Barbara Thomass – författare

When the financial markets collapsed in 2008, the media industry was affected by a major slump in advertising revenues, and a formerly highly successful business model fell into a state of decay. This economic crisis has threatened core social values of contemporary democracies, such as freedom, diversity and equality. Taking a normative and policy perspective, this book discusses threats and opportunities for the media industry in Europe: What are the implications of the crisis for professional journalism, the media industry, and the process of political communication? Can non- state and non-market actors profit from the crisis? And what are media policy answers at the national and European level?

When the financial markets collapsed in 2008, the media industry was affected by a major slump in advertising revenues, and a formerly highly successful business model fell into a state of decay. This economic crisis has threatened core social values of contemporary democracies, such as freedom, diversity and equality. Taking a normative and policy perspective, this book discusses threats and opportunities for the media industry in Europe: What are the implications of the crisis for professional journalism, the media industry, and the process of political communication? Can non- state and non-market actors profit from the crisis? And what are media policy answers at the national and European level?

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.