy of Communication by Vincent Mosco offers a comprehensive critical overview of the field of political economy in communications. Additionally, it provides an introduction to the theoretical frameworks which students and interdisciplinary scholars can apply to study production, distribution and consumption of communication in a technology-driven world. The book is organized into ten chapters, beginning with an overview of political economy, followed by definitions and developments in the field, concluding with thoughts about the future of interdisciplinary scholarship on socio-economic class issues.

The first three chapters introduce readers to the philosophical foundations of political economy and discuss various schools of thought, which draw from this subject. The presentation of various emerging schools of thought is interweaved with discussions about tensions between classical, conservative and Marxist perspectives. The narrative approach helps to highlight the important contributions of the emerging schools of thought. Inclusion of relevant examples to illustrate ideas within emerging schools of thought assist readers in understanding the real world applications of these new theoretical frames.

The next two chapters focus on the development of political economy of communication beginning with its foundation, followed by a discussion of emerging research trends influenced by the globalization of communication. Chapter 4 provides background on the foundation of the political economy of communication scholarship in North America and its subsequent adoption in European communication research along with a review of key figures and ideas. However, the literature review is largely limited to western scholarship; a limitation addressed in Chapter 5 in a discussion about global political economy of communication. In Chapter 5, the author’s selection of significant trends in current political economy of communication research is note-worthy as these encompass and reflect the emerging globalization of the field. In his discussion about the globalization of political economy he emphasizes contributions from the Third World in the growth of the field. He attributes the expansion of this trend to the increasing number of scholars who are interested in studying the integration of media systems at a global level. Historical research is another trend to which he devotes considerable space, in Chapter 5. This highlights its usefulness in guiding media reform movements and in identifying points of resistance which would enable inclusion of alternative standpoints from feminist and labor perspectives. The transition of political economists’ focus from old to new media studies is also included in the list of emerging research trends in the field. He discusses three approaches to this transition: emphasis on an endurance of old media issues in the world of new media; focus on discontinuities or new connections enabled by the networked media; and skepticism towards the promises of new media. Mosco elaborates on each of these three approaches and includes concrete examples to support these arguments.

The next three chapters introduce analytical tools necessary to apply theoretical approaches in political economy to real world communications. Chapter 7, focuses on commodification of content, audience and labor in the realm of communications. A Marxist perspective of commodification is used to demonstrate the application of the political economy of communication. Mosco defines commodification as a process that transforms goods and services, including communication, valued for their use, into commodities, which can be marketed for profit. Political economy of communication is useful for studying the recurring cycle of commodification, enabled by re-productions of commodified commodities created with non-commodified goods and services. For instance, Mosco points to web browser cookies and the production of new products in the form of reports on web viewing and shopping patterns as an example of the commodification process.

In Chapter 8, Mosco introduces the concept of spatialization for understanding the constraints of space and time in communication. This promises to be a useful concept for studying current technological advances in communication and how they enable organizations to assert and expand their hegemonic goals by controlling spatial/temporal flows of information. Spatialization is also relevant in the global context, which Mosco describes as “spatial agglomeration of capital” whereby transnational corporations transform and control spatial flows of information for capital gains. Chapter 9 completes the presentation of analytical tools with a discussion on structuration; a concept that allows class based scholarship on political economy to connect with sociology and incorporate gender, race, social movements and hegemony in the analyses. Structuration is the most comprehensive analytical tool presented in this book as it acknowledges the relationship between social structures and human agency and provides frameworks for interrogating how people use communication to increase their power, which in turn shapes social structures.

Chapter 10 is used to present some of the challenges facing the field of political economy of communication and its relationships, in particular with cultural studies and public choice theory. In this chapter, Mosco first provides a review of the combined strengths of cultural studies, which deals with how individuals and groups construct their realities; then he focuses on public choice theory, which concerns understanding how individuals make choices in pursuit of self-interest; finally he discusses how these frameworks could benefit approaches to political economy. For example, cultural studies approaches can be useful for understanding that while social class is important from a political economist’s perspective, it is also crucial to recognize the nuances of hierarchies influencing gender or race in creation of social structures.

I would recommend this book for those interested in keeping abreast with theoretical changes in the political economy of communication research, especially students who are interested in getting an overview of this field.