Aeron Davis

We are living in a period of great uncertainty. Votes for Brexit and Trump, along with widespread political volatility, are not only causing turmoil; they are signs that many long-predicted tipping points in media and politics have been reached. Such changes have worrying implications for democracies everywhere. In this text, Aeron Davis bridges old and new to map the shifts and analyse what they mean for our aging democracies. Why are volatile, polarised electorates no longer prepared to support established political parties? Why are large parts of the legacy media either dying or dismissed as ‘fake news’? How is social media rapidly rewriting the rules? And why do some democratic leaders look more like dictators, and pollsters and economists more like witchdoctors? These questions and more are addressed in the book. Political Communication: A New Introduction for Crisis Times both introduces and challenges the established literature. It will appeal to advanced students, scholars and anyone else trying to understand the precarious state of today's media and political landscape.

Chapter Outline: 

Part 1: Introductory Frameworks;1 Introduction; 2 Evaluating Democratic Politics and Communication; 3 Political Communication and Crisis in Established Democracies; 

Part 2: Institutional Politics and Mass Media; 4 Political Parties and Elections; 5 Political Reporting and the Future of (Fake) News; 6 Media-Source Relations, Mediatization and Populist Politics; 

Part 3: Interest Groups and Citizens; 7 Citizens, Media Effects and Public Participation; 8 Organised Interests, Power and the Policy Process; 

Part 4: Challenges and Disruptions to Democracy; 9 Economics, the Economy and Media; 10 Digital Media and Online Political Communication; 11 Globalisation, the State and International Political Communication; 12 Conclusions: Post-Truth, Post-Public Sphere and Post-Democracy. 

More here.