Corporations: Legal Entities, Externalities & Influence

Corporations as Legal Entities

• Corporations are established by laws and legal judgments.
• They are obligated to generate profit for shareholders, which influences product creation and its consequences.
• Corporations possess similar rights to individuals, like free speech, affecting public discourse, especially in media.

Externalities

• Externalities refer to unintended negative consequences of business practices.
• Factory farming, environmental pollution, and chemical misuse serve as key examples.
• Corporations may prioritize cost-benefit analysis over legal compliance, considering potential penalties.

Influence of Corporate Ownership

• Corporations such as Facebook (Meta) and TikTok influence public discourse.
• The role of fact-checking, misinformation, and censorship in media is debated.
• Media manipulation for economic and ideological control is possible, leading to hate speech and misinformation.

Media and Misinformation

• Media corporations often promote ideologies that benefit them economically.
• Misinformation spreads on platforms like X and Facebook, especially on political and health topics.
• Media platform owners like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg influence public discourse.

Privatization and Market Philosophy

• Neoliberalism focuses on privatization, deregulation, and market solutions.
• Ethical concerns arise regarding unequal access to services, such as internet in low-income areas.
• The market's capability to address public goods and societal needs is questioned.

Corporations and Moral Responsibility

• There is ongoing discussion about whether corporations can be deemed moral entities or if only individuals are responsible.
• Corporations are sometimes viewed as "psychopathic" due to their excessive focus on profit.
• Corporate malpractices and scandals (e.g., Exxon Valdez, Enron) often have minimal consequences for large corporations.

Cultural and Consciousness Industries

• Political economy distinguishes between profit-driven culture industry and ideological consciousness industry.
• Media either reinforces or challenges social hierarchies and power structures.
• Media conglomerates and their ownership influence the content we consume, including the impact from transnational corporations.

Social and Environmental Justice

• Ethical issues surrounding the environmental or societal harm caused by corporate practices are discussed.
• Case studies on companies like Shell, Monsanto, and Nike highlight corporate negligence and exploitation.
• Corporate accountability for environmental damage and human rights violations must be addressed.

Political Economy and Media

• Political economy examines if media systems and content reinforce or challenge existing social structures.
• Structural factors, such as ownership, advertising, and government policies, shape media behavior and content production.
• Media conglomerates produce cultural content reflecting the interests of their owners, which does not always align with public good.

Themes

• Conflict exists between economic interests (profit) and social responsibilities (ethics, public welfare).
• Prioritization or suppression of media content is related to media ownership.
• Corporations play a role in shaping political and social discourse.

Barriers to Entry in Markets

• When one or two companies dominate a market, they create barriers to entry.
• Monopolies and oligopolies commonly cause a lack of diversity in content and higher prices to encourage wealth concentration.

Monopolies and their Impact

• Monopolies cause a lack of media and product diversity.
• They increase the concentration of wealth and power, and raise consumer prices, tending to raise costs and reduce variety.

Cultural Industry and Capitalism

• Mass-produced culture replaced traditional culture after industrialization and urbanization.
• Factories led individuals to leave behind traditional culture.
• Mass media often sacrifices content diversity in order to generate profit.

Frankfurt School - Horkheimer and Adorno (1930s)

• Mass-produced culture often lacks diversity and focuses on profit.
• Mass culture under capitalism aims to make money rather than meet genuine audience needs.
• Imitation is easier to obtain from popular formats.

Reality TV and Commodification

• Reality TV emerged because it required fewer resources to produce because of the writer's strike.
• Survivor was a key example, leading to the rise of similar shows.

Monetary Focus in Media

• Media prioritizes making money over content that challenges societal norms.
• Many movies and TV shows serve to distract and not inspire change.

Subversive Media Examples (Barbie, Hunger Games, etc.)

• Though films like Barbie may seem subversive, their creation is based on pre-existing audience expectations.
• "Rebellious" media (e.g., Hunger Games) often gets commercialized, with sales of merchandise and soundtracks.
• Commodification limits true subversion by focusing on profitability rather than resistance.

Streaming Media in the Digital Age

• Streaming services (e.g., Netflix) follow patterns similar to cable TV, offering limited creative diversity.
• Algorithms tailor content to what has previously worked, leading to repetitive or derivative content.

Neoliberalism and Media Ownership

• Neoliberal privatization leads to more concentrated media ownership, limiting competition and diversity.

Political Economy of Media

• This examines the relationships of power in the production, distribution, and consumption of media and communication resources.
• It focuses on the interconnection of politics, economics, and media in relation to social change and the dynamics of capitalism.
• Key aspects include social totality, moral philosophy, and praxis, or the implementation of theory into action, for social change.

Globalization and Cultural Imperialism

• Media flows are often one-directional, with U.S. culture spreading globally.
• Counter-flows exist, such as South Korean media influencing U.S. markets.
• Global media ownership influences content distribution and who benefits from it.

Resistance and Alternative Media

• Critique of corporate media systems includes alternative media that opposes dominant narratives.
• Discussions explore market concentration and the lack of diverse viewpoints in media due to corporate control.

Practical Applications and Assignments

• Understanding political concepts of current media events is key.
• Analyze one article from recent media, applying readings from class to explain dynamics.

Classic Economics

• Core concept includes Adam Smith's "invisible hand", where individual self-interest leads to public benefit.
• This includes individual freedom and competition in the market, with marginal government intervention.
• Assumptions include individual acts and the market regulating itself.

Neo-Classical Economics

• Mathematical models and scientific objectivity builds upon classical economics.
• Focuses on marginal utility and equilibrium.
• Disregards moral and historical aspects of decisions.

Keynesian Economics

• Emphasizes the need for government intervention, during downturns and social safety nets.
• Argues that markets are not always self-correcting and that public policies like fiscal stimulus are necessary to stabilize the economy.

Neoliberalism

• Advocates for free markets, privatization, and minimal government intervention.
• Emphasizes the role of markets in solving social problems and promoting growth.
• Key policies include Deregulation, Privatization of public services, and opening markets to international competition.

Critique

• Leads to economic inequalities, as wealth and power concentrates in the hands of few corporations.

Capitalism's Effects on Media and Society

• Domination of the Media Industry includes fewer companies in charge with a lack of diversity in content.
• Drive down wages and increase profits, causing Economic Inequality and exploitation of workers and consumers.
• Larger companies create barriers to entry, causing Monopoly and Oligopoly.

Concentration of Power in Corporations

• Monopolies and Oligopolies create barriers to entry to reduce product diversity and raise prices for consumers.
• Corporate Strategies limit supply to increase demand (e.g., PlayStation 5 and scarcity marketing).

Economic and Social Impact of Neoliberal Policies

• Disregarding Public Welfare can often lead to economic disparity.
• The shift towards privatization and deregulation undermines public services and leads to unequal societies.
• Advertising revenue and commercial interests are the priorities for media companies, thus commercializing public needs.

Corporate Influence in the Media

• Large corporations owning most media outlets can sway public opinion, especially with a narrow range of viewpoints.
• Producing media to maximize profit makes media a commodity and not a community value.
• Risk Aversion to produce new content ensures companies make sequels and reboots.

Global Impact of Neoliberalism

• Cultural Imperialism in the U.S. can overshadow local cultures.
• Squid Game is an exception and shows counter-flows of international media.

Media Ownership and Economic Control

• Ownership Structures allow media conglomerates to control multiple industries .
• Vertical Integration allows companies control production, distribution, and exhibition.
• Horizontal Integration merges companies into one in the same industry.

Application to Contemporary Issues

• Examining Social Change and History is a start to improve moving forward.
• Critical Political Economy provides ideas for alternative solutions.
• Evaluating Media and State Relations can influence societal opinions.

Media Literacy and Education

• The importance of understanding the affects of capitalism to the influence of media.

Interdisciplinary Approach

• The study of media requires insights from economics, sociology, history, law, and other fields to fully understand how power dynamics work in media industries.

Market Concentration in Media Industry

• Market concentration shapes media content in order to be number one in the industry.

Big Players in Media Industry

• Major Players include Disney, Comcast, Paramount Global, and more.
• Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for $73.3 billion.
• Sony, Alphabet(Google), Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and Netflix are also big players the game.

Interlocking Stock Ownership and Corporate Ventures

• Intertwining with companies in media and entertainment.

Vertical and Horizontal Integration

• Horizontal Integration acquires companies with in the same industry.
• Vertical Integration allows to control the entire supply chain

Synergy and its Impact

• Synergy promotes multiple products within the same family.
• Disney releases multiple variations of their products, theme parks, movies, etc.

Globalization and Deregulation

• Transnational corporations operate across multiple countries.
• Media companies shift towards privatized media, for easier operations internationally to operate.

Revolving Door

• Short term interests are favored with movement of people between positions of the public.

Special Interest Lobbying & Astroturf Lobbying

• Astroturf Lobbying is fake grassroots lobbying which orchestrated by wealthy individuals to appear as there are public support.
• Lobbying is problematic due to money, disinformation, as well as money in politics affect democracies in general.

Social Media & Bots

• Bots control social media views and control opinions.

Think Tanks

• Funding research to influence politicians for the Koch brothers.

Corporate Influence on Politics

• Lobbying Expenditures for benefits that Corporations, like Disney, and want.
• Business Roundtable and Chamber of Commerce are influence policy to protect big business and more.
• AT&T and Verizon lobby against net neutrality rules as it would make internet access less equal.

Wealth and Politics

• Wealth plays a big role in selecting candidates for politics.
• Relatively Low Pay for State-Level Politicians makes it difficult to climb and pursue as a long term career.

The Study Guide

• What is the purpose for political, economic, and communication?
• Understand organizations and institutions, and provide as examples (corporations).

Jhally

• Explain First Amendment and what it means.
• Corporate Power and the Consciousness versus Cultural Industries are explained.

Explaining the 2 Value's

• Use-value: The need or desire a product satisfies.
• Change-value: The amount of money it can be traded for.

Hardy Chapter 1

• How media's power influences media systems and power relations that emphasize:
• Production, and Wider contexts and systems
• Communication affects social justice and emancipation, for the better or worse.

Hardy Section 7

• Cultural Imperialism has a few critiques: It's too over simplified, as it reduces global interaction to a Western domination.
• There are integration Issues in media such as American dominance.
• Cultural globalization refers to a exchange in products.

Wasko

• Explain critical political economy such as:
• social change, totalilty, moral, philosophy, and praxis.
• Audience as a commodity refers to advertisers as audiences instead of active participants of the community

Harvey Intro

• Discusses free markets, privatization, as well as government intervention.
• Creative destruction is economic renewal but can also lead to job losses and social dislocation.

Harvey Chapter 3

• Focused on promoting economic growth through deregulation and privatization. In order for neoliberal theorists to have more more freedom instead of following democracies.

Gandy

• Talks about capitalism, and its issues.
• Exploitation of Labor is key as there is focus on profit instead of worker's rights an quality compensation.

Bowles and Edwards

• The dual economy and how it came about is explained.

Hardy Chapter 3

• Policy intervention has increased as well as more non markets have become the standards.

McChesney

• The U.S. media is not competitive or diverse and there is not freedom of choice compared to monopolistic control.
• Vertical and Horizontal structures are used in media and that there can be too much diversity.
• Markets are inappropriate as it shapes society and content, and thus shouldn't just only be another market good.

Croteau and Hoynes Chapter 3

• There needs to be better structural trends in the media industry.
• Focus on issues from Globalization of Media, Concentrations of Ownerships, and Consolidation
• Why this matter is that it will affect: competition, diversity of content, and monopolistic/oligopolistic structures.

Hardy Chapter 4

• The impact on participation and the overlapping effects are over looked.
• Government can stifle diverse opinions.

Vanahala

• Tech advances have created better streaming conditions.
• Streaming wars symbolize how advances capitalist systems prioritize market competition and profit maximization.
• Major corporations have too much control and shaped consumer choices to the degree that industry practices has gone down.

Mendel et al.

• Laws, monopolies, media pluralism, and voices in society balance economic power, political influence, and societal well-being that make the regulation of media ownership a complex, but key issue to look out for.
• Government actions are needed for corporations to act in such, such as Enacting and enforcing regulations as well as prevent monopolies.

Verdegem

• Big Tech companies can control power and necessary AI, leading to a monopoly.

Domhoff

• Disproportionate control of power and wealth exist, thus create negative side effects in society.

Nichols and McChesney

• Politicians are not about helping their community but their wallets instead, as the more money spend, the higher chance to success they have.
• There is an unprecedented amount of corporate and billenaire funding.

Calabrese & Mihal

• There media reliance exists and corporations try to take advantage.
• Government influence and media try to align with each other's goals.

Corporate Welfare

• Corporate Personhood create an illusion of fairness to the public. Thus companies can get away with wrong doings.

Pickard

• Journalism and the issues within can change dramatically overtime due to changing news preferences.
• Advertising is becoming a big issue that has caused reduced ethics practices.

Explore corporations as legal entities, their focus on shareholder profit, and the concept of externalities resulting from business practices. Examine the influence of corporate ownership on public discourse, including debates around fact-checking and media manipulation. Discuss the role of media in promoting misinformation.