Abstract

MIEGE, Bernard. Cultural and Information Industries: A Socio-Economic View. REDIE [online]. 2008, vol.10, n.1, pp.1-15. ISSN 1607-4041.

This article reviews the discussion that initiated in the 70's about the relationship between the communication and information phenomena, and the decisions of the economic sphere. This discussion, according to Miège, has been undertaken from different perspectives that have placed the economy and the technology at the center of the analysis. The author proposes to study these phenomena through an interdisciplinary methodology, based on the theories of cultural industries and the political economy of communication. Miège argues that with the industrialization of the contents of the media, the consumers' access to the products is no longer direct and may be available without any cost to the consumer, since the cost of the informational and cultural products is paid through advertising. However, this new environment creates certain problems, such as treating these products and their symbolic content as marketable goods; or an unregulated system for hiring intellectual and artistic personnel. He also discusses a double economic operation: the sale of products to publicists, and the sale of the same products by the publicists according to the market demand. The last part of the article is a reflection by the author on the consequences that economic change might have on cultural industries, because of their current need to maintain cooperation with technological industries, as well as to establish alliances with large financial groups.

Keywords : Cultural industries; political economy of communication; economic models.

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