Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: Introduction: Can the Media Serve Democracy? -- MEDIA SYSTEMS AND COMPARATIVE RESEARCH. The Idea of 'Systems' in Media Studies: Criticisms, Risks, Advantages / Paolo Mancini -- The Fine Art of Comparing Media Systems: Opportunities, Pitfalls and Challenges / Kees Brants -- Comparative Political Communication Research: The Undiminished Relevance of the Beginning / Frank Esser -- Mediatization of the Modern Publicity Process / Winfried Schulz -- JOURNALISM, DEMOCRACY AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST. Public Service Broadcasting: Markets and 'Vulnerable Values' in Broadcast and Print Journalism / Stephen Cushion and Bob Franklin -- Political Communication Research in the Public Interest / Denis McQuail -- Journalists, Journalism, and Research: What Do We Know and Why Should We Care? / David H. Weaver -- Democratic Political Communication Systems and the Transformative Power of Scandals: Phone Hacking at the News of the World as a Critical Juncture in the Regulation of the British Press / James Stanyer -- Morals and Methods: A Note on the Value of Survey Research / David E. Morrison -- PUBLIC CULTURE AND MEDIATED PUBLICS. The Dream Machine?: Television as Public Culture / John Corner -- Audiences and Publics: Reflections on the Growing Importance of Mediated Participation / Sonia Livingstone -- On Seeing Both Sides: Notes on the 2012 Presidential Debates / Elihu Katz and Menahem Blondheim -- CHANGING MEDIA, NEW DEMOCRATIC OPPORTUNITIES. Media Systems and Social Change: Challenges for Theory and Research / W. Lance Bennett -- The Internet's Gift to Democratic Governance: The Fifth Estate / William Dutton -- Towards an Inclusive Digital Public Sphere / Gianpietro Mazzoleni -- Beyond the Po-Faced Public Sphere / Stephen Coleman -- THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION. Jay Blumler: A Founding Father of Media Research / James Curran -- Values are Always at Stake': An Interview with Jay G. Blumler / Katy Parry and Giles Moss.

"This landmark collection brings leading scholars in the field of political communication to debate one of the most important questions of our age: Can the media serve democracy? For the media to be democratic, they must enter into a positive relationship with their readers, viewers and listeners as citizens rather than consumers who buy things, audiences who gaze upon spectacles or isolated egos, obsessed with themselves. The media's first task is to remind people that they are inhabitants of a world in which they can make a difference. By enabling citizens to encounter and make sense of events, relationships and cultures of which they have no direct experience, the media constitute a public arena in which members of the public come together as more than passing strangers"--