Critique of the Political Economy of the Media : Foundations and Applications

Critique of the Political Economy of the Media is an approach to the critical analysis of the media’s role in contemporary society.It is based on Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism, using a combination of critical social theory and empirical social research for studying what role the media has in capitalism. It introduces a theoretical framework that engages with important themes including the crisis-ridden structural transformation of the media industry, media economics in the age of digital communications, media concentration, science communication and open access publishing, media technologies, the role of advertising in capitalism, and the contradictions of alternative media in capitalism. “Over a quarter of a century Manfred Knoche has swum against the prevailing tides of German scholarship to develop a distinctive critical analysis of communications under capitalism grounded in new readings and applications of Marx’s essential insights. Borrowing from the famous subtitle of Capital