The Media and Democracy

ISBN-13: 9780745608044 / Angielski / Miękka / 1991 / 216 str.

John Keane; John Keane

Opis

Once feared by princes, nobles and clerics, the old European ideal of liberty of the press appears to have come of age and gained acceptance among politicians, policy makers and the general public. Yet, paradoxically, there are signs in Europe, the United States and elsewhere that this ideal is under pressure and that it is further endangered by its indiscriminate or deceptive use in debates about the present and future structure of public communications.

Recenzje

′A most welcome and readable analysis.′ Political Studies

′The best of several books which have recently appeared on this theme.′ Media Development

Spis treści

Preface.

1. Liberty of the Press.

2. Deregulation.

3. The Democratic Leviathan.

4. Public Service Media?.

5. Democracy, Risks and Reversals.

Index.

O autorze

John Keane is Director of te Centre for the Study of Democracy and Professor of Politics at the polytechnic of Central London.

Blurb

In this essay, John Keane rethinks the relationship between the media and democracy. He opens up and explores a cluster of vital questions: where did the modern ideals of republican democracy and ′liberty of the press′ originate? Have they been destroyed during the twentieth century by new forms of state censorship, or the emergence of transnational media conglomerates, or the growth of electronic media? Do the new digital technologies, satellite broadcasting and the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications hinder or help these ideals? Is the free and equal communication of citizens through the media a feasible ideal at the end of the twentieth century?

While these questions have long been neglected in social science and in the high–pressured world of print and electronic journalism, Keane restores them to the centre of political analysis and debate. He challenges many conventional assumptions of journalists, academics and policymakers. His essay sets out a radically new account of the importance of the media to democracy and elaborates a new conception of the public service model of communications – a model which would expose invisible power, publicize risks and facilitate ′a genuine commonwealth of forms of life, tastes and opinions′.

The Media and Democracy is a remarkable book. It will be widely appreciated by students of democracy, politics and the media, as well as by all those interested in the expanding importantce of mass communications in contemporary society.