Technological, cultural and economic forces are transforming political communication, posing challenges and opportunities for politicians and media organisations, while at the same time many governments and civil society express concerns about the extent and nature of political empowerment and civic engagement.
This book offers an international perspective on current thinking and practice about civic and audience empowerment, focusing on the ways and means through which media can empower or dis-empower citizens as audiences. It features theoretical and empirical chapters that draw specific attention to a reappraisal of the theories, methods and issues that inform our understanding of citizens and audiences in contemporary politics. The authors address the following questions:
How much and what sorts of civic and audience empowerment are most desirable, and how does this differ cross-nationally?
How do citizens relate to private and public spaces?
How do citizens function in online, networked, liminal and alternative spaces?
How do audiences of non-political media spaces relate their experiences to politics?
How are political parties and movements utilising audiences as co-creators of political communication and what are the consequences for democracy?
With examples from the UK, USA, Holland, France, Germany, The Middle East, South Africa and Mexico, this innovative volume will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, marketing, journalism, cultural studies, public relations, media and international relations.
1. Introduction to agents of (dis)empowerment: exploring the medias
contribution to civic engagement Part 1: Political communication: empowering
or disempowering?
2. Media, politics and empowerment: In whose interests?
Heather Savigny
3. Empowering the Citizen? Political communication,
coproduction and the harnessed crowd Darren G. Lilleker
4. Attack Advertising
as an Agent of British Youth Political Disempowerment? A Review of Empirical
Evidence from the 2010 British General Election Janine Dermody, Stuart
Hanmer-Lloyd, Nicole Koenig-Lewis and Anita L. Zhao
5. Governmentality,
Populism and Empowerment: David Camerons rhetoric of the Big Society Michael
Higgins
6. Closing the Gap? Twitter as an instrument for connected
representation Todd Graham, Marcel Broersma and Karin Hazelhoff Part 2:
Political participation in mediated spaces: merely soft empowerment?
7. Is
"empowerment" still a useful concept? Rethinking media practice with Rancičre
and the "emancipated spectator" Felicitas Macgilchrist
8. Digital
participation in news media: Minimalist views versus meaningful interaction
Tamara Witschge
9. Routinisation of Audience Participation: BBC News Online,
Citizenship and Democratic Debate Einar Thorsen
10. Facadelifts: New media
installations, public space and the negotiation of civic identity Gabriel
Menotti
11. Claims-makers versus counter claims-makers: new sites of civic
empowerment in the construction, affirmation and contestation of moral panic
narratives through online newspaper discussion-threads James Morrison Part 3:
Citizen (public) mediated acts of empowerment: challenging the status quo?
12. Introducing Citizen diplomacy 2.0: A framework for the study of online
engagement with global affairs Roman Gerodimos
13. Disabled People, Digital
Campaigns, and Contentious Politics: Upload Successful or Connection Failed?
Filippo Trevisan
14. What are UK youth doing online? Exploring dimensions of
participation and use Janelle Ward
15. Did you read about that bloody
politician in the papers Mediated political events and how they penetrate
everyday discussion online Daniel Jackson, Richard Scullion and Mike
Molesworth
16. Audience empowerment and the politics of representation in two
radio talk shows in post-apartheid South Africa Jendele Hungbo
17. Civic and
audience empowerment: the role of citizen journalism Mick Temple Conclusion
18. Concluding remarks Richard Scullion, Darren Lilleker, Roman Gerodimos and
Daniel Jackson
19. Afterword Stuart Allan
Richard Scullion is Senior Lecturer in Marketing Communication at the Media School, Bournemouth University, UK.
Roman Gerodimos is Senior Lecturer in Global Current Affairs at the Media School, Bournemouth University, UK.
Daniel Jackson is Senior Lecturer in the Media School, Bournemouth University, UK
Darren G Lilleker is Senior Lecturer in Political Communication in the Media School, Bournemouth University, UK.
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