Directed Study Week 3 – Political Economy

In this week’s lecture we explored Political Economy. From the lecture I was able to understand that political economy is concerned with funding organisations and the regulation of radio and music industry organisations. It also determines what we hear on the radio and the music, which is signed to major labels as well as impacting on the industry practices. 

Moreover, there are three elements to political economical investigations; funding, organization and regulation. Funding is where the money is coming from. There are three types of models in funding; commercial models, public service models and alternative models. Commerical models rely on advertising revenue and subscriptions, public service models rely on a license fee and alternative models are funded by a variety of sources. When investigating political economy it is important to understand what kind of organisation we are looking at, how it is structured and if there are many companies with the same owner. With regards to regulation, Britain has a public broadcasting system therefore is highly regulated already. Understanding political economy is important in helping us understand who is represented in the media, what kind of viewpoints are available and the effect on media products in different contexts.

This weeks reading explores how internet radio has dominated most radio station audiences as there is more appeal to listening to music online. This links to the study of radio and popular music history because as technology developed the need for radio stations are decreasing.  A reading by Tim Wall (2004) states ‘At its heart the Internet offers a new distribution network for sound. On its own the technology establishes a very different set of relationships between broadcasters and listener’ (Wall 2004:33). With regards to political economy, internet radio is much more cost effective as there are less people needed to run it therefore funding is much more easier to find. Regulations on online radio can sometimes be more lenient due to the fact that it is new. Therefore this reading could suggest that internet is more accessible and easier to use nowadays, for example phone apps and other electronic devices such as tablets allow it to be more mobile that an ordinary radio.  A reading on David Hendy (2000) supports this idea suggesting that ‘political economy of radio in the digital era will produce new forms’ which allows us to comprehend that changes in media industry practices will have an immediate effect on the political economy (Hendy, 2000:214).

In terms of research, it would be interesting to investigate how political economy thrives in countries with slower economical development. The comparison between a developing and thriving economy and a suffering economy could significantly impact the political economy of it’s media industry.

 Bibliography:

David Hendy (2000) A Political Economy of Radio in the Digital Age, Journal of Radio Studies, 7:1, 213-234, DOI: 10.1207/s15506843jrs0701_16

Wall, T, (2003). 'Genre'. In: (ed), Studying Popular Music Culture. 1st ed. UK: Hodder & Stoughton Educational. pp.(179-188).