Introduction to the special issue: Media transformation and the challenge of property

Abstract

Despite property being a basic institution in capitalist societies it is rarely addressed directly and seldomly linked to media transformation outside of critical scholarship. This introduction gives an overview over the contributions in this special issue. The special issue is part of a revived interest in property in the social sciences and goes back to an intensive paper workshop hosted by this journal, which took place at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria on 29 September 2023. The contributions are organised in three themes: property and the transformation of media in digital capitalism, public media in the twenty-first century and their limits, and media ownership beyond the legal form.