Michael Keren traces the political lives and messages of some of the twentieth century's greatest literary characters in this insightful and jargon-free book of literary criticism. He observes the infamous characters ranging from Joseph K from Franz Kafka's The Trial to Ralph from William Golding's Lord of the Flies to Chauncey Gardiner from Jerzy Kosinski's Being There and beyond while they struggle through their lives and world events. The Citizen's Voice is a refreshing contribution to civil society theory that makes a pioneering effort to cross the boundaries between politics, literature, and culture. A study of the human condition via literature this book expounds the key features of a good citizen while offering a perfect discussion piece for courses in political theory, politics and literature, and history.

This important resource offers seven field-tested strategies for public managers to help them maximize citizen engagement as they implement the President's Open Government Directive. The Core Strategies for Citizen Engagement are: Establish Links to Decision-Makers; Ensure Demographic Diversity; Create Opportunities for Informed Participation; Maximize Tools of Facilitated Deliberation; Discover Shared Priorities; Establish Clear Recommendations for Action; and Sustain Citizen Engagement. The book includes project and leadership case studies from major federal agencies that elucidate the seven strategies in the context of real-world issues and challenges.

The study provides an overview of relevant legislation and policy in South Africa, pre- and post- 1994, as well as a review of international research that reveals global trends in small media development. It sketches the distribution of the sector in South Africa, revealing the topography of service providers and key stakeholders. The report identifies the interests that are common to small independent and community media groupings and examines ways in which the sustainability of these organisations can be promoted. Providing a range of pertinent data, analysis and information, this study will be invaluable for anyone wishing to engage effectively with the small media sector. The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) was established to direct funding and support to the small media sector in the interests of deepening South Africa's young democracy. The principal objective of this study is to assist the MDDA in its important and complex work.

The role of public opinion in American democracy has been a central concern of scholars who frequently examine how public opinion influences policy makers and how politicians, especially presidents, try to shape public opinion. But in Speaking with the People’s Voice: How Presidents Invoke Public Opinion, Jeffrey P. Mehltretter Drury asks a different question that adds an important new dimension to the study of public opinion: How do presidents rhetorically use public opinion in their speeches? In a careful analysis supported by case studies and discrete examples, Drury develops the concept of “invoked public opinion” to study the modern presidents’ use of public opinion as a rhetorical resource. He defines the term as “the rhetorical representation of the beliefs and values of US citizens.” Speaking with the People’s Voice considers both the strategic and democratic value of invoked public opinion by analyzing how modern presidents argumentatively deploy references to the beliefs and values of US citizens as persuasive appeals as well as acts of political representation in their nationally televised speeches.

Public communication is an essential element of government policy and crucial for transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation. This OECD Review analyses public communication in Lebanon, by reviewing the relevant governance structures and procedures across the public administration, along with the prevailing use of core competencies for this function and their application to support transparency and stakeholder participation in public life.

Public communication is an essential part of government policy and an important contributor to transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation. This Citizens’ Voice in Jordan Report provides an analysis of internal and external communications processes, examining progress achieved to date and remaining challenges.

2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the Billboard hit about cannibalism in a Pennsylvania coal mine. "Timothy," known as "the worst song ever recorded," was banned by major radio stations, while launching the careers of playwright Rupert Holmes, The Buoys, and Dakota. Their amazing story represents a cautionary tale of substance abuse, the pitfalls of fame, and the true price of the rock and roll fantasy.

Here in their own words are Frederick Douglass, George Jackson, Chief Joseph, Martin Luther King Jr., Plough Jogger, Sacco and Vanzetti, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Twain, and Malcolm X, to name just a few of the hundreds of voices that appear in Voices of a People's History of the United States, edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. Paralleling the twenty-four chapters of Zinn's A People's History of the United States, Voices of a People’s History is the long-awaited companion volume to the national bestseller. For Voices, Zinn and Arnove have selected testimonies to living history—speeches, letters, poems, songs—left by the people who make history happen but who usually are left out of history books—women, workers, nonwhites. Zinn has written short introductions to the texts, which range in length from letters or poems of less than a page to entire speeches and essays that run several pages. Voices of a People’s History is a symphony of our nation’s original voices, rich in ideas and actions, the embodiment of the power of civil disobedience and dissent wherein lies our nation’s true spirit of defiance and resilience.