Blackwell Reference Online

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Media economics is the application and study of economic theories and concepts to the media industries. Media economics encompasses all forms of media, including traditional media such as print, broadcasting, music, and film, and new media forms such as the Internet. Media economics scholarship is broad and diverse and includes such topics as policy and ownership issues, market concentration, practices and performance of media firms, and political economy of the media. This entry reviews the historical development of media economics, the key theories and paradigms in media economics research, and the contributions of media economics to the broader area of communication science. The development of the field of media economics began with the study of economics itself. The earliest literature on economic thought began to evolve with the study of mercantilism in the sixteenth century in western Europe. Mercantilists equated wealth with the accumulation of precious metals like gold and silver. If nations lacked mines, they could acquire products through trade and commerce. This led to political intervention in the market via tariffs and subsidies, elevating commercial interests to national policy and tying economic activity to political interests. The French physiocrats , a group of eighteenth-century philosophers, rejected mercantilism in favor of agriculture, and represent one of ... log in or subscribe to read full text