Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times (Hardcover)

In an age of proliferating media and news sources, who has the power to define reality? When the dominant media declared the existence of WMDs in Iraq, did that make it a fact? Today, the "social web" (sometimes known as Web 2.0, groupware, or the participatory Web)—epitomized by blogs, viral videos, and YouTube—creates new pathways for truths to emerge and makes possible new tactics for media activism. In Digital Media and Democracy, leading scholars in media and communication studies, media activists, journalists, and artists explore the contradiction at the heart of the relationship between truth and power today: the fact that the radical democratization of knowledge and multiplication of sources and voices made possible by digital media coexists with the blatant falsification of information by political and corporate powers.

The book maps a new digital media landscape that features citizen journalism, The Daily Show, blogging, and alternative media. The contributors discuss broad questions of media and politics, offer nuanced analyses of change in journalism, and undertake detailed examinations of the use of Web-based media in shaping political and social movements. The chapters include not only essays by noted media scholars but also interviews with such journalists and media activists as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Media Matters host Robert McChesney, and Hassan Ibrahim of Al Jazeera.

Contributors and Interviewees:
Shaina Anand, Chris Atton, Megan Boler, Axel Bruns, Jodi Dean, Ron J. Deibert, Deepa Fernandes, Amy Goodman, Brian Holmes, Hassan Ibrahim, Geert Lovink, Nathalie Magnan, Robert McChesney, Graham Meikle, Susan D. Moeller, Alessandra Renzi, Ricardo Rosas, Andréa Schmidt, Trebor Scholz, D. Travers Scott, R. Sophie Statzel, Stephen Turpin.

在媒體和新聞來源不斷增加的時代，誰有權力來定義現實？當主流媒體宣稱伊拉克擁有大規模殺傷性武器時，這是否成為事實？如今，「社交網絡」（有時被稱為Web 2.0、群體軟體或參與式網絡）──以部落格、病毒式影片和YouTube為代表──為真相的出現開辟了新的途徑，並為媒體行動主義提供了新的策略。在《數位媒體與民主》一書中，媒體和傳播學領域的領先學者、媒體行動主義者、記者和藝術家探討了當今真相和權力關係的矛盾之處：數位媒體所帶來的知識的激進民主化和來源和聲音的多樣化與政治和企業權力對信息的明顯篡改並存。

該書描繪了一個新的數位媒體景觀，包括公民新聞、《每日秀》、部落格和替代媒體。作者們討論了媒體和政治的廣泛問題，提供了對新聞業變革的細緻分析，並詳細研究了網絡媒體在塑造政治和社會運動中的應用。書中不僅包括知名媒體學者的論文，還包括對記者和媒體行動主義者的訪談，如《民主現場》的艾米·古德曼、《媒體事務》主持人羅伯特·麥克切斯尼和半島電視台的哈桑·易卜拉欣。

貢獻者和訪談者：
Shaina Anand、Chris Atton、Megan Boler、Axel Bruns、Jodi Dean、Ron J. Deibert、Deepa Fernandes、Amy Goodman、Brian Holmes、Hassan Ibrahim、Geert Lovink、Nathalie Magnan、Robert McChesney、Graham Meikle、Susan D. Moeller、Alessandra Renzi、Ricardo Rosas、Andréa Schmidt、Trebor Scholz、D. Travers Scott、R. Sophie Statzel、Stephen Turpin。