Bridgette Wessels

Jackie Harrison

The on-going constitutionalization of Europe has led to various changes in media and communications, opening up areas of debate regarding the role of traditional and new media in developing a specific European public sphere as part of the wider European Project. This timely volume addresses the little understood relationship between old and new media, communications policy at the European level, issues of regulation and competition within the EU, the role of the European Parliament in media policymaking, and the questions emerging about the sustainability of traditional public service broadcasting. To understand the concrete significance of these debates two contributions address specific practical areas, i.e. the potential of online environments and specific developments in European media contexts, such as channel strategies, web-related services, iDTV and community networks. Consequently, Mediating Europe provides an original and important contribution to understanding the role of the media in shaping a European public sphere.

New Media, Mass Communications, and the European Public Sphere

Mediating Europe

Social change is intrinsic to our social lives and to the study of the social sciences. The interaction of changes within different contexts – economic, political and cultural – shapes our life experience. But how exactly do we define social change, and how can we recognise its significance to contemporary life? In this critical and dynamic text, Bridgette Wessels explores social change as a process, which enables us to better understand the world we live in and how it changes over time. Through this insightful conceptual framework, the book analyses a number of key sites of social change, from personal experience and everyday life, to work and production, consumerism, communication, diversity and power formations. Introducing and placing the study of social change within its historical, theoretical and contemporary context, Exploring Social Change is a significant resource for students across the social sciences.

Process and Context

Exploring Social Change

Communicative Civic-ness explores how political culture shapes social media interactions in civic participation, arguing that social media usage is informed by context-specific civil and political culture. Drawing on cutting-edge research, the book develops a new robust theoretical and conceptual framework on civic engagement and participation, comprising: contextual ethos of civic communication; political culture and civic communication; use of social media in private and public spheres; design of social media. It critically addresses issues within the concept of political culture and develops the concept of ‘communicative civic-ness’. This concept seeks to aid a better-informed debate about the capacity of social media to support the pluralistic discussions that underpin deliberative democratic processes. This book appeals to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as academics with an interest in areas including (but not limited to) sociology, political science and media studies. It will also provide useful information and understanding to third sector organisations and policy-makers regarding forms of civic participation.

Social Media and Political Culture

Communicative Civic-ness

Kush Wadhwa

Thordis Sveinsdottir

Rachel L. Finn

While there is a lot of talk about how we now live in a knowledge society, the reality has been less impressive: we have yet to truly transition to a knowledge society--in part, this book argues, because discussion mostly focuses on a knowledge economy and information society rather than on ways to mobilize to create an actual knowledge society. That all may change, however, with the rise of open data and big data. This book considers the role of the open data movement in fostering transformation, showing that at the heart of any successful mobilization will be an emerging open data ecosystem and new ways for societal actors to effectively produce and use data.

Open Data and the Knowledge Society

Rachel Finn

The idea of a knowledge society has been raised over the last two decades but the transition to such a society has not been realized up to the present time, and discussion about a knowledge society has largely focused on a knowledge economy and information society rather than a mobilization to a knowledge society. These debates have, however, taken place before the rise of open data and big data and the development of an open data movement. The book considers the role of the open data movement in fostering transformation to a knowledge society. The characteristics of the open data movement include the strong conviction of the value of open data for society, attention to the institutional aspects of making data open in an inclusive way, and a practical focus on the technological infrastructure that are key in mobilizing a knowledge society. At the heart of any mobilization is an emerging open data ecosystem and new ways of producing and using data - whether 'born digital' data, digitized data, or big data - and how that data, when made openly available, can be used in a knowledgeable way by societal actors.

Bridgette Wessels

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