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The Blurb On The Back:
From its inception as a public communication network, the Internet was regarded by many people as a potential means of escaping from the stranglehold of top-down, stage-managed politics. If hundreds of millions of people could be the producers as well as the receivers of political messages, could that invigorate democracy? If political elites fail to respond to such energy, where will it leave them?
In this book, renowned scholar of political communication Stephen Coleman argues that the best way to strengthen democracy is to reinvent it for the twenty-first century. Governments and global institutions have failed to seize the opportunity to democratize their ways of operating, but online citizens are ahead of them, developing practices that could revolutionize the exercise of political power.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Coleman makes many interesting points in this look at how the relationship between the internet and democracy could be improved and he draws on a variety of sources but he writes in a heavily academic way that uses a lot of political jargon and I found that difficult to follow at times while I also don’t think he takes on board the extent to which people use the Internet to reinforce their own opinions or the ability of political interest groups to manipulate social media to persuade people to support their views.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
From its inception as a public communication network, the Internet was regarded by many people as a potential means of escaping from the stranglehold of top-down, stage-managed politics. If hundreds of millions of people could be the producers as well as the receivers of political messages, could that invigorate democracy? If political elites fail to respond to such energy, where will it leave them?
In this book, renowned scholar of political communication Stephen Coleman argues that the best way to strengthen democracy is to reinvent it for the twenty-first century. Governments and global institutions have failed to seize the opportunity to democratize their ways of operating, but online citizens are ahead of them, developing practices that could revolutionize the exercise of political power.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Coleman makes many interesting points in this look at how the relationship between the internet and democracy could be improved and he draws on a variety of sources but he writes in a heavily academic way that uses a lot of political jargon and I found that difficult to follow at times while I also don’t think he takes on board the extent to which people use the Internet to reinforce their own opinions or the ability of political interest groups to manipulate social media to persuade people to support their views.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
