Media, Politics and Democracy

Politics and media are so closely connected that it is impossible to think of one without the other. From arguments of bias and impartiality in news coverage, to how entertainment – whether Game of Thrones or The Thick of It – shapes our perception of the world and its political structures, it is clear that we cannot understand politics without media, or media without politics.

The third edition of Media, Politics and Democracy examines the fraught debate over media influence, who wields it and what effect social and traditional media has on what we think, how we behave, and how we vote. Charting the media conglomerates of old, the alarming rise of the Tech Giants in recent decades, concerns over ‘fake news’, and the use of social media by political candidates, this book places contemporary anxieties into historical context and compares the response to such issues across different states and societies. Using examples from around the world, Street tackles the changing nature of political communications and brings under scrutiny the question of how a democratic society can function alongside a democratic media.