Political Economy of Communication

Abstract

There are different approaches and schools in the field of mass communication. Political economy, in itself, is divided into a liberal or classical political economy and a critical—Marxist—political economy. According to the Marxist-oriented critical political economy approach, the economic basis of a society determines the superstructure of that society such as state, politics, culture, and ideology. Since media is very important in producing and reproducing existing relations of property and power in capitalist societies, it is important to analyze the media with a political economy approach. Briefly, in the context of the system of political economy of communication, the effects of capital and state on media contents are explained. In this section, after examining the origins and historical development of the field of political economy as a critical social science, the characteristics of contemporary critical political economy are put forward.