Communication & Global Power Shifts| The Puzzle of Media Power: Notes Toward a Materialist Approach

Authors

  • Des Freedman Golds University

Abstract

In any consideration of the relationship between communication and global power shifts and of the ways in which the media are implicated in new dynamics of power, the concept of media power is frequently invoked as a vital agent of social and communicative change. This article sets out to develop a materialist approach to media power that acknowledges its role in social reproduction through the circulation of symbolic goods but suggests that we also need an understanding of media power that focuses on the relationships between actors, institutions, and contexts that organize the allocation of material resources concentrated in the media.

Author Biography

Des Freedman, Golds University

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Published

2014-01-15

Issue

Vol. 8 (2014)

Section

Special Sections

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