Classical Political Economy

The article deals with some basic questions of a political economy of the media under theoretical-historical, methodological, and application aspects within the media economy. Theoretically, the path from classical to neoclassical economics as well as from old to new political economy is shown (The term “economics” is used when emphasizing economic models and methods; the term “economy” refers to the economic (media) system in general.); methodologically, some programmatic contrasts of these approaches are briefly discussed, and the freedom from value judgment is questioned, which allows the inclusion of some discussion strands that are indispensable in the media and communication society, such as those around concentration, diversity, and regulation; as a specific example of application, the discourse on justice in society has been shaped by various theories (such as contractualist, utilitarian, deontological, or social choice approaches) and is still underrepresented in media economics as a sub-discipline of communication studies. A return to “classical” political-economic analyses to overcome existing theoretical contradictions represents the conclusion of the considerations.