Whats is political economy of media, its dimensions and examples from Pakistan

Political economy of mass media

In the information age the media’s role is more vital in every aspect of life. Media impacts
everything from culture to politics. Political economy of mass media studies the behavior and
political and policy effect of mass media. But before diving deep into this concept it is
imperative to understand the concept of political economy. Political economy is an
interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences that focuses on the interrelationships among
individuals, governments, and public policy.The term political economy is still widely used to
describe any government policy that has an economic impact.
media is dependent on the economy and the powers that fund the media in the form of sponsors or by
some other means. These sponsors make the policies of the media indirectly. The same underlying
power sources that own the media and fund them as advertisers that serve as primary definers of the
news, and that produce flak and proper-thinking experts, also, play a key role in fixing basic principles
and the dominant ideologies. Who got ultimate power how, when and what content to be broadcast.
It means that the editorial control is nothing just to obey the instructions. The new role of media
has become more dominant and the news and information flow is getting impartial.

Political economy of mass media has dramatically emerged in since 1960s. because media moved aways
from its known functions such as to inform, to educate and to entertain. It has diverged froma public
representative medium to the profit making medium. Media does not explain everything because the
political economy of the media they pick and choose the content and use it for the communication,
with the help of such practice media getting power and money simultaneously

In this way, political economy of the mass media includes several domains including journalism,
broadcasting, advertising, and information and communication technology. A political economy
The
approach analyzes the power relationships between politics, mediation, and economics.
evolution of the television, from terrestrial to television to New Media, in the
long line of communications mediums, helps to tell the story of how through
culture political economy is created, maintained and social paradigms are
reinforced. Political economy of mass media analyzes how media manufacture news, why it
acts impartial and eventually how it influences citizens, govt and public policy.

Dimension of political economy of mass media:

media has become the centre part of the capitalist political economy and marketing system and a
source of great profit in their own right..

Those who control the media, control the message. They decide which message would be
disseminated and which wouldn’t. Even how a certain message would be disseminated is also pre-
decided. These decisions in political economy of mass media are taken by keeping in view the
ideology and interest of that media organization. These interests are dependent upon multiple
factors majorly on the funders of respective media organization. Because media has huge role in
influencing the decisions of citizens, governments and public policy. The dimensions help to
understand what will be printed or disseminated through the media houses. In this spectrum, there
are multiple dimension of political economy of mass media and examples from Pakistan:
1. business interest driven rather than public interest driven
Information is considered as public good. Interest led projection Media house owners have
their own business interest so they aim at fulfillifg their interests. Public as well as
information are treated as commodity by these media houses for fulfilling their business and
political interests. These media organization hardly operate like a public entity. First
element of news are filtered in a way or shown through the lens that aims at fulfilling their
interest. A narrative is always built in the favor of the media. Corporations own the
mainstream media and are required by law to make a profit.

2. Advertiser are funders of media houses so they would always protect their interest
Media always aim at fulfilling the interest of their advertisers interest. media is influenced by the
sponsors of the media organizations. Media have to obey their orders because the economy of
media depends on them. Media portray the image of society as per desire of the sponsors. This act
erodes the impartiality of the media around the globe and there are some serious questions raised
by many scientists that impartiality of the media is no more. 

3. Political affiliation of media owner

The political communications influence the attitude and behavior of citizens and affect the
quality of political life in established democratic system. (Richard Gunther, 2000, p. 2)
Nowadays more than ever before the politicians, governments and the marketing companies
try to reach out people through the mass media rather than in person. The information
generated through mass media makes a face of such individuals and when they reach out
the public directly people have their opinion about them. In the modern world we have
evidence that the mass media changed the attitude of political campaign.
Media make the citizens to see and think with the mind and eye of media. In this way, the consent
of citizen is manufactured. This role of media in political economy is comprehensively explained
by Edward S. Hermanand Noam Chomsky, in their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political
Economy of the Mass Media.
To “manufacture consent” is to create a system in which citizens become willing and obedient,
consenting and unquestioning, obeying certain principles and paradigms, all by way of
corporate-sponsored propaganda through mass media and commercialism, as opposed to
obedience achieved through strongman tactics. In this book, the authors have based their premise
on the Propaganda Model of Communication. According to Chomsky:

A propaganda model focuses on this inequality of wealth and power and its multilevel effects on
mass-media interests and choices. It traces the routes by which money and power are able to
filter out the news fit to print, marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant
private interests to get their messages across to the public.

For example, ARY is normally deemed as PTI led while GEO is opposition led.
4. Public criticism and
5. Public policy and media
6. Cross-media ownership
They believe that the media system is one of the results of the policies made in the name of
public but without public’s consent and these polices just serve some individuals for making
more money and for the vested interest.

Argument, counter argument and finally give your own point of view
PID has budget and it can shortlist
Media coverage during election
Currently risisng inflation