Critical media theory remains relevant to the analysis of the culture industry - Essay Example

ture industry refers to the pseudo-singularity and standardization of cultural items and the format by which they (cultural items) are promoted and dispersed to the general public. When the media industry is consolidated, centralized power is placed under the control of the few media corporations that remain behind. This power enables these corporations to influence the media content in terms of production and distribution. According to Herman and Chomsky (2002), the media today, especially within the US, is filled with a lot of propaganda.

This, they attribute to the media having developed the fundamental need of supporting the special interests of those dominating the industry, including the state’s interests. The media system does not always completely agree on all issues and this aspect preserves the media’s legitimacy and credibility. Herman and Chomsky summarize their theory in what they call the “media model”. The political economy theory is one of the very important ways of analyzing how the culture industry operates and is arguably the most appropriate technique of doing so.

The several products of the culture industry come out through several mediums like radio, television, internet and the printed press, mentioning a few. The cultural industry today operates under and is heavily influenced by government regulations and corporate structures (Andrejevic, 2007). This influence is what makes the political economy approach the important analyzing tool that it is. The reciprocity of interest combined with economic necessities tends to draw the mass media into some sort of symbiotic relationship with influential sources.

The media has found itself in a position where it heavily relies on the information provided by governmental and corporate sources, which in turn have come up with huge bureaucracies that provide the media with the material to be dispersed. Thise symbiotic relationship has further been boosted by the over time development of the