1st Edition

Marxist Humanism and Communication Theory Media, Communication and Society Volume One

By Christian Fuchs Copyright 2021
310 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

310 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

310 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book outlines and contributes to the foundations of Marxist-humanist communication theory. It analyses the role of communication in capitalist society. Engaging with the works of critical thinkers such as Erich Fromm, E. P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, Henri Lefebvre, Georg Lukács, Lucien Goldmann, Günther Anders, M. N. Roy, Angela Davis, C. L. R. James, Rosa Luxemburg, Eve Mitchell, and... Read more

1. Introduction

2. Erich Fromm and the Critical Theory of Communication

3. Revisiting the Althusser/E. P. Thompson-Controversy: Towards a Marxist Theory of Communication

4. Raymond Williams’s Communicative Materialism

5. Henri Lefebvre’s Theory of the Production of Space and the Critical Theory of Communication

6. Towards A Critical Theory of Communication with Georg Lukács’s and Lucien Goldmann

7. Günther Anders’s Critical Theory of Technology

8. Jean-Paul Sartre as Critical Theorist of Communication. An Engagement with "Critique of Dialectical Reason"

9. M. N. Roy, Socialist Humanism, and the Critical Analysis of Communication

10. Capitalism, Racism, Patriarchy

11. Conclusion

Biography

Christian Fuchs is a critical theorist of communication and society. He is co-editor of the journal tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. He is author of many publications, including the books Social Media: A Critical Introduction (3rd edition 2021), Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory (2020), Marxism: Karl Marx’s Fifteen Key Concepts for Cultural & Communication Studies (2020), Nationalism on the Internet: Critical Theory and Ideology in the Age of Social Media and Fake News (2020), Rereading Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism (2019), Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter (2016), Digital Labour and Karl Marx (2014), Internet and Society (2008).

'In this volume, Christian Fuchs collected and partly updated his recently published articles analysing some key twentieth-century critical/Marxist contributions to the media and communication theory. His work makes an unparalleled contribution to the critical literature of communication studies by analysing, from a Marxist perspective, different dimensions and diverse contexts of mass communication, such as the base-superstructure relationship, human alienation, ideology, hegemony, and its reproductive power for capitalism and its contemporary forms and manifestations, such as authoritarianism, fascism, nationalism, and digital capitalism. A must-read for every critical scholar in the field.'

Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana