Bart Cammaerts

This innovative textbook explores media and communication theory, and its intersections with social and political theory, through the prism of eight core dichotomies – communication/media, private/public, production/reception, material/symbolic, mainstream/alternative, abundance/scarcity, control/freedom, and virtual/real – revealing their complex interrelationships and significance in understanding contemporary media and communication landscapes. Students will gain a nuanced understanding of media and communication theories by examining both sides of each dichotomy and their dynamic interplay. The book historicizes each concept pair, illustrates them with past and present examples, and demonstrates how competing paradigms often complement rather than contradict each other. This approach helps readers grasp theoretical complexity, recognize the democratic importance of media and communication, and develop critical thinking skills through engaging case studies and discussion questions in each chapter. This textbook is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking media and communication theory courses. Instructors teaching critical media and communication theory will find the dichotomy-based approach particularly valuable for helping students navigate complex theoretical debates and understand the field's intellectual development. It will also be useful supplementary reading for specific topics within broader media studies programs.

This innovative textbook explores media and communication theory, and its intersections with social and political theory, through the prism of eight core dichotomies – communication/media, private/public, production/reception, material/symbolic, mainstream/alternative, abundance/scarcity, control/freedom, and virtual/real – revealing their complex interrelationships and significance in understanding contemporary media and communication landscapes. Students will gain a nuanced understanding of media and communication theories by examining both sides of each dichotomy and their dynamic interplay. The book historicizes each concept pair, illustrates them with past and present examples, and demonstrates how competing paradigms often complement rather than contradict each other. This approach helps readers grasp theoretical complexity, recognize the democratic importance of media and communication, and develop critical thinking skills through engaging case studies and discussion questions in each chapter. This textbook is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking media and communication theory courses. Instructors teaching critical media and communication theory will find the dichotomy-based approach particularly valuable for helping students navigate complex theoretical debates and understand the field's intellectual development. It will also be useful supplementary reading for specific topics within broader media studies programs.

In this book a set of theoretical and methodological resources are presented to study the way in which protest, resistance and social movement discourses circulate through society and looks at the role of media and of communication in this process. Empirically, the focus of this book is on the UK’s anti-austerity movement. ‘The Circuit of Protest’, as developed in this volume, is comprised of an analysis of the discourses of the anti-austerity movement and their corresponding movement frames, and the self-mediation practices geared at communicating these. The mainstream media representations and the reception of the movement discourses and frames by non-activist citizens are also studied. It is concluded that studying a movement through the prism of mediation provides a nuanced assessment in terms of failures and successes of the UK’s anti-austerity movement. The book is of relevance to students and researchers of politics, social movements, as well as media and communication, but alsoto activists.

In this book a set of theoretical and methodological resources are presented to study the way in which protest, resistance and social movement discourses circulate through society and looks at the role of media and of communication in this process. Empirically, the focus of this book is on the UK’s anti-austerity movement. ‘The Circuit of Protest’, as developed in this volume, is comprised of an analysis of the discourses of the anti-austerity movement and their corresponding movement frames, and the self-mediation practices geared at communicating these. The mainstream media representations and the reception of the movement discourses and frames by non-activist citizens are also studied. It is concluded that studying a movement through the prism of mediation provides a nuanced assessment in terms of failures and successes of the UK’s anti-austerity movement. The book is of relevance to students and researchers of politics, social movements, as well as media and communication, but alsoto activists.

This book addresses one of the greatest challenges of post-modern democracy: how to bridge the perceived gap between citizens and democratic institutions. It examines internet-mediated multi-stakeholder processes of international and regional organisations - the European Union and United Nations - which aim to democratise decision-making processes in an attempt to counter criticisms of a 'democratic deficit'. The book evaluates two multi-stakeholder consultation processes where the internet played an important mediating role. It critically evaluates multi-stakeholderism as well as the potentials and constraints of the internet in terms of mediating or facilitating such consultation processes at international and regional levels of governance. It also addresses the perceived impact of civil society organisations on decision-making processes beyond the nation-state and, in turn, the impact of such participatory experiments on civil society itself.

This book is concerned with the contexts, nature and quality of the participation of young people in European democratic life. The authors understand democracy broadly as both institutional politics and civic cultures, and a wide range of methods are used to analyse and assess youth participation and attitudes.

This book addresses one of the greatest challenges of post-modern democracy: how to bridge the perceived gap between citizens and democratic institutions. It examines internet-mediated multi-stakeholder processes of international and regional organisations - the European Union and United Nations - which aim to democratise decision-making processes in an attempt to counter criticisms of a 'democratic deficit'. The book evaluates two multi-stakeholder consultation processes where the internet played an important mediating role. It critically evaluates multi-stakeholderism as well as the potentials and constraints of the internet in terms of mediating or facilitating such consultation processes at international and regional levels of governance. It also addresses the perceived impact of civil society organisations on decision-making processes beyond the nation-state and, in turn, the impact of such participatory experiments on civil society itself.

At the beginning of the 21st century, it hardly goes uncontested anymore that media organisations play an important role in democracy. The main questions have now become whether the contemporary media conjuncture offers enough to our democracies, how their democratic investment can be deepened and how our communication rights can be expande. This book aims to look at four thematic areas that structure the opportunities for democratising (media) democracy. A first section is devoted to citizenship and the public spheres, giving special attention to the general theme of communication rights. The second section elaborates further on a notion central to communication rights, namely that of participation. The third section returns to the traditional representational role in relation to democracy and citizenship, scrutinizing and criticizing the democratic efforts of contemporary journalism. The fourth section moves outside of the (traditional) media system, and deals with the diversity of media and communication strategies of activists. This is volume 3 in the European Communication Research and Education Association book series.