This document discusses Karl Marx's theory of primitive accumulation and how it relates to contemporary media and communication studies. It argues that Marx's theory can help analyze how news media and social media facilitate capital accumulation in two key ways:

1) News media content and structures help advance processes of "accumulation by dispossession" by shaping narratives around privatization and financialization. 

2) Social media platforms appropriate the unpaid labor and data of users, transforming them into commodities. This commodification of online activities and personal information contributes to capital accumulation.

3) By analyzing how primitive accumulation remains intertwined with today's capitalism, Marx's theory provides a framework for critically examining political economic issues in media and technology.

M. Ekman - Understanding Accumulation: The Relelvance of Marx's Theory of Primitive Accumulation in Media and Communication Studies PDF

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