This essential guide to the critical study of the media economy in society teaches students how to critically analyse the political economy of communication and the media. The book introduces a variety of methods and topics, including the political economy of communication in capitalism, media concentration, advertising, global media and transnational media corporations, class relations and working conditions in the capitalist media and communication industry, the Internet and digital media, the information society and digital capitalism, the public sphere, Public Service Media, the Public Service Internet, and the political economy of media management. Each chapter features a highly accessible introduction, recommended readings, and lots of practical exercises where you will apply the Political Economy approach to concrete examples and cases. This will be an ideal textbook for a variety of courses relating to media and communication, including Media Economics; Political Economy of Communication; Media, Culture and Society; Critical Media and Communication Studies; Media Sociology; Media Management; and Media Business Studies.

This book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into language they can understand. It clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary digital media and politics. Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, and political science. Clear two part structure with chapters first addressing 'Theories' of fascism, followed by 'Applications', which includes case studies on Trump's Twitter use and far-right digital media communication.

This book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into a language they can understand. Based on critical theory and Marxist humanism, Christian Fuchs book presents foundations of, aspects of and perspectives for digital socialism. It clearly demonstrates the application of critical and Marxist theory to the analysis of contemporary digital media and politics. Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, and political science.

As with the series as a whole, this book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into language they can understand. It clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary social problems. Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, philosophy, political science and economics.

This essential guide to the critical study of the media economy in society teaches students how to critically analyse the political economy of communication and the media. The book introduces a variety of methods and topics, including the political economy of communication in capitalism, media concentration, advertising, global media and transnational media corporations, class relations and working conditions in the capitalist media and communication industry, the Internet and digital media, the information society and digital capitalism, the public sphere, Public Service Media, the Public Service Internet, and the political economy of media management. Each chapter features a highly accessible introduction, recommended readings, and lots of practical exercises where you will apply the Political Economy approach to concrete examples and cases. This will be an ideal textbook for a variety of courses relating to media and communication, including Media Economics; Political Economy of Communication; Media, Culture and Society; Critical Media and Communication Studies; Media Sociology; Media Management; and Media Business Studies.

This book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into a language they can understand. Based on critical theory and Marxist humanism, Christian Fuchs book presents foundations of, aspects of and perspectives for digital socialism. It clearly demonstrates the application of critical and Marxist theory to the analysis of contemporary digital media and politics. Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, and political science.

As with the series as a whole, this book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into language they can understand. It clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary social problems. Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, philosophy, political science and economics.

This book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into language they can understand. It clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary digital media and politics. Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, and political science. Clear two part structure with chapters first addressing 'Theories' of fascism, followed by 'Applications', which includes case studies on Trump's Twitter use and far-right digital media communication.

This book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into language they can understand. It clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary social problems Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, philosophy, political science and economics.

This book is written for contemporary students, translating difficult theoretical and empirical insights into language they can understand. It clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary social problems Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses and modules in media and communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, philosophy, political science and economics.

Fuchs is the world leader in developing a Marxist analysis of communications This book is written for contemporary students, outlining the key concepts and contemporary debates in critical theory in language they can understand. Clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary social problems

Fuchs is the world leader in developing a Marxist analysis of communications This book is written for contemporary students, outlining the key concepts and contemporary debates in critical theory in language they can understand. Clearly demonstrates the application of theory to the analysis of contemporary social problems

Our contemporary global digital society is not always a good place to live. Authoritarianism, hatred, false news, post-truth culture, the COVID-19 anti-vaccination movement, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and political polarisation are organised via the Internet. The public sphere is highly polarised. Today, many humans tend to think of other humans mainly in terms of friends and enemies. Robots and Artificial Intelligence-based automation have created new challenges for the world of work. Decades of neoliberalism have increased inequalities. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the vulnerability of humanity to viruses and health crises. Humanity and society are in a major crisis and digitalisation mediates this crisis. Digital Humanism explores how Humanism can help us to critically understand how digital technologies shape society and humanity, providing an introduction to Humanism in the digital age. Fuchs introduces the approach of Digital Humanism and outlines foundations of a Radical Digital Humanism, analysing what decolonisation of academia and the study of the digital, media and communication means; what the roles are of robots, automation, and Artificial Intelligence in digital capitalism, and how the communication of death and dying has been mediated by digital technologies, capitalist necropower, and digital capitalism. In order to save humanity and society, we need Radical Digital Humanism now.

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 Lukacs, Lucien Goldmann, Gunther Anders, M. N. Roy, Angela Davis, C. L. R. James, Rosa Luxemburg, Eve Mitchell, and Cedric J. Robinson, the book provides readings of works that inform our understanding of how to critically theorise communication in society. The topics covered include the relationship of capitalism, racism, and patriarchy; communication and alienation; the base/superstructure-problem; the question of how one should best define communication; the political economy of communication; ideology critique; the connection of communication and struggles for alternatives. Written for a broad audience of students and scholars interested in contemporary critical theory, this book will be useful for courses in media and communication studies, cultural studies, Internet research, sociology, philosophy, political science, and economics. This is the first of five Communication and Society volumes, each one outlining a particular aspect of the foundations of a critical theory of communication in society.

Renowned Marxist scholar and critical media theorist Christian Fuchs provides a thorough, chapter-by-chapter introduction to Capital Volume 1 that assists readers in making sense of Karl Marx's most important and groundbreaking work in the information age, exploring Marx's key concepts through the lens of media and communication studies via contemporary phenomena like the Internet, digital labour, social media, the media industries, and digital class struggles. Through a range of international, current-day examples, Fuchs emphasises the continued importance of Marx and his work in a time when transnational media companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook play an increasingly important role in global capitalism. Discussion questions and exercises at the end of each chapter help readers to further apply Marx's work to a modern-day context.

Renowned Marxist scholar and critical media theorist Christian Fuchs provides a thorough, chapter-by-chapter introduction to Capital Volume 1 that assists readers in making sense of Karl Marx's most important and groundbreaking work in the information age, exploring Marx's key concepts through the lens of media and communication studies via contemporary phenomena like the Internet, digital labour, social media, the media industries, and digital class struggles. Through a range of international, current-day examples, Fuchs emphasises the continued importance of Marx and his work in a time when transnational media companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook play an increasingly important role in global capitalism. Discussion questions and exercises at the end of each chapter help readers to further apply Marx's work to a modern-day context.

This book is the essential guide for understanding how state power and politics are contested and exercised on social media. It brings together contributions by social media scholars who explore the connection of social media with revolutions, uprising, protests, power and counter-power, hacktivism, the state, policing and surveillance. It shows how collective action and state power are related and conflict as two dialectical sides of social media power, and how power and counter-power are distributed in this dialectic. Theoretically focused and empirically rigorous research considers the two-sided contradictory nature of power in relation to social media and politics. Chapters cover social media in the context of phenomena such as contemporary revolutions in Egypt and other countries, populism 2.0, anti-austerity protests, the fascist movement in Greece's crisis, Anonymous and police surveillance.

Understanding social media requires us to engage with the individual and collective meanings that diverse stakeholders and participants give to platforms. It also requires us to analyse how social media companies try to make profits, how and which labour creates this profit, who creates social media ideologies, and the conditions under which such ideologies emerge. In short, understanding social media means coming to grips with the relationship between culture and the economy. In this thorough study, Christian Fuchs, one of the leading analysts of the Internet and social media, delves deeply into the subject by applying the approach of cultural materialism to social media, offering readers theoretical concepts, contemporary examples, and proposed opportunities for political intervention. Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media is the ultimate resource for anyone who wants to understand culture and the economy in an era populated by social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google in the West and Weibo, Renren, and Baidu in the East. Updating the analysis of thinkers such as Raymond Williams, Karl Marx, Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, and Dallas W. Smythe for the 21st century, Fuchs presents a version of Marxist cultural theory and cultural materialism that allows us to critically understand social media's influence on culture and the economy.

Understanding social media requires us to engage with the individual and collective meanings that diverse stakeholders and participants give to platforms. It also requires us to analyse how social media companies try to make profits, how and which labour creates this profit, who creates social media ideologies, and the conditions under which such ideologies emerge. In short, understanding social media means coming to grips with the relationship between culture and the economy. In this thorough study, Christian Fuchs, one of the leading analysts of the Internet and social media, delves deeply into the subject by applying the approach of cultural materialism to social media, offering readers theoretical concepts, contemporary examples, and proposed opportunities for political intervention. Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media is the ultimate resource for anyone who wants to understand culture and the economy in an era populated by social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google in the West and Weibo, Renren, and Baidu in the East. Updating the analysis of thinkers such as Raymond Williams, Karl Marx, Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, and Dallas W. Smythe for the 21st century, Fuchs presents a version of Marxist cultural theory and cultural materialism that allows us to critically understand social media's influence on culture and the economy.

This book is the essential guide for understanding how state power and politics are contested and exercised on social media. It brings together contributions by social media scholars who explore the connection of social media with revolutions, uprising, protests, power and counter-power, hacktivism, the state, policing and surveillance. It shows how collective action and state power are related and conflict as two dialectical sides of social media power, and how power and counter-power are distributed in this dialectic. Theoretically focused and empirically rigorous research considers the two-sided contradictory nature of power in relation to social media and politics. Chapters cover social media in the context of phenomena such as contemporary revolutions in Egypt and other countries, populism 2.0, anti-austerity protests, the fascist movement in Greece's crisis, Anonymous and police surveillance.

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 Lukacs, Lucien Goldmann, Gunther Anders, M. N. Roy, Angela Davis, C. L. R. James, Rosa Luxemburg, Eve Mitchell, and Cedric J. Robinson, the book provides readings of works that inform our understanding of how to critically theorise communication in society. The topics covered include the relationship of capitalism, racism, and patriarchy; communication and alienation; the base/superstructure-problem; the question of how one should best define communication; the political economy of communication; ideology critique; the connection of communication and struggles for alternatives. Written for a broad audience of students and scholars interested in contemporary critical theory, this book will be useful for courses in media and communication studies, cultural studies, Internet research, sociology, philosophy, political science, and economics. This is the first of five Communication and Society volumes, each one outlining a particular aspect of the foundations of a critical theory of communication in society.

The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of "Web 2.0", social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged in this context. With such platforms comes the massive provision and storage of personal data that are systematically evaluated, marketed, and used for targeting users with advertising. In a world of global economic competition, economic crisis, and fear of terrorism after 9/11, both corporations and state institutions have a growing interest in accessing this personal data. Here, contributors explore this changing landscape by addressing topics such as commercial data collection by advertising, consumer sites and interactive media; self-disclosure in the social web; surveillance of file-sharers; privacy in the age of the internet; civil watch-surveillance on social networking sites; and networked interactive surveillance in transnational space. This book is a result of a research action launched by the intergovernmental network COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

In this exceptional study, Christian Fuchs discusses how the internet has transformed the lives of human beings and social relationships in contemporary society. By outlining a social theory of the internet and the information society, he demonstrates how the ecological, economic, political, and cultural systems of contemporary society have been transformed by new ICTs. Fuchs highlights how new forms of cooperation and competition are advanced and supported by the internet in subsystems of society and also discusses opportunities and risks of the information society.

Never look at social media the same way again. Social media are an integral part of contemporary society. From news and politics to language and everyday life, they have changed the way we communicate, use information and understand the world. So we have to ask critical questions about social media. We have to dig deeper into issues of ownership, power, class and (in)justice. This book equips you with a critical understanding of the complexities and contradictions at the heart of social media's relationship with society. The revised and expanded

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has changed the way we live and communicate. The phases of lockdown brought about by the pandemic fundamentally changed the way we work, lead our everyday lives, and how we communicate, resulting in Internet platforms becoming more important than ever before. Communicating COVID-19 explores the impact of these changes on society and the way we communicate, and the effect this has had on the spread of misinformation. Critical communication and Internet scholar Christian Fuchs analyses the changes of everyday communication in the COVID-19 crisis and how misinformation has spread online throughout the pandemic. He explores the foundations and rapid spread of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination discourse on the Internet, paying particular attention to the vast amount of COVID-19 conspiracy theories about Bill Gates. He also interrogates Internet users' reactions to these COVID-19 conspiracy theories as well as how Donald Trump communicated about COVID-19 on Twitter during the final year of his Presidency. Communicating COVID-19 is an essential work for anyone seeking to understand the role of digital technologies, changes in communication and the Internet, and the spread of conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19.