Globalization and technological advances have had a dramatic impact on the relationship between media and politics. How can we understand the connection between the two in the present day? Alexa Robertson argues that we cannot understand the power of the one without taking the other into account. This exciting and accessible book provides fresh insight into our contemporary media landscape, adopting a truly comparative global approach. In Media and Politics in a Globalizing World, Robertson encourages the reader to explore the relationship from different perspectives – those of the politician, the journalist, the activist and the ordinary citizen – and how the relationship between media and politics varies across cultures. Illustrated with contemporary examples throughout, the book weighs up arguments for seeing new developments in terms of change or continuity, as empowering or debilitating, and as promoting or undermining democracy. Suitable for undergraduates and postgraduates studying politics, media and sociology, it also will be of interest to the general reader wishing to understand the complex role of the media in political life the world over. For additional support and information visit this book's companion website at http://mediapolitics.net/

This eclectic and multicultural volume contains 17 papers, authored or co-authored by 25 scholars and doctoral students representing 11 countries. They discuss a wide range of global issues, including immigration, marginalization, identity, mass media, politics, social networking, education, digital media, advertising, and globalization. This book will be an excellent supplement to senior and graduate-level courses in international communication, cultural studies, mass media, journalism, global studies, political communication, intercultural communication, and related subjects.

Democratizing Global Media explores the complex relationship between globalizing media and the spread of democracy around the world. An international, interdisciplinary group of journalists and scholars discusses key_and often contentious_issues such as the power of media, the benefits of media globalization, and the political role of media. More than a critique, Democratizing Global Media offers positive alternatives, from peace journalism to popular movements toward democratizing media and public communication.

This book provides a clear and authoritative introduction to the emerging Arab media industries in the context of globalization and its impacts, with a focus on publishing, press, broadcasting, cinema and new media. Through detailed discussions of the regulation and economics of these industries, the authors argue that the political, technological and cultural changes on the global media scene have resulted in the reorganization of the Arab media field. They provide striking examples of this through the particular effects on media policies, media technology and the content and genres developed for the new generation of media consumers. As part of the book's overview of the contemporary characteristics of Arab media, the authors outline the development of the role of modern Arab media from a tool of mobilizing the public to a tool of commercial and symbolic profit. Overall, the volume illustrates how the Arab region represents a unique case where the commercialization and liberalization of selected media industries has gone hand in hand with continuous state intervention and an increasing self censorship. Written for students without prior knowledge of the topic, Arab Media will be essential reading for all interested in the contemporary global media industries.

This study examines the converging culture, telecommunications and new media industries in North America. With a broadly political-economic perspective, this work the goes on to provide an account of changes in the aftermath of trade agreements, and sets these changes in a global context.

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 particular stance for or against globalizaton; rather, it examines the arguments and evidence about its nature, form and impact. After introducing the main theoretical positions of those who have studied the subject, key chapters look at the changing form of modern communication and cultural industries, trade patterns and financial flows of the world economy, and whether or not the 'new political world order' is qualitatively different from the old state system. This is essential reading for all students of politics, economics and international relations.

This book is a clear, systematic, original and lively account of how media representations shape the way we see our and others’ lives in a global age. It provides in-depth analysis of a range of international media representations of disaster, war, conflict, migration and celebration. The book explores how images, stories and voices, on television, the Internet, and in advertisements and newspapers, invite us to relocate to distant contexts, and to relate to people who are remote from our daily lives, by developing ‘mediated intimacy’ and focusing on the self. It also explores how these representations shape our self-narratives. Orgad examines five sites of media representation – the other, the nation, possible lives, the world and the self. She argues that representations can and should contribute to fostering more ambivalence and complexity in how we think and feel about the world, our place in it and our relation to far-away others. Media Representations and the Global Imagination will be of particular interest to students and scholars of media and cultural studies, as well as sociology, politics, international relations, development studies and migration studies.

The news media in the late 1990s are full of references to globalization - the complex connections between different countries in the world and the way these are increased over time. It is becoming a contemporary cliche that we live in a world of globalization, but little attention is paid to how it actually works in people's lives. This work offers a guide to one of the key debates of our time, introducing the main theoretical positions to examine globalization in practice, from the films we watch to the jobs that are available to us, and the goods we buy to the way we are governed.

Exploring the theme of the putative transformation of political modernity under the impact of "new" media, this book adopts a questioning approach to the ways in which cultural and technological factors are affecting the temper of political life, and reflects the variety of normative thinking about and empirical research on the changing character of politics in mediatized cultures. New Media and Politics examines: the extent to which commercial populism now dominates electoral and other political discourses; the ways in which the functions of leadership, government and political parties are modified by different forms of both old and new media; the democratic or undemocratic import of such changes; and the ways in which the dominant territorial paradigm of politics is challenged by the space and time devouring capacities of electronic media.