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The Role of Communication Technologies in an Era of Financialized Capitalism: Mapping the Field of Political Economy of Communication

The end of Keynesian era, which was supplemented with neoliberalism, generated some fundamental changes of the capitalist system. The power of the financial sector with its innovative financial mechanisms, which contributed to the reorganization of production process, grew. The technological revolution, privatization processes, marketization of all things public, financialization of corporations were also reflected in the media sector, as news organizations became more and more integrated in transnational capital flows. The consequences of these processes in media (as well as other) occupations manifested themselves as proletarization and fordization of the labor force, which enabled the pauperization of journalistic work. The upward pressure on wages as an outcome of tendencies towards labor cost reduction resulted in a demand for multiskilling, which paradoxically even brought about a reverse process—the deskilling of workers. Despite the fact that in the era of cognitive work some domains seem exempt from the law of value, general intellect is still constrained by the existence and limitations of the capital form. Production relations remain capitalistic, and since general intellect can only be realized in communism, it may be argued that general intellect at this point cannot yet be fully realized.

 


Article inside journal

Issue No. 259 - Political Economy of Communication
Source
Časopis za kritiko znanosti
Numbering
2015 , volume volume 43 , issue issue 259