Media Technologies and Epistemologies: The Platforming of Everything| A “French Touch” to the Political Economy of Communication? A Critical Epistemology of the “Cultural Industries” School

Abstract

Like many non-English-speaking approaches, the Francophone “cultural industries” tradition of the political economy of communication, although internationally recognized, is largely invisible in non-Francophone countries. Seeking its institutionalization in specific regional, historical, epistemological, and political contexts, it has nonetheless produced original categories for a critical analysis of changes in the media industry, alongside broader socioeconomic changes within capitalism. This article articulates two dimensions: It presents the history of this Francophone cultural industries tradition and its social, political, and scientific contexts of emergence along with its theoretical arguments—linking the latter with the former. It particularly focuses on the tradition’s methodology of “socioeconomic modeling” and the theoretical propositions this methodology gave rise to in a materialist analysis of the changing media landscape.