Political economy of TV and film industry

International Conference on Broadcasting Media & Film Industry

October 20, 2014 DoubleTree by Hilton Baltimore-BWI Airport, USA

Shadi Sabra

Accepted Abstracts: J Mass Communicat Journalism

Abstract :

Mass corporate media has been throughout history the number one ally and shadow for politics, and together they have managed to widen the boarders of TV and film industry, and evolve them into a new economic power controlling our globe. Now a days, our world has been divided into several political frontlines and ideologies, yet all of them rotate around two major political axes. These axes produce short term and long term political needs, each fighting to have more global territories and acceptance. For example, the regime change in most of the Middle Eastern countries was a result of a political need, which had a direct impact on media and the political economy. New TV stations and documentaries were to be established, which lead to a huge revenues for the manufacturers of TV equipment, high demand on satellite capacities, employment rates in the field of broadcasting where extremely high, advertisement was mass produced, and overall creating a large economic cycle, which had led to the re-booming of some businesses and manufacturers. We can see the direct impact of political economy on the TV industry in the Middle East; we can easily spot out the main finance source; USA, Iran, Qatar, and KSA. With the beginning of the first revolution, it was a great opportunity for those political poles to start their work especially that they had a virgin market which could handle and absorb all of their needs. For instance we have over forty five Iraqi TV stations now; before the regime change it was only two government owned stations, over twenty seven Libyan TV stations which where only three stations owned by Gaddafi and his son, and almost the same numbers for Bahrain, Tunisia, and Egypt. Hence we are in front of a total amount of over two hundred TV stations established within a time span of five years. Since, those countries where only accustomed to a very minimal number of maximum three TV stations with one political point of view, therefor, the market was fertile for every genre of media. Yet, the most efficient ones were the news channels, and the religious channels. Those screens were the most effective on the minds of the masses. For that they had the most financial support from their political associates. Now, most of the regime changes are being highly affected by the media and especially through mass corporate media which controlled the political thoughts of the masses. But the most dangerous issue is that with this huge flow of economical funds, the integrity of the media in those regions was rapidly degraded. This have molded a new cycle between political economy?s effect on media and media?s effect on political economy. The main issue in this topic is to maintain the true essence of journalism and convert the mass corporate media into journalistic media. An international code of ethics should be introduced or at least this industry should once again abide by the international code of ethics that are found but forgotten. ?The media?s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that?s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.? ? Malcom X.