Books in the Communication, Society and Politics series

A Virtuous Circle, first published in 2000, examines the role of the news media and parties in 29 postindustrial societies and challenges the idea that the process of political communications by the news media and by parties is responsible for civic malaise.

An answer to the question first raised in the classic, 'Why is the press as it is?', examining the development of media systems in eighteen Western countries, and explaining why media systems evolved differently, and how their evolution can be understood within their political and historical context.

In Mediated Politics, distinguished international scholars investigate the questions arising from the epochal changes in democratic political communication. The authors combine developments in political communication with core questions about politics and policy in suggesting new theoretical directions for the discipline.

This book presents a unique perspective on the relationship between politics and the media in different political regimes. The conclusions challenge conventional wisdom concerning the political roles and effects of the mass media on regime support and change, on the political behavior of citizens, and on the quality of democracy.

This study investigates candidate behavior in American electoral campaigns. It centers on a question of equal importance to citizens and scholars: how can we produce better political campaigns? It takes an innovative approach by bringing together critical and empirical methods as well as game theory.

Baker challenges the premises of deregulation of the media and government interventions in this sphere. While arguing for a constitutional conception of freedom of the press, he argues that economic and democratic theories justify deviations from free trade in media products.

For a number of years, voters and academic observers have been dissatisfied with a number of elements of American campaigns. Contemporary races are seen as too negative, too superficial, and too unfair or misleading. Based on these complaints, a variety of reform organizations have targeted millions of dollars to improve the situation. Through their efforts and those within the academic community, a wide range of reform initiatives have been undertaken, such as voluntary codes of conduct, industry self-regulation, certificate programs, tougher ethics rules for consultants, and the encouragement of more substantive venues. This book seeks to evaluate whether these activities have improved the level of campaign discourse and conduct in US House and Senate campaigns and argues that while individual reform efforts have achieved some of their stated objectives, the overall effect of these reform efforts has been disappointing.

This book presents a unique perspective on the relationship between politics and the media in different political regimes. The conclusions challenge conventional wisdom concerning the political roles and effects of the mass media on regime support and change, on the political behavior of citizens, and on the quality of democracy.

There is widespread concern that the explosive growth of the Internet is exacerbating existing inequalities between the information rich and poor. Digital Divide sets out to examine the evidence for access and use of the Internet in 179 nations across the world.

This volume assesses comparative political communication research and considers potential ways in which it could and should develop. This book is aimed at introducing new students to a crucial, dynamic field as well as deepening advanced students' knowledge of its principles and perspectives.

This book examines the role the news media plays in peace processes, arguing that it is often destructive. Wolfsfeld examines three major cases: the Oslo peace process between Israel and the Palestinians; the peace process between Israel and Jordan; and the process surrounding the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.

This volume assesses comparative political communication research and considers potential ways in which it could and should develop. This book is aimed at introducing new students to a crucial, dynamic field as well as deepening advanced students' knowledge of its principles and perspectives.

The book examines the reform of the communication sector in South Africa in the transition from apartheid to democracy. It studies the complex political process by which broadcasting, telecommunications, the state information agency and the print press were transformed from apartheid-aligned apparatuses to accountable democratic institutions.

Technological innovations can alter the organization of power in politics, and it is difficult to distinguish political systems from their communication technologies. This book explores how political organizations use new information technologies to construct public opinion, and analyzes what it means to be a citizen in a modern, representative democracy.

This book provides a normative critique of mass media ownership concentration. It emphasizes a democratic need to distribute communicative power more widely and to prevent abuse of media power. It also shows why ownership dispersal can be expected to improve the quality of media content.

This book explains how the process of moving from analog TV to digital is unfolding in the US and Britain and explores the changes in the legal framework and the industry structure associated with it. It is an interesting study about the technological, political, and social factors shaping this transition.

Relations between the public and holders of political authority are in a period of transformative flux. On the one side, new expectations and meanings of citizenship are being entertained and occasionally acted upon. On the other, an inexorable impoverishment of mainstream political communication is taking place. This book argues that the Internet has the potential to improve public communications and enrich democracy, a project that requires imaginative policy-making. This argument is developed through three stages: first exploring the theoretical foundations for renewing democratic citizenship, then examining practical case studies of e-democracy, and finally, reviewing the limitations of recent policies designed to promote e-democracy and setting out a radical, but practical proposal for an online civic commons: a trusted public space where the dispersed energies, self-articulations and aspirations of citizens can be rehearsed, in public, within a process of ongoing feedback to the various levels and centers of governance: local, national and transnational.

One of the most difficult problems facing Western democracy today is the decline in citizens' political engagement. This book examines the media's key role in shaping the character of civic engagement and its potential to shape and enhance political engagement, as well as create new forms of political involvement.