Advertising – a Necessary “Elixir of Life” for Capitalism: On the Critique of the Political Economy of Advertising

Titel in Übersetzung: Werbung - ein notwendiges "Lebenselixier" für den Kapitalismus: Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie der Werbung

Manfred Knoche*

*Korrespondierende/r Autor/-in für diese Arbeit

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelPeer-reviewed

Abstract

This contribution aims to lift the ideological veil of apologetics and pseudo-criticism on advertising with the help of a reality-based systematic analysis that contributes to a materialistic theory of advertising. The content-related and methodological basis of such a theory is a Critique of the Political Economy of Advertising oriented towards the critique of capitalism and academic knowledge originally presented by Karl Marx and current societal analyses based on it. In this context, the academic objective is to consider the economic, political, and societal functions of (media) advertising. In doing so, the elementary economic and ideological functions of advertising for the existence and further development of the market economy and capitalist economic and societal systems become recognisable. Advertising then no longer appears as a necessary evil but as a necessary "elixir of life” for the media industry, the economy, and capitalism as a whole. Based on the applied critical political-economic analysis, it becomes clear that on the level of capitalism as an economic and societal system, advertising thus contributes economically and ideologically to the stabilisation of the systemic foundations of capitalist societies (the capital-labour relationship, the regime of accumulation; the economic, societal, and political [advertising] functions of the media). It is shown that a Critique of the Political Economy of Advertising – especially from the point of view of the necessarily growing importance of advertising for media production – also contributes to the development of a Critique of the Political Economy of the Media.
Titel in ÜbersetzungWerbung - ein notwendiges "Lebenselixier" für den Kapitalismus: Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie der Werbung
OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)122-139
Seitenumfang18
FachzeitschrifttripleC
Jahrgang21
Ausgabenummer2
DOIs
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 25 Aug. 2023

Bibliographische Notiz

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Unified Theory of Information Research Group. All rights reserved.

Schlagwörter

  • Advertising
  • media economics / capitalism / media industry / transformation / state / mediaconcentration
  • communication systems
  • Capitalist mode of production
  • capitalisation of the media industry / critique of the political economy of the media and communication / transformation of the media industry / media industry / media and communication science / media and communication theory
  • Journalism

Systematik der Wissenschaftszweige 2012

  • 508 Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften

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