ABSTRACT
For political economy studies of media, communication, and information, the craft of criticism can take a variety of established paths and also admit trailblazers. Critical political economy of communication is distinguished from liberal political economy or media economics. This chapter points out the inherited basis for critical political economy of communication, and discusses major influences and landmark studies in the field. It addresses the centrality of intellectual property rights to the political economic approach in media studies and describes how political economy can inform the global movement to expand communication rights in the Information Society. Pirate politics is the institutionalization of political parties promoting copyright reform throughout Europe and in other parts of the world. Marxism informs the basic categories of critical political economy, and historical materialism broadly construed provides a counterpoint to the liberal tradition of political economy found in Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
