Fuchs (2014) Dallas Smythe Reloaded

267 – Smythe reminds us the importance of Marx in analyzing capitalism critically

267 – Critical theory and political economy are complimentary and should be combined

271 – “Cultural Studies has to turn into or at least take up aspects of Critical Political Economy in order to adequately understand contemporary capitalism and the role of media and communication.”

271 – Mosco, 2009 – PE has given attention to the commodification of content and audiences, labour spatialization, class, gender, race, social movements, hegemony, and ideology

272 – economy has always been relevant to the study of culture, communication, the media, and information…but CS has increasingly ignored the economy because of CS’ turn away from Marxism

273 – Smythe’s approach can be characterized as Marxist Communication Studies, which means “a unity of theoretical/philosophical, empirical, and ethical studies of media and communication.” – focusing on contradictions, structures of domination, exploitation, struggles, ideologies, alternatives to capitalism in media.

273 – Like Marx, Smythe wasn’t content with simply analyzing political economy of media, but trying to change the structures of media. (transformative practice through critique)

276 – “in recent years, there has been a revival of interest in Dallas Smythe’s works, especially in relation to the question: are users of commercial social media workers and are they exploited?” (emphasis in original)

276- discusses the eroding walls of the factory to 24/7

276 – Facebook is an indicative phase of capitalism and exploitation of labor – all-ubiquitous factory – mobile media has lifted the factory confines of the living room

276 – factory and workplace surveillance is omnipresent

277 – smythe more concerned with surplus value generated by media than the ideological effects of message content.

277 – Garnham shares Smythe’s opinion – shift away from media as ideological apparatuses and focus more on generating surplus value and advertising.

277 – however, ideology and PE are not mutually exclusive and require one another

278 – Murdock and Golding (1974) – media organizations distribute commodities that disseminate ideology and sell “explanations of social order and structured inequality (Murdock, 1978, 469).  Also see Artz, 2008, 64.

278 – Smythe understands ideology as “a system of beliefs, attitudes, and ideas.” (Smythe, 1981, 171).

278 – For Smythe (1994, 250) – consciousness industry is to make people buy commodities and pay taxes… it also promotes values that favor capitalism (251-3)

279 – Critical theory and PE should be complementary to each other

279 – media in capitalism are two forms of cultural commodities: cultural commodity that is purchased by consumers (dvds, mobile devices, etc). and audience/users as cultural  commodities where users/consumers are sold to media companies (Twitter, Facebook)

280 – advertising makes “humans instruments for economic accumulation” and ideology “aims at instilling the belief in the system of capital and commodities into human’s subjectivity”

280 – (capitialistic media) ideology “encompasses strategies and attempts to make human subjects instrumental in the reproduction of domination and exploitation”

281 – accumulation and ideology go hand in hand – case and point: social media

Social media was accompanied by a “techno-optimistic ideology” that Web 2.0 would lead to better democracy and new forms of political struggle (new forms of participation)

281 – ideology was necessary for users to support the social media capital accumulation model

281 – Smythe had a more balanced view of audience as compared to that of PE and the Frankfurt school which focused on false consciousness and passive audience manipulation – Smythe recognized that capital would attempt to control audiences, but they also had the power to resist (Smythe, 1981, 270)

            ****But what about direct marketing and T-Commerce?  Harder to resist?****

282 – Hesmondhalgh (2010, 280): Smythe too reductionist…& Caraway (2011, 296): Smythe one sided, audience commodity fetishism, and then Caraway agrees with Jenkins on page 706 – creative energy in new media environment – Jenkins, 2006, 133…Jenkins’ “participatory culture”

283 – Fuchs: Smythe instead calls for the overthrow of capitalist media system to humanize media