What Audience, What Labour? A Review of the 2015 Dallas Smythe Memorial Lecture by Oscar Gandy

Abstract

In Dallas Smythe’s old stomping grounds of Simon Fraser University, Dr. Oscar Gandy delivered the 2015 Dallas Smythe Memorial lecture. Arguing that inequality deserves state action, he linked financial inequality to capabilities and then to inequalities in political capital. He proposed this problem can be solved by linking the interests of those who are benefiting from the current system to those who are being marginalized by it. This can be done by framing messages to elites with the intention of making political use of their labour as audiences. While political audience labour is an important take away, it is difficult to divorce his understanding of how it can be exploited from his presentation of inequality as a domestic American problem rather than a global problem in this lecture. Additionally, while Dr. Gandy’s definition of framing includes presenting solutions, he did not specifically address how the wealthy might react to understanding their interests as connected to the marginalized; ignoring current efforts of philanthropy and the rise of corporate social responsibility.