UNIT FOUR
Media Economics, Policy, and Regulation
Unit Overview
This unit is concerned with the bricks and mortar of communication and politics: economics
and markets, policy and regulation. There is a natural tension between the two, as the
dynamics of market forces in the communications industries often exist in opposition to the
best efforts of governments to manage them. The public interest falls somewhere in the
middle.
Week 7 examines media commodities and markets at the level both of the consumer and of
the market as a system. U.S. sociologist Juliet Schor’s celebrated work on consumer
culture,
The Overspent American, is examined in combination with the work of her chief
theoretical inspiration in this chapter, French structuralist theorist Pierre Bourdieu. This is
followed with the core chapter from Canadian communication lawyer Peter Grant and
Blockbusters and Trade Wars, which examines the
journalist Chris Wood’s new book,
unique nature of the media commodity and its behaviour within the marketplace.
Week 8 separately addresses issues in policy and regulation as these relate to the U.S. and
Canada. The unit notes open with a discussion of Manuel Castells’ concept of “the space of
flows” to describe the global cultural context for policy and regulation. Robert McChesney is
perhaps the most widely read critical scholar on the political economy of communication in
the U.S., and this chapter from his 2004 boo英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】k, The Problem of the Media, is a survey of
policy issues in the world’s dominant media market. Given the influence of the U.S.’s policy
environment on the rest of the world, McChesney’s analysis of the consequences of the
monumental 1996 Telecommunications Act presages trends in Canada and elsewhere.
Canadian communication scholar Paul Nesbitt-Larking’s article, “State and Political
Regulation of the Media,” addresses the relationship between the state and the media at the level of practical politics, as well as some of the key pieces of legislation governing media
activity.
Because the unit notes for this section are long and detailed, reflecting the detail in the four
chapters, there is no “alternative and applications” section in week 7 and 8.
Readings and Resources
curious economics: media, commodities, and markets
Week 7
(i) Juliet Schor. Chapter 2, “Communicating with Commodities: How What We Buy Speaks
Volumes.” The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need. ISBN: 0-465-
06056-0. New York: 16 pages.
(ii) Peter S. Grant and Chris Wood. “Curious Economics.” Blockbusters and Trade Wars:
Popular Culture in a Globalized World. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004. ISBN: 1-
55365-009-3. 19 pages.
policy and regulation
Week 8
(i) Robert McChesney. Chapter 6, "Media Policies and Media Reform." The Problem of the
Media: U.S. Communication Politics In the 21st Century. New York: Monthly Review Press,
2004. ISBN: 1-5
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