Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series

The book offers a critical map to navigate the field of media governance. A thread of cosmopolitan critique connects the fourteen chapters to enhance media governance literature beyond the West and regional foci. The first part addresses the epistemological and ontological flaws in the use and adaptation of media governance. The second part opens pathways for critique and provides a thorough understanding of the ambivalences that scholars encounter when addressing media governance as a field of study. The third part highlights shortcomings like geographical narrowness and tensions in the use of media governance concepts. The scholarly contributions show that media governance as a field of study is far from being established: its conceptualizations are in flux and need scholarly self-reflection, and ongoing discussions need to leave behind universalist conceptualizations and methods of analysis. The chapters reflect on hegemony, power, sovereignty, and identity as conceptual center points in media governance research. The book uniquely breaks with self-referential Western academia and is part of ongoing collaborative scholarly efforts towards epistemic transformation through dialogue.

The book focuses on the changes that the media system in Turkey went through since early 2000s. Its perspective considers sociology of citizenship and focuses on processes such as Europeanization, de-Europeanization, authoritarianism on the one hand and implications of digitalization and convergence on the other. It tracks the transformation of the media system through the trajectories of normative, participative, and entrepreneurial citizenship practices. The final sections focus on aspects of convergence evidenced in bottom-up and participatory forms of digital media such as the birth of citizen journalism and fact-checkers after the demise of conventional mainstream media in recent years.

This open-access volume argues that in a functioning democracy, citizens should be equally capable of making informed choices about matters of social importance. This includes citizens accessing all relevant information and knowledge necessary for informed will formation. In today's complex era of digital disruption, it is not enough to simply speak about communication or even digital rights. The starting point for this volume is the need for 'epistemic equality'.

The contributors seek to showcase the history and diversity of current debates around communication and digital rights, as precursors for the need for epistemic rights; both as a theoretical concept and an empirically assessed benchmark. The book highlights scholarship via academic case studies from around the world to feature different issues and methodological approaches, as well as similarities in academic and policy challenges across the globe.

The goal is to provide an overview of issues that depict challenges to epistemic rights, extract both academic and applied policy implications of different approaches, and end with a set of recommendations for advancing policy-relevant scholarship on epistemic rights. This volume is intended as the first holistic response to an urgent need to address epistemic rights of communication as a central public policy issue, as an academic analytical concept, as well as a central theme for informed public debate.

This book is open-access, meaning you have free and unlimited access.

This book proposal focuses on Canada's pioneering role in shaping the international understanding of the right to communicate, particularly through the Canadian Telecommission Studies of 1969. The study argues that the 1971 Instant World report, a landmark document, has been overlooked in the existing literature despite its importance in the history of conceptualizing and implementing this human right. The project aims to fill this gap by exploring the historical context of the report and analyzing its contents, shedding light on themes like privacy and indigenous communication rights. Additionally, the manuscript highlights the unique contribution of Betty Zimmerman, the only female Canadian member of the MacBride Commission in 1977, replacing Marshall McLuhan. Zimmerman's insights become pertinent not only for scholars interested in the New World Information and Communication Order but also for feminist studies, showcasing a leading female figure's role in Canadian communication and cultural policy. The research promises a novel and untold perspective on the history of the right to communicate, addressing gaps in international and Canadian communication, women’s studies, and media policy literature.

This book addresses key challenges facing global political communication at a time in which transformations in political practice, media ecology and cultural expectations both threaten traditional democratic norms and point to potential new ways of enacting political democracy. Drawing upon the outstanding theoretical insights of Jay Blumler to our understanding of the norms and practices of political communication, but also critically interrogating and updating them where appropriate, the volume asks timely questions about what publicness and democracy mean in the 2020s.

Many people are talking and writing about the crisis of political democracy, fewer are talking about the role of the media in relation to that crisis. While many scholars have responded in an ad hoc way to the various crises of populism, polarisation, mis and disinformation, this book shows how Jay Blumler’s scholarship provides us with the tools and framework to research and understand the changing communication environment systemically and rigorously. The book demonstrates the applicability and relevance of Blumler’s work in explicating the current crisis of communication and the need for fresh and radical thinking in tackling it. The book's breadth and depth of chapters from a broad range of scholars from the East and West, ranging from long-standing contributors to the field to those in the early stages of their career, combine to produce a thoughtful and provocative invitation to reflect upon the concept of a ‘crisis of public communication’. We expect this book to become a major source for political communication students and scholars.