Media and Political Engagement Citizens, Communication and Democracy [Hardcover]

This book examines the media's role in shaping civic engagement and enhancing political engagement.One of the most difficult problems facing Western democracy today is the decline in citizens political engagement. This book examines the medias 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.One of the most difficult problems facing Western democracy today is the decline in citizens political engagement. This book examines the medias 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.One of the most difficult problems facing Western democracy today is the decline in citizens political engagement. There are many elements that contribute to this, including fundamental socio-cultural changes. The book summarizes these contexts and situates itself within them, while focusing on the medias key role in shaping the character of civic engagement. In particular, it examines the new interactive electronic media in terms of their civic potential. Looking at the evolution of the media landscape, the book interrogates key notions such citizenship, public sphere, agency, identity, deliberation, and practice, and offers a multi-dimensional analytic framework called civic cultures. This framework is then applied to several settings, including television, popular culture, journalism, the EU, and global activism, to illuminate the role of the media in deflecting and enhancing political engagement, as well as in contributing to new forms of political involvement and new understandings of what constitutes the political.1. Democracy in difficult times; 2. Media alternatives; 3. Citizens and agency; 4. Engagement, deliberation, and performance; 5. Civic cultures: an analytic frame; 6. Television and popular public spheres; 7. Internet and civic pl³Å