This is a book about how to have an inclusive, reflective and civil national conversation. It asks whether the mass media can contribute to meaningful public debate in the run-up to an election.Talk radio in the United States is said to have contributed to a political atmosphere in which the loudest, crudest and simplest arguments prevail. Is there a different model of public talk that can contribute to a kinder, wiser, more empathetic democracy?In the run-up to the 2024 UK...

From its inception as a public communication network, the Internet was regarded by many people as a potential means of escaping from the stranglehold of top-down, stage-managed politics. If hundreds of millions of people could be the producers as well as receivers of political messages, could that invigorate democracy? If political elites fail to respond to such energy, where will it leave them?In this short book, internationally renowned scholar of political communication, Stephen...

This book sets out to unearth the hidden genealogies of democracy, and particularly its most widely recognized, commonly discussed and deeply symbolic act, voting. By exploring the gaps between voting and recognition, being counted and feeling counted, having a vote and having a voice and the languor of count taking and the animation of account giving, there emerges a unique insight into how it feels to be a democratic citizen. Based on a series of interviews with a variety of voters and n...

Ectogenesis, the gestation of the foetus outside of the human body, will not for much longer be in the realm of science fiction; a number of projects attempting to develop ectogenetic technology are currently under way. This book examines the ethical implications of the development of ectogenesis. Examining the implications for abortion ethics in particular, this book also deals with the ethical objections to developing such a technology and the uses to which it may be put, such as creatin...

A "witty, entertaining, educational" blend of travel memoir and Civil War history (Scott L. Mingus, Sr, award-winning author of Flames beyond Gettysburg).Gettysburg is a small, charming city nestled in south central Pennsylvania—but its very name evokes passion and angst, enthusiasm and sadness. For about half the year its streets are mainly empty, its businesses quiet, the weather cold and blustery. For the other months, however, the place teems with hun...

In October 1944, US forces executed amphibious landings on the Japanese-occupied island of Leyte in the central Philippines. Japanese naval forces, severely outnumbered by the US Third and Seventh Fleets, attempted to stop the invasion by attacking US amphibious shipping in Leyte Gulf. Due to the divided US area commands in the Pacific theater during World War II, the Third and Seventh Fleet commanders, Adm. Halsey and Vice Adm. Kinkaid, reported to separate superiors, Adm. Nimitz and Gen....

How does news circulate in a major post-industrial city? And how in turn are identities and differences formed and mediated through this circulation? This seminal work is the first to offer an empirical examination, and trace a city's pattern of, news circulation.Encompassing a comprehensive range of practices involved in producing, circulating and consuming 'news' and recognizing the various ways in which individuals and groups may find out, follow and discuss local issues and eve...

During the Brexit referendum campaign it became clear how easily national conversations around politics could become raucous and bitter. This book explores the nature of talking about politically contentious issues and how our society can begin to develop a more constructive culture of political talk.Uniquely, this study focuses on citizens own experiences and reflections on developing, practising and evaluating their own political voices. Based on seventy in-depth interviews with ...

Surgery inevitably inflicts some harm on the body. At the very least, it damages the tissue that is cut. These harms often are clearly outweighed by the overall benefits to the patient. However, where the benefits do not outweigh the harms or where they do not clearly do so, surgical interventions become morally contested. Cutting to the Core examines a number of such surgeries, including infant male circumcision and cutting the genitals of female children, the separation of conjo...

The Media and the Public explores the ways a range of media, from the press to television to the Internet, have constructed and represented the public.Provides a new synthesis of recent research exploring the relationship between media and their publicsIdentifies ways in which different publics are subverting the gatekeeping of mainstream media in order to find a voice and communicate with othersSituates contemporary media-public discourse and rel...

This book is about what it means to speak of a political mood. Can the electorate be in a mood? How do they express it? How can moods be captured in a meaningful way? This book attempts to answer those questions by looking at one city during the December 2019 British general election. This is not a book about campaign strategies, target voters, turnouts and poll swings. It is about how people feel. The research approach is ethnographic. The telling of the story is lyrical. It may not be ha...

Relations between the public and holders of political authority are in a period of transformative flux. On the one side, new expectations and meanings of citizenship are being entertained and occasionally acted upon. On the other, an inexorable impoverishment of mainstream political communication is taking place. This book argues that the Internet has the potential to improve public communications and enrich democracy, a project that requires imaginative policy-making. This argument is dev...