Marx's Capital in the information age

This article argues that a media and communication studies perspective on reading Marx's Capital has thus far been missing, but is needed in the age of information capitalism and digital capitalism. Two of the most popular contemporary companions to Marx's Capital, the ones by David Harvey and Michael Heinrich, present themselves as general guidebooks on how to read Marx, but are actually biased towards particular schools of Marxist thought. A contemporary reading of Marx needs to be mediated with contemporary capitalism's structures and the political issues of the day. Media, communications and the Internet are important issues for such a reading today. It is time to see Marx not just as a critic of capitalism but also as a critic of capitalist communications. Keywords Capital Volume I, communications, digital capitalism, information capitalism, Internet, Karl Marx, Marxist theory, media, media and communication studies, political economy of communications and the media
Introduction The general interest in Marx's works has, since the start of the new world economic crisis in 2008, significantly increased. Whereas before it was easier to dismiss the relevance [...]