Politics and the Mass Media

We are entering into a brave new world in which technological changes carry with them either the seeds to promote or retard citizen empowerment. The problem remains how to effectively employ this new set of information highways for societal benefit. These changes throw into relief some of the questions related to the exercising of citizenship through mass communication. Will the digital revolution increase citizen participation, decentralize conglomerate control and reinvent civil society? Can interactivity increase democratic participation through a constant series of referenda? Is it the case, as critics of 'electronic democracy' argue, that democracy is more than a device for registering preference and that cultural rights comprise information, knowledge, representation and communication?

Students and teachers alike will respond not only to the text's comprehensive coverage of the field but to the currency of these hotly debated issues.