'With impressive intellectual breadth and rich analytic insight, John Keane's engaging new book moves us beyond conventional ways of thinking about media and democracy. Addressing key debates, his writing is, as always, accessible, compelling, and edifying.' Peter Dahlgren, Lund University

'Vanquishing received wisdom and resisting cliché, John Keane charts the transformative impact of communicative abundance. Invoking McCluhan, Derrida, Curran and others, he perceptively constructs a significant vision: an emerging 'monitory democracy' dependent on new roles for media and very new relationships between media institutions, technology and society.' Monroe E. Price, Director, Center for Global Communications Studies, University of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

'John Keane doesn't answer all your questions about the new media and democracy - but he makes it impossible for you to credit those who pretend to. In energetic, sometimes gripping, prose he offers indispensable conceptual tools (particularly 'monitory democracy') for a fresh look at where democracy stands in an age of communicative abundance teetering on the edge of communicative decay. A brilliant work!' Michael Schudson, Columbia Journalism School

We live in a revolutionary age of communicative abundance in which many media innovations - from satellite broadcasting to smart glasses and electronic books - spawn great fascination mixed with excitement. In the field of politics, hopeful talk of digital democracy, cybercitizens and e-government has been flourishing. This book admits the many thrilling ways that communicative abundance is fundamentally altering the contours of our lives and of our politics, often for the better. But it asks whether too little attention has been paid to the troubling counter-trends, the decadent media developments that encourage public silence and concentrations of unlimited power, so weakening the spirit and substance of democracy. Exploring examples of clever government surveillance, market censorship, spin tactics and back-channel public relations, John Keane seeks to understand and explain these trends, and how best to deal with them. Tackling some tough but big and fateful questions, Keane argues that 'media decadence' is deeply harmful for public life.
Les mer
1. Communicative abundance; 2. Monitory democracy; 3. Media decadence; 4. Democracy's opponents; 5. Why freedom of public communication?
Examines the role of the media in shaping and representing political life, arguing that 'media decadence' is harmful for democracy.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781107614574
Publisert
2013-10-31
Utgiver
Vendor
Cambridge University Press
Vekt
430 gr
Høyde
227 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Dybde
12 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
261

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Renowned globally for his creative thinking about democracy, John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB). Among his best-known recent books are Global Civil Society? (Cambridge University Press, 2003), Violence and Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and the highly-acclaimed The Life and Death of Democracy (2009).