Mode of production: new media technology and the Napster file

Abstract

This essay explores the economic and cultural contradictions of capitalism which new media technology illuminates through its own distinctive prism of material practices. It critiques the technological determinism that accompanied the dot.com boom and shows why the hopes of a new economic paradigm underpinned by new digital technology were unfounded. The essay argues that the category mode of production, which diagnoses the fundamental contradiction between the forces and social relations of production, remains central to any account of capitalism and new media technology. The essay supplements the mode of development category with Manuel Castells’ notion of a mode of development (informationalism). It also discusses Marx’s analysis of fixed capital to explore the contradictions which technological advances intensify. In particular the essay argues that new technology in general and new media technology specifically generate economic and cultural contradictions for capitalism (as well as opportunities). These contradictions are illustrated via a case study of Napster, the music file swapping Internet service which the large media corporations crushed. However, music file swapping services continue to operate, demonstrating that new media technology has potentialities that cut against the priorities of accumulation and private property.