The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public Sphere

The author examines consequences of expansion strategies of commercial network media, and compares them to ideals of open and accessible public communication. These strategies level out the falling rates of profits that the increased productivity of labour is bringing. Counter-measures of media ind...

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Main Author: Peter Sekloča
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group 2018-12-01
Series:tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1062
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author Peter Sekloča
author_facet Peter Sekloča
author_sort Peter Sekloča
collection DOAJ
description The author examines consequences of expansion strategies of commercial network media, and compares them to ideals of open and accessible public communication. These strategies level out the falling rates of profits that the increased productivity of labour is bringing. Counter-measures of media industries manipulate the amounts of variable and constant capital (outsourcing of labour, shifting of depreciation costs on users, and specialisation). These processes, which are specific to platform business models, ultimately give rise to fragmentation, individualisation and ideological homogenisation of the peripheral public. The public becomes ideologically similar to the centres of power, whereas its critical potential and, consequently, its effective political freedom decreases. While both the political and the economic subsystems and the public alike use network communication to organise their activities, interaction between the two social domains (the system and the lifeworld) resembles an ‘interactive top-down communication structure’. Inclusion of citizens-consumers into the productivity race renders interactivity similar to one-way communication.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1726-670X
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publisher Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
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spelling doaj-art-cbe0fb8eea734b658856e09e84f8afd22025-08-20T03:36:22ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X2018-12-0117110.31269/triplec.v17i1.10621062The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public SpherePeter Sekloča The author examines consequences of expansion strategies of commercial network media, and compares them to ideals of open and accessible public communication. These strategies level out the falling rates of profits that the increased productivity of labour is bringing. Counter-measures of media industries manipulate the amounts of variable and constant capital (outsourcing of labour, shifting of depreciation costs on users, and specialisation). These processes, which are specific to platform business models, ultimately give rise to fragmentation, individualisation and ideological homogenisation of the peripheral public. The public becomes ideologically similar to the centres of power, whereas its critical potential and, consequently, its effective political freedom decreases. While both the political and the economic subsystems and the public alike use network communication to organise their activities, interaction between the two social domains (the system and the lifeworld) resembles an ‘interactive top-down communication structure’. Inclusion of citizens-consumers into the productivity race renders interactivity similar to one-way communication. https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1062centre and peripherynetworked public sphereinternational communicationnetwork mediaplatformslabour
spellingShingle Peter Sekloča
The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public Sphere
tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
centre and periphery
networked public sphere
international communication
network media
platforms
labour
title The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public Sphere
title_full The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public Sphere
title_fullStr The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public Sphere
title_full_unstemmed The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public Sphere
title_short The Centre and the Periphery: Productivity and the Global Networked Public Sphere
title_sort centre and the periphery productivity and the global networked public sphere
topic centre and periphery
networked public sphere
international communication
network media
platforms
labour
url https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1062
work_keys_str_mv AT petersekloca thecentreandtheperipheryproductivityandtheglobalnetworkedpublicsphere
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