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r a 'reading' of its content that makes it meaningful or pleasurable
in the act of consumption or use.
Key studies of media from a cultural studies perspective undertaken in the
1980s and 1990s (for example, Fiske, 1987, 1992; Modey, 1980, 1992; Ang,
1991) focused upon the latter aspect of this framework, differentiating
between the 'preferred reading' of a media text, and practices of audience
decoding that (i) operate within the 'dominant code' of the text; (ii) 'negotiate'
the dominant code; and (iii) make oppositional readings or 'aberrant
decodings' which interpret the text within an alternative frame of reference.
These audience reading practices are then refracted back into questions of
social structure, political orientation, and the capacity for resistance to dominant
ideologies, as readings are 'founded on cultural differences embedded
within the structure of society - cultural clusters which guide and limit the
individual's interpretation of messages' (Morley, 1992, p. 118). For Fiske
(1987), what resulted were 'two economies' in mass media - Fiske's particular
interest was in broadcast television - as the nature of the cultural commodity
means that it circulates within a 'financial economy', whose operations are
largely explained by political economy, and a cl~ltlrrrrle cononzy, where the
popularity of media texts is determined through 'the exchange and circulation
of ... meanings, pleasures and social identities' (Fiske, 1987, p. 311). This
work has been largely discussed in terms of the validity of its political conclusions,
particularly the claim that mass popular media constitute a site of resistance
to dominant ideologies rather than a site for their reinforcement (see esp.
Fiske, 1987, pp. 316-26). What is equally notable, although less commented
upon, is the way in which such an approach takes the analysis of the encoding
process - the production and circulation of media texts in the financial
economy - as largely given by the work of critical political economy. I will
return to this point below, in considering thk contributions of institutionalism
and cultural policy studies to an understanding of media organizations and
policy.
A different set of issues for cultural studies arise around whether its frame
of reference is essentially national, and how well equipped it is for critical
analysis of global media. This point has been raised by Stratton and Ang
(1996) who observe how cultural studies emerged historically in response to
particular issues emerging in Britain and how they were understood by a
generation of cultural theorists,l as well as its methodological focus upon the
Supplied by The British Library - "The world's knowledge" l
Theories of Global Media 41
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relationship between culture and power. Nelson et al. (1992, p. S) define
conjunct~~ranl alysis as being 'embedded, descriptive, and historically and
contextually specific'. Stratton and Ang observe that, in this commitment to
grounded, 'bottom-up' research methodo