Critical Political Economy of the Media

What part do the media play in the democratic processes of society? What influences the media? How do different societies organise their media systems? Where does power over the media lie? To what extent do ‘new media’ change things?

Critical Political Economy of the Media: An Introduction aims to answer these key questions, providing students with a broad-ranging, accessible introduction to the international political economy of media.

This book examines transformations of the media and media systems. From changes in the mass media of broadcasting and print, to digitalization and the internet, it looks at different ways of making sense of these transformations and considers a range of questions concerning media power and influence. The book explores a central claim of political economists that there are important relationships between the content and output of media and the way in which media production is organised. Political economy is concerned with questions about the relationship between media and society, with questions of media influence, and questions about how media power connects with other forms of power in society. It is concerned with questions about how media industries and cultural work is organised, and why this matters for the range and quality of what is produced by journalists, media professionals and creative workers. It considers such issues as the influence of policy and regulation, market forces and commercial dynamics. In doing so, the book introduces and compares culturalist and other interpretations with studies emphasising the role of the state, media ownership, advertising and market structures as forms of media control.

Topics covered include:

• media globalisation and national media;
• political economy of the Internet;
• media commercialism;
• media and advertising;
• news journalism and entertainment media;
• media convergence and policy;
• democracy and the media;
• comparing media and political systems across the globe.

Media political economy is examined with particular reference to Western industrial democracies. However, the book is international in scope and comparative in its approach to national media systems and in exploring processes of transnationalisation and convergence.

Detailed empirical evidence and case studies are used to support the arguments made, thus providing students with a resource to help them assess claims and a guide for further research and study.