Critical political economy of communications: A mid-term review

If we take the late 1960s as a starting point, an explicitly defined ‘critical political economy of communications’ is nearly 50 years old. How salient today are the core concerns that shaped this tradition? What are the emergent themes in contemporary critical media studies? While critical political economy’s attention to the way media industries are organized and financed has become a more central consideration across the field of media and communication studies, this mainstreaming has been accompanied by disconnection from the critical political economy tradition. Reviewing that paradox, the article identifies emergent research themes and argues for the relevance of critical political economy approaches for contemporary investigations into the problems of the media.