Glasgow Media Group

The book begins by looking at key changes in mass communications systems and social culture over the last 20 years. For example, it examines how the growth of the market affected patterns of ownership and control as well as the content of mass media. We suggest that much contemporary media and communications studies is unable to comments upon or analyse such key social movements. The reason which we give is that a focus on 'the text' and issues of language and meaning now preoccupy post-modernist thought the result is that social processes in the real world cannot be described and analysed. There is little consideration in such work of the role of ideal or material interests and power. There is a silence in most media and cultural studies about the consequences of popular culture and the media. There are very few analyses of the content of the press or television and of the influence which these can have on public belief and understanding. There is an absence of studies which address the real and often brutal relations of power which have shaped our cultural life. We suggest that for many academics in media and cultural studies a series of theoretical dead-ends beckoned instead. We trace these by looking at the origins of post-modernist approaches in the work of theorists such as Lyotard and Baudrallard. We offer a critique of their work and then show how it has influenced other academic studies. We suggest that the encounter with philosophy and post-modern theory has left much cultural/communications studies and indeed many other areas of social science, struggling with the notion of small groups or individuals 'actively' constructing their own interpretations and the meaning of their world. People can apparently live in what is taken to be real on the basis of pre-existing beliefs, values, codes or competencies (rather as football supporters are alleged to 'see' only the fouls committed by the other side).

Within such a theoretical perspective there can be no assessments on grounds of accuracy/truth and there can be no agreed evidence which can be shared or acknowledged between perspectives. The perspective appears in different areas of media and cultural studies including those on pleasure, identity, new feminist theory, consumption and in the theory of the 'active' audience. We review all of these areas of work and show how each in different ways neglects the crucial questions of outcomes. We note that to focus on how people interpret texts can of itself address questions about the influence of the media on ideology or belief. For example, there is very little work on the relationship between beliefs about the world and political conclusions drawn by the public or the relationship between such conclusions and the taking of political action.

We identify a series of related questions which should in our view be central to media and cultural studies. These include the issues of, what effect does belief or action have upon corporate or government decision making? Do governments respond to public opinion? On which occasions? Are corporations or governments able to resist concerted and organised public opposition, and in which circumstances? Do consumers actually subvert the meanings of commodities? If the meanings of products are subverted (as many contemporary studies assert), does this mean that corporations are in any way inconvenienced? Does the 'subversion' lead to a critique of the system that has produced the commodities? How do public knowledge, belief and purchasing trends affect corporate state planning and regulation? We also want to comment on the contribution which academics and journalists can make to analysing corporate and government activity. It should be our role to show the likely impact of different policies, to question their purpose and direction and the manner in which they are justified and 'sold' to wide populations. We conclude the cultural compliance essay by arguing for a media and cultural studies which is critical and engaged with key public issues.

Contributions by other authors:

The first part of the book features the themes which we have outlined above with a total length of approximately 40,000 words. The second part of the volume is given over to brief essays by major authors from media, cultural studies and journalism and related areas in social science. The intention is that these authors take up the debate where the first essay leaves off. They comment on the issues raised and most importantly speak of the possible direction and content of future academic and social critique and its relation to public policy.

Market Killing: Chapters and Authors

Contributions and Commentaries

Theory and practice