1st Edition

Cultural Chaos Journalism and Power in a Globalised World

By Brian McNair Copyright 2006
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    With examples drawn from media coverage of the War on Terror, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the London underground bombings, Cultural Chaos explores the changing relationship between journalism and power in an increasingly globalised news culture.

    In this new text, Brian McNair examines the processes of cultural, geographic and political dissolution in the post-Cold War era and the rapid evolution of information and communication technologies. He investigates the impact of these trends on domestic and international journalism and on political processes in democratic and authoritarian societies across the world.

    Written in a lively and accessible style, Cultural Chaos provides students with an overview of the evolution of the sociology of journalism, a critical review of current thinking within media studies and an argument for a revision and renewal of the paradigms that have dominated the field since the early twentieth century. Separate chapters are devoted to new developments such as the rise of the blogosphere and satellite television news and their impact on journalism more generally.

    Cultural Chaos will be essential reading for all those interested in the emerging globalised news culture of the twenty-first century.

    1. Cultural Chaos and the Globalisation of Journalism  Part One: Critiquing Critical Theory  2. Materialism and the Media  3. From Control to Chaos  Part Two: The Political Economy of Chaos  4. The Politics of Chaos: Democracy, Media and the Decline of Deference  5. Cultural Chaos and the End of Ideology  6. Cultural Capitalism and the Commodification of Dissent  Part Three: The Infrastructure of Chaos  7. Mapping the Global Public Sphere, I: Transnational Satellite News  8. Mapping the Global Public Sphere, II: Online Journalism and the Blogosphere  9. From Blogosphere to Public Sphere?  Part Four: The Consequences of Cultural Chaos  10. Global News Culture and Authoritarianism  11. Democracy and Hyper-Democracy  12. Controlling Chaos  13. Conclusion and Postscript: Cultural Chaos and the Critical Project

    Biography

    Brian McNair is Professor of Journalism and Communication at the University of Strathclyde. He is the author of News and Journalism in the UK, Glasnost, Perestroika and the Soviet Union and Images of the Enemy.

    'The range of issues he examines is impressive.' International Journal of Radical Mass Media Criticism