Media and political engagement
Subtitle: citizens, communication, and democracy
By: Peter Dahlgren.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9780521821018; 9780521527897
Subjects: Political participation; Democracy; Mass media -- Political aspects; Digital media -- Political aspects; Online social networks -- Political aspects
Description: "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. This book summarizes these contexts and situates itself within them, while focusing on the media s key role in shaping the character of civic engagement. In particular, in 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 as citizenship, public sphere, agency, identity, deliberation, and practice and offers a multidimensional 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."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.