How media work. A critical approach towards political economy

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, grade: B, University of Kent, language: English, abstract: "Text Analysis provides some insight of the media messages but it is the CPE (Critical Political Approach) that truly explains the working of the media in present times."
This essay is about the evaluation of the above said statement in context of the 'advertising' that is one of the most popular sectors of the modern media.
The advertisements can be portrayed as a medium of communiqué created to reach a large number of audiences with no individual contact between the advertiser and the viewer. This includes several mediums of advertisements like magazines, books, newspapers, websites, radio, cinema and television. Everywhere we get to see loads of advertisements selling one or the other product or service. These advertisements are indeed influencing our lives to a great extent. For example, we are always keen to buy the deodorant or the perfume we last seen in the advertisement without even analyzing its effects on our body. Similarly, our kids become crazy about the new flavored toothpaste advertised last week without taking much interest on its benefits to the teeth and bad breathe. This is the big virtual world where we all are living and we are happy to see these advertisements for both entertainment and awareness.
But the big question is: Whether these advertisements are influencing our minds negatively or positively? To find out the answer to this question, researchers have adopted 2 dissimilar approaches; Text Analysis and Critical Political Economy.