With growing numbers of billionaires at one end and startling numbers of food banks at the other, ‘advanced’ industrial societies are becoming ever more unequal. Yet the evolution and widespread use of new digital media, and of a news-rich environment, bear the promise of unprecedentedly informed citizens and enriched democracy. Are both these trends possible? This book examines the evidence comprehensively, and argues that the link between communications and inequality has a profound and ...

The new edition of the highly respected Researching Communications is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to researching media and communication. Researching Communications, Third Edition is an invaluable guide to performing and analysing research tasks, introducing the major research methods, giving detailed examples of research analysis and practical step-by-step guidance in clear language.Written by highly regarded experts in the field, the third edition in...

Several of the most important and influential political economists of communication working today explore a rich mix of topics and issues that link work, policy studies, and research and theory about the public sphere to the heritage of political economy. Familiar but still exceedingly important topics in critical political economy studies are well represented here: market structures and media concentration, regulation and policy, technological impacts on particular media sectors, informat...

Coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky saga followed in a long trail of media exposures of the more personal details of the lives of public figures. Many commentators have seen stories like this, and TV shows like Jerry Springer's, as evidence of a decline in the standards of the mass media. This increasing interest in private lives and the falling off of coverage of serious news is often described as “tabloidization.” The essays in this book are the first serious scholarly studies of what is go...

John McEwen, thirty-seven years a politician, twenty-three days a Prime Minister and always a farmer, was an extraordinary mix of a man. His staff revered him and his adversaries feared him. There was no one, friend or foe, who did not respect him. Orphaned at seven and raised in poverty, this self-educated soldier-settler overcame difficult beginnings to dominate the Australian political arena for twenty years. The success of the Liberal-Country Party coalition throughout the fifties and ...

The career of Allan Percy Fleming (1912- 2001)—teacher, soldier,journalist, trade commissioner, senior bureaucrat, librarian, counter terrorist—was characterised by the lack of 'appropriate' training.'I was a demonstration, he once remarked,'of the art of how to do things when unqualified.

Information is regarded as a distinguishing feature of our world. Where once economies were built on industry and conquest, we are now part of a global information economy. Pervasive media, expanding information occupations and the development of the internet convince many that living in an Information Society is the destiny of us all. Coping in an era of information flows, of virtual relationships and breakneck change poses challenges to one and all.In Theories of the Informat...

Today's news media is full of references to 'globalization' - a buzz word that is quickly becoming ubiquitous. But what exactly is globalization? What are its main driving forces? Does it truly embrace all aspects of our lives, from economics to cultural developments?A Globalizing World? examines these and other key questions in a highly accessible fashion, offering a clear and intelligent guide to the big ideas and debates of our time. In doing so, it does not take one pa...

"Moving from age-old warnings about the influence of the cultural industry to a tentative embrace of a global creative society, Terry Flew′s new book provides an excellent overview of this exciting field. Warmly recommended for students and policymakers alike."- Mark Deuze, Indiana University**"A comprehensive text on the state of the art of the creative industries... a running commentary on the ebb and flow of both the academic debates (from cultur...

This book provides an overview of debates about whether we are entering into a phase of social existence without precedent - the 'information society'. Intended as a bridge between the literatures of 'social theory' and the 'social impact of technology', this study exposes the myths surrounding the creation of the information society, discussing technologies such as cable TV and robotics.

This textbook offers a fresh approach to the study of comparative politics and public policy. Instead of concentrating on why countries differ, Learning From Comparative Public Policy explores how countries can learn from each other about the success and failure of policy initiatives. With its theory and practice focus, the lively narrative analyzes the cultural and resources problems involved in importing policies, and the roles of institutions, regulators, think tanks and expert...

Over the last decade, political economy has grown rapidly as a specialist area of research and teaching within communications and media studies and is now established as a core element in university programmes around the world. The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications offers students and scholars a comprehensive, authoritative, up-to-date and accessible overview of key areas and debates.Combines overviews of core ideas with new case study materials and the...