Political Economy of the Media

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In an excerpt from the reading, political economy in media can be defined. The excerpt guide states, "Smith defined political economy as the study of "wealth" (material goods) or the allocation of resources, and was concerned with how mankind arranges to allocate scarce resources to satisfy certain needs and not others” (Wasko, 1999). The meaning of the political economy of the media is how there is a study of the economic and political factors, especially on the influence of structure, content, and explanation on how the media functions. Therefore, the political economy of the media is believed to explore the existing relationships between the different media organizations, political power, cases of economic interests, and assessing the political dynamics (Wasko, 1999). On the other side, hegemony refers to a context of media studies where there is an assessment of dominance or looking into the control exerted by particular groups in the media. It can also be the ideology of groups over other groups; hence, these causes influence a society's perceptions, norms, and beliefs. Hegemony, therefore, appears as a social influence that one gets through consent instead of coercion.
An excerpt from the text reads, "If ideology is a system of structured representations, and consciousness is a structure of mind that reflects those representations, then hegemony is the linking mechanism between dominant ideology and consciousness" (Lull, 2000). The excerpt explains the connection between ideology and consciousness. An interesting concept from the reading is that hegemony is more than the sum of the differences in social power. Hegemony emerges as a method applied toward gaining and maintaining power in society. Using the above definition of hegemony, it emerges that it is related to media ownership.
The first point is that media ownership is crucial in establishing and structuring the maintenance of hegemony. In media ownership, there are small entity groups or individuals who control most of the media outlets (Ott & Mack, 2014). Because of their control, these individuals can discuss issues to deal with the media, craft media narratives, develop mechanisms to control the flow of information, and conduct campaigns that they use to influence public opinion. These actions show the power of the small group or ideologies of the particular group over others in the media; hence, there is a relationship between media ownership and hegemony (Danesi, 2015). A real example is how the media was communicating about the COVID-19 pandemic. What the owners of the media and government wanted to be communicated was what the media relayed, showing hegemony.
The second explanation of the relationship is the concentration of media ownership whereby they can discuss a different or specific worldview they will share. In such scenarios, media ownership entities propel the dissemination of dominant ideology while also at the same time they maintain on status quo in the matter. As the media ownership controls these pieces of informat...