• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.33
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• pp.193-225
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• 2006

This study attempts to reconsider the significance of political economy as a theory of knowledge and/or a method for explaining the convergence of broadcast and telecommunications. It is going to suggest what the domains of political economy should be in the future by both highlighting the characteristics and blind spots of previous studies and drawing some distinctive features of a new media environment. The principals and recent research trends in political economy are reviewed in order to make clear that the historical totality as a meta-framework of political economy needs to be reexamined in the era of convergence. Although the scope of political economy has been limited to criticize the structure of media ownerships, the study emphasizes the importance of media consumer theory. It also discusses the problems of free market theory, distortion of active media audience theory, and limitations and creative tension of audience commodity. Finally, this study stresses the significance of audience-oriented policies in order to make approach to practical sides of media politics.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.45
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• pp.7-48
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• 2009

The recent crises of Marxism do not mean Marx’s crisis. Marx said that he was not a Marxist. The purposes of this essay explore (1) the modern identity of the political economy; (2) the possibilities of mutual understanding between neoclassical economics and Marxist economics; (3) problems of the political economy in media and communication industry. I have begged for analytical Marxists, because of their good fruits. They accepted the methods of modern social science and they constituted a tremendous advance in the application of the scientific methods to the study of society. In insisting on micro-foundations(methodological individualism), analytical Marxism distinguished itself from structuralism and functionalism. I appreciate that analytical Marxism has reduced a theory to practice. But the works didn’t listen to everyone(from Marxists to un-Marxists), and explain everything. Making theory with production/consumption, macro/micro, and structure/behavior is a road to the political economy in the long run. It also applies to media and communication industry. The realm of media/communication is broad, which in philosophy, humanities, politics, economics, sociology, and engineering. And media policy is more complicated by politicians who look at the same situation from different angles. By the aid of interdisciplinary research, the political economy of media/communication shall explain at full length.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.45
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• pp.77-110
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• 2009

This study explores the academic development of the Political Economy of Communication, which is pursued by reviewing academic characteristics, research subjects, key scholars, formal and informal institution as an academic hub, key articles, major academic associations and academic journals. In addition, this study examines important theoretical limitations and tasks to deal with in the future, which have been exposed through several heated debates with other research traditions such as Cultural Studies and Post Modernism.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.45
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• pp.113-150
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• 2009

Attempts to relax cross-media ownership have been made by conservative Party and leading dailies. A concern with the cross-ownership of media is predominant in media and political spheres. This article is about the media market concentration created by cross-media ownership. This essay is a response to the demand of the ruling camp that attempts to concentrate on media market, and to increase their influence. I have outlined issues of cross ownership. The finding of this research supported the rationale of ban on cross ownership of newspaper and broadcasting outlet.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.22
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• pp.39-75
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• 2003

This essay begins with the following questions; "What is a fundamental source of media power?" and "How can the media power dominate market?". This essay aims at answering the questions. I made my selection of countries such as Venezuela, Italy and UK for this article with a political economic approach. This analysis found evidence that an enormous conglomerate ownership, and alliance or convergence between media and political power are two fundamental source of the media power. With the integration of newspaper and television the media monopoly increased their supplies and political influences as I have shown. Despite the growing threat of media monopoly power to democracy and public interest, in recent years, governments worldwide have chosen to ease regulations.

• 사회경제평론
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.127-141
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• 2018

This article looks back on the past 30 years of the Korean Association for Political Economy from the perspective of so-called 86 generation. It is argued that KAPE should promote effective communication between radical economists and liberal economists who are critical of mainstream economics.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.73-89
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• 2014

Everyone has a voice and can broadcast it to the world. We hear about the old maxim of media do not tell people what to think but what to think about. Under this theory or approach, a key function of political communication is to make the public think about an issue in a way that is favorable to the sender of the message. In a democracy, political communication is seen as crucial for the building of a society where the state and its people feel they are connected. Thus, this is a study on how social media (e.g., Facebook, blogs, and YouTube) were used in the domain of Malaysian politics during the 13th general election campaigning period in order to set the agenda to form public opinion. The study found that Facebook was the most popular social media tool that political parties actively engaged with during the 13th general election campaign period. Apart from that, issues pertaining to the election were significantly highlighted by the political parties in social media, especially Facebook. However, other issues that were also important to the people such as the economy, crime, and education were not sufficiently highlighted during the election campaign period. This indicates that the political parties influence the public on what to think about using social media.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.62
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• pp.119-139
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• 2013

Star is riddled with myth while they form the star power and support advertisers for profit realization. Their influence on society and audiences grows day by day. In particular, advertisers depend on star power when they sell their products. This article analyzed the nature of the star power dominating media resources and offering the distorted picture of consumer culture. I take a political economic view of consumer capitalism and star. The article shows how stars contribute to the accumulation of capital and defense of class relations in the consumer culture.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.70
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• pp.9-34
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• 2015

While dramatic shifts in the media environment underscore the emerging importance of structural approaches in media studies. political economists in Korea have failed to meet such demands. It is particularly noteworthy that their most serious weakness lies in economic theories. This paper aims to examine major problems in political economic approaches in Korea and suggest some research agenda and directions for the future. Above all, political economists need to scrutinize and elaborate both microscopic and macroscopic frameworks. On the microscopic level, they may learn tremendous implications from the "audience-commodity" thesis and recent debates on "information goods" among Korean economists. For the more macroscopic part, it is urgently needed to delve into mid-level issues that may illuminate specific ways the media capital operates: trends in the accumulation of capital, the influence of technological innovation, changes in the labor process, and the relations among production, circulation and consumption sectors.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.43
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• pp.7-46
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• 2008

The purpose of this essay explores a critical review of the Korean critical communication studies focused on the problematic of cultural studies and political economy in 2000s. The findings are as follows; The 'consumer turn' or 'audience turn' in new revisionism modelling John Fiske's cultural studies has been interpreted not to complement but to substitute the necessary criticism of the post-authoritarian media establishment of Korea at that time, arising identity crisis of Korean cultural studies as one of the critical camp. On other side, however, some political economy studies close to the unilinear theses of orthodox marxism has been appraised to neglect the complex process and structure of media and cultural production as well. While the press war between the market-dominant dailies and some progressive dailies has given rise to a whole debate as expected in consolidating period of Korean emerging democracy, the conjucturalism as modelled by Hall's 'authoritarian populism' failed to initiate a new theo tical practice in Korea. Finally, this review essay propose the some new research issues that would converge cultural studies and political economy, modernism and postmodernism; citizenship vs 'cultural citizenship'(valuing the private identity and gender) or Habermasian public sphere vs 'cultural public sphere', the culture of production, (modern)citizen/(postmodern)consumer(recently debated in English media policy), 'differentiation' in capitalist production and 'difference' in consumer sovereignty, 21c future vision of public service broadcasting as one of the 20c institutions.