Political Economy of Media

Political economy of media (PEM) is a scholarly field that studies a variety of issues located at the intersection of media studies, cultural studies, economics, and political science. Scholars who describe themselves as political economists of media study certain aspects of the media industries and their practices, [Page 1277]focusing primarily on media companies’ ownership patterns, organizational structures, and business operations; the way that these practices are shaped by governments’ laws, regulations, and other policies; and the impacts of these business/regulatory interrelationships not only on media content and media audiences but also on societies’ politics and culture more broadly. While PEM is not a research method per se, political economists of media tend to conduct research on a fairly well-defined set of issues or areas of ...