Christian Fuchs is Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation at Paderborn University, Germany. He is a critical theorist of communication and society. He is co-editor of the journal tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. He is author of many publications, including the books Social Media: A Critical Introduction (2021, third edition; 2024, fourth edition), Digital Capitalism (2022), and Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory (2020).

1. Introduction Part I: Foundations 2. What is Political Economy? 3. What is Media Economics? 4. The Political Economy of Communication and the Media 5. The Critical Tradition in the Analysis of Media, Communication, Economy, and Society Part II: Applications 6. The Political Economy of Media Concentration 7. The Political Economy of Advertising 8. The Political Economy of Global Media 9. Media Work: The Political Economy of Cultural Labour in the Media Industry 10. The Political Economy of the Internet and Digital Media 11. The Political Economy of the Information Society and Digital Capitalism 12. The Political Economy of the Public Sphere and the Digital Public Sphere 13. The Political Economy of Public Service Media and the Public Service Internet 14. The Political Economy of Media Management