51
Theories of Culture, Theories of Cultural Production to consider these relationships rather than ignore them. We need to think, for example, about how historical transformations in the way that culture is produced and consumed relate to changes in texts.
There is a lack of attention to textual analysis and meaning among writers drawn to political economy approaches to culture.
For all its strengths, the work of Miège barely mentions questions of textual meaning and pleasure.
Many of the essays in Garnham’s
Capitalism and Communication (1990) attack the tendency within media studies to ‘privilege the text’ and ‘focus on ques- tions of representation and ideology’ (p. 1).
12
In the Schiller-McChesney tra- dition, the underlying assumption is that most texts produced by the cultural industries are conformist and conservative, but little systematic evidence is marshalled to support this assumption (for a problematic exception, see the
‘propaganda model’
of Herman and Chomsky, 1988). Indeed, the assump- tion is rarely made explicit. Texts, and the experiences, values, meanings and pleasures they afford their audiences, are an issue addressed much more by the set of approaches that I consider next.
Share with your friends: