The mass media are playing an increasingly central role in modern political life that expands beyond their traditional function as mediators between the world of politics and the citizens.

This volume explores the extent and circumstances under which the media affects public policy; whether the political impact of the media is confined to the public representation of politics or whether their influence goes further to also affect the substance of political decisions. It provides an in-depth understanding of the conditions under which the media might, or might not, play a role in the policy process and what the nature of their influence is.

Bringing together conceptual and methodological approaches from both political science and communications studies, this book presents an interdisciplinary perspective. It presents empirical evidence of the processes involved in the interaction between mass communication and policy and features case studies from Western Europe and the US and across different policy fields.

The book will be of interest to students of public policy, political communication and comparative politics.

This book examines how political communication and the mass media have played a central role in the consolidation of emerging democracies around the world.

Covering a broad range of political and cultural contexts, including Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, this new volume investigates the problems and conflicts arising in the process of establishing an independent media and competitive politics in post-autocratic societies. Considering the changing dynamic in the relationship between political actors, the media and their audience, the authors of this volume address the following issues:

• changing journalistic role perceptions and journalistic quality
• the reasons and consequences of persisting instrumentalization of the media by political actors
• the role of the media in election campaigns
• the way in which the citizens interpret political messages and the extent to which the media influence political attitudes and electoral behaviour
• the role of the Internet in building a democratic public sphere

This book will be of great interest to all those studying and researching democracy and democratization, comparative politics, political communication, journalism, media and the Internet.

This book examines how political communication and the mass media have played a central role in the consolidation of emerging democracies around the world. Covering a broad range of political and cultural contexts, including Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, this new volume investigates the problems and conflicts arising in the process of establishing an independent media and competitive politics in post-autocratic societies. Considering the changing dynamic in the relationship between political actors, the media and their audience, the authors of this volume address the following issues: changing journalistic role perceptions and journalistic quality the reasons and consequences of persisting instrumentalization of the media by political actors the role of the media in election campaigns the way in which the citizens interpret political messages and the extent to which the media influence political attitudes and electoral behaviour the role of the Internet in building a democratic public sphere This book will be of great interest to all those studying and researching democracy and democratization, comparative politics, political communication, journalism, media and the Internet.

This book investigates the role of media and communication in processes of democratization in different political and cultural contexts. Struggles for democratic change are periods of intense contest over the transformation of citizenship and the reconfiguration of political power. These democratization conflicts are played out within an increasingly complex media ecology where traditional modes of communication merge with new digital networks, thus bringing about multiple platforms for journalists and political actors to promote and contest competing definitions of reality. The volume draws on extensive case study research in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Serbia to highlight the ambivalent role of the media as force for democratic change, citizen empowerment, and accountability, as well as driver of polarization, radicalization and manipulation.

This book investigates the role of media and communication in processes of democratization in different political and cultural contexts. Struggles for democratic change are periods of intense contest over the transformation of citizenship and the reconfiguration of political power. These democratization conflicts are played out within an increasingly complex media ecology where traditional modes of communication merge with new digital networks, thus bringing about multiple platforms for journalists and political actors to promote and contest competing definitions of reality. The volume draws on extensive case study research in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Serbia to highlight the ambivalent role of the media as force for democratic change, citizen empowerment, and accountability, as well as driver of polarization, radicalization and manipulation.

Das Mediensystem der Bundesrepublik Deutschland - aber auch das der meisten anderen westlichen Lander -erfahrt zur Zeit weitreichende techno logische und okonomische Veranderungen. Insbesondere im Bereich der elektronischen Medien ist es zu einem Wandel der strukturellen Rahmen bedingungen von Produktion und Distribution gekommen. Das Breitband kabelsystem und die Satellitentechnik haben die aufgrund der Frequenz knappheit bestehenden Zulassungsrestriktionen fur Anbieter aufgehoben. Gleichzeitig wurden medienpolitisch die Weichen fur ein duales Rundfunk system gestellt, das neben den offentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten auch private Veranstalter zulasst. Die fur die Mediennutzer wahrnehmbaren Folgen sind die Zunahme der Programmanbieter und ein um ein Vielfaches erweitertes Programmangebot. Diese Veranderungen und ihre Auswirkungen auf Individuen und gesell schaftliche Prozesse wurden durch begleitende sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsvorhaben beobachtet. Mit dem hier vorgelegten Band sollen die wichtigsten Ergebnisse dargestellt werden, die in dem Projekt "Akzeptanz und Wirkung des Kabelfernsehens" gewonnen wurden. Das Projekt wurde im Rahmen des Kabelpilotprojekts Berlin durchgefuhrt. Es wurde zunachst von der Medienkommission der Lander und nach deren Auflosung von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, sowie von der Kommission fur Forschung und wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs (FNK) der Freien Universitat Berlin gefOrdert. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, auf der Basis empirischer Untersuchungsmethoden die Nutzung eines erweiterten Programmangebots zu erfassen sowie Umfang und Richtung der sich daraus ergebenden mog lichen Folgen auf individuelle Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen einzuschatzen. Da der Berliner Modellversuch - nach denen in Ludwigs hafen/Vorderpfalz, Munchen und Dortmund - als letzter gestartet wurde, liegen von den anderen Pilotprojekten bereits Ergebnisse vor, zu denen die Befunde dieser Untersuchung in Beziehung gesetzt werden konnen."