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Just as in the 16th century, when the production of printed books and the efforts to read codex type required a fundamental shift of political perspective, so today, in the emergent world of communicative abundance, a whole new mental effort is required to make sense of how democracies are being shaped and re-shaped by the new tools and rhetoric of communication, and to see why our very thinking about democracy must also change….
Mediacracy: Rupert Murdoch’s “Toxic Shadow State”
When Rupert Murdoch gives further evidence to the Leveson Inquiry this week it will mark another turning point in his public disgrace. The legal noose around the neck of News International, on both sides of the Atlantic, will also tighten, thanks to fresh revelations detailed in Dial M for Murdoch, a new book by Westminster [...]
Prologue to Monitory Democracy in the Era of the New Media Galaxy
John Keane’s prologue to Ramón A. Feenstra, Democracia Monitorizada En La Era De La Nueva Galaxia Mediática: Based En La Propuesta De John Keane (2012) Vivimos en una era revolucionaria de la abundancia comunicativa en la cual numerosas innovaciones de medios y herramientas de comunicación –desde conexiones de banda ancha a los smartphones, libros electrónicos, [...]
The China Labyrinth
James Madison famously remarked that a popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy. The present government of the People’s Republic of China has set out to disprove this rule. Rejecting talk of farce and tragedy, its rulers claim their authority is [...]
The Hidden Media Powers that Undermine Democracy
When recently ploughing through Tony Blair’s autobiography, I hit a rare rock of truth. On the last night of the second millennium, when the government’s extravaganza spectacles were faring badly, Blair recalls with special horror his discovery that a pack of top journalists invited to attend the midnight Millennium Dome celebrations had been left stranded [...]
Murdoch, mediacracy and the opportunity for a new transparency
Schadenfreude is the tough-sounding word that wins my vote for describing accurately how millions of people around the world are feeling about Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. For those who were long resigned to accepting its arbitrary influence, or who loved or loathed its products and style, something unprecedented is now happening under the noses of [...]
John Keane interviews Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens
Professor John Keane is in conversation with Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens. This conversation is not meant to be a traditional political interview. It is a discussion between a leading academic and a senior elected representative about developments in Australian, and international, public life. It touches on a wide range of themes [...]
Refolution in the Arab world
Great revolutionary convulsions typically trigger long-lasting reflections on their causes and consequences. The European tradition of political thinking harbours many well-known examples, including Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Harold Laski’s Reflections on the Revolution of Our Times (1943) and Ralf Dahrendorf’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (1990). There are not [...]
Democracy in the Age of Google, Facebook and WikiLeaks
In the beginning there was the grand spectacle of a worldwide satellite television broadcast, featuring Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso and the Beatles. Then came fax machines, photocopiers, video recorders and personal computers. Now there are electronic books, scanners and smart phones converted into satellite navigators and musical instruments; cloud computing, interactive video technology and speak-to-tweets, [...]
Media & Democracy Related Books & Publications
The Media & Democracy Public Life & Late Capitalism The Life & Death of Democracy
Journalism and Democracy Across Borders
Chapter 6 – pp. 92-114 – in Geneva Overholser, Kathleen Hall Jamieson (eds.) 2005 – The Press, The Institutions of American Democracy, Oxford University Press After more than half a century [1] , fresh interpretations of the vital importance of journalism for democratic politics have begun to appear. The new thinking began around a decade [...]