cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4028381

The only thing I can think of is Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and Marshall McLuhan's work on media.

Oh, and this work by Christian Fuchs.

Problem being:

I think Fuchs is a Marxist-Humanist and I'm not sure what to think of Marxist humanism.

But I could be wrong.

Maybe I should ignore that aspect of their work.

Thoughts?

Got any book recommendations at all?

I'm looking for:

Media studies

Cultural theory

Communications

Internet

Social media

Management and organization

Community-building

Trends

Technology

etc.

^ These are the topics I'm looking into.

And, hopefully, from a Marxist-Leninist or Marxist standpoint (or at least leftist).

Got anything? Maybe advice?

  • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    9 months ago

    Good idea!

    Anything else?

    I feel like this is an under-studied topic.

    Either that, or not many people study media and communications in conjunction with Marxism.

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      So I'm looking at my bookshelf now and I'm thinking you'd probably also find Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han interesting.

      Yeah, problem is a lot of my reading on propaganda and communication was before I de-wormed myself of the 'communism bad' brainworms , so I don't have too much else to offer other than lib stuff. I think anything modern you can find on Gramsci's Cultural Hegemony would probably be the most useful for you.

      • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        9 months ago

        I've heard good things about Byung-Chul Han from a separate video so that should work!

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Oh, okay, I wasn't sure if you that would work for you or not. Then I would say Inventing Reality and Manufacturing Consent would be the two big ones. I haven't found any specific Gramsci books to recommend, I'm afraid. I bought Volume 1 of the Prison Notebooks and found them to be more like notes to self that lacked a lot of context. A bit much for me. If you find something good please pass it along. If you're willing to move away from strictly ML aspect you may find Dark Money by Jane Mayer interesting in which it explores how the Koch brothers and (other billionaires) shoved their dollars and views into every aspect of USian life, from media to education.

        • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          9 months ago

          It's a decent book, but Mayer kinda lets the Dems off the hook. I typically recommend it grouped with Thomas Franks' Listen Liberal: Or Whatever Happened to the Party of the Left as he covers that pretty much right up until 2014 or so the dems were fully on board with much of what the Kochs were doing. The Kochs were actually on the board of the Democratic Leadership Council which helped get Bill Clinton elected back in the 90's. I usually also recommend Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean as well, as it expands on the history behind neoliberalism's father of Public Choice Economics James M. Buchanan ( a real ghoul, one of the assholes invited to advise Pinochet after Allende's demise) and his involvement with the Kochs. But that may be a bit farther out of the wheelhouse of what you're looking for. They're just 3 books that go really well together as my holy trinity of covering US neoliberalism.... Actually, you might wanna check them out, as one of the big things Democracy in Chains covers is the way Public Choice Economics is used to present privatization to people in ways that we see very heavy in the news media, while Frank covers how media uses virtue signaling to present a illusion of politics. Maybe, idk, your call.! data-laughing

          If you find this article relevant to your interest, I'd recommend checking out all three books.

          https://harpers.org/2016/02/nor-a-lender-be/

          • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            9 months ago

            Starring this comment. So that's Thomas Franks' book (which I already know of) and Democracy in Chains (which I've heard good things about). Interesting connections there as well.

            • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              9 months ago

              lol, yep. awesome. You can find all these on libgen. Btw, for media analysis there's also the Citations Needed Podcast. Their episodes they did on Bill Gates a while ago are quality and just the tip of the iceberg.

              https://citationsneeded.medium.com/episode-45-the-not-so-benevolent-billionaire-bill-gates-and-western-media-b1f8e0fe092f

              https://citationsneeded.medium.com/episode-46-the-not-so-benevolent-billionaire-part-ii-bill-gates-in-africa-4329389dd4a3

                • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  Ah, no, they're older episodes, but looking at the material conditions behind news media coverage is the sort of thing they do.

                  https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded