Drawing on a political economy of media, Susca’s analysis uses in-depth interviews and documentary evidence to examine issues surrounding ownership and power. Susca also traces the scorched-earth policies of layoffs, debt, cash-outs, and wholesale newspaper closings left behind by private investors and the effects of the devastation on the future of news and information. Throughout, Susca reveals an industry rocked less by external forces like lost ad revenue and more by ownership and management obsessed with profit and beholden to private fund interests that feel no responsibility toward journalism or the public it is meant to serve.

This collection charts the methodological innovations critical political economists are adopting to analyse a rapidly transforming digital media landscape, exploring ideology, narratives, socio-analysis and praxis in communication with ethnographic and participatory approaches, as well as designs for quantitative and qualitative methods of textual, discourse and content analysis, network analyses, which consider power relations affecting communication, including intersectional oppressions and the new developments taking place in artificial intelligence.

Democratic Delusions explores the potential of our media and tech systems to be democratic and contribute to a just and transformative democracy. By interrogating different media and their relationship to seven key elements of democracy – power, participation, freedom, equality, public good, trust, and hope – the book asks: What is the response of society when the ability of news media to speak truth to power has been restricted by corporate logic? And, how do we tackle a deep-rooted market logic that shifts public debate towards private interest and marginalizes progressive perspectives? The book explores how these elements can be reimagined through newly conceived media and tech landscapes and, ultimately, what democracy might be in a future mediated world that places more power in the hands of more people. 

Censorship, Digital Media and the Global Crackdown on Freedom of Expression explores the rising global phenomenon of censorship across various media platforms, in schools, universities, and public spaces. It documents physical assaults, legal restrictions, and the exclusion of critical topics from public discourse. This volume analyzes contemporary censorship methods, emphasizing the anti-democratic implications and the threat to civil society, human rights, and global democracy. The book advocates for policy alternatives, including economic restructuring of media, global agreements on freedom of the press, and educational strategies to preserve global freedom of expression.

While much has been written on OWS, few books have focused on how the movement was organized. Marisa Holmes, an organizer of OWS in New York City, aims to fill this gap by deriving the theory from the practice and analyzing a broad range of original primary sources, from collective statements, structure documents, meeting minutes, and live tweets, to hundreds of hours of footage from the OWS Media Working Group archive.

Digital Capabilities: ICT Adoption in Marginalized Communities in Israel and the West Bank offers “a deep exploration of capabilities necessary for people in marginalised communities to make use of ICTs to achieve goals that they value. Framed by a creative application of Sen’s capabilities approach, case studies reveal how individuals and communities are integrating ICTs into their lives . . . There are crucial lessons here for all those who struggle with persistent digital inequality.” — Professor Emerita Robin Mansell

Oil Beach accomplishes that rarest of feats: it transforms the way the world looks, bringing into view the hidden logic that structures the very ground beneath our feet. The story of the LA ports is hugely consequential and, in Dunbar-Hester’s hands, it’s also exhilarating, encompassing both the broad sweep of change and the small details that give meaning to our landscape. It’s unusual to find an academic book that’s hard to put down, but Dunbar-Hester’s smart, sometimes funny, and always eloquent voice is truly singular. —Miriam Posner, University of California, Los Angeles

In this trailblazing book, social movements, the mainstream news media and public policy are tackled in order to arm readers with an "intellectual self-defense" of the reign of trillion-dollar-valued platform conglomerates, reality TV presidencies of the past and present, the pandemic and the Biden administration. Firmly situated at the intersection of journalism, activism and the deployment of power, the author places his analysis within an international context that further develops a critical paradigm, called the media dependence model (MDM).

A groundbreaking interactive book that explores the role of social media activity, like Twitter posts, in social justice and political campaigns. From intended use of social media by social justice advocates, to commercial interests and political forces use of bots, troll farms, and clever memes to shape public discourse, Social Media, Social Justice, and the Political Economy of Online Networks examines social justice and political activities on Twitter in the age of fake news and post-truth.

Democracy Without Journalism? is the story of how the United States missed so many opportunities in the past. Pickard begins with the early years of the United States and the tension between American democracy and classical liberalism. For him, the prevailing assumption that laissez-faire politics and “capitalist competition” would best serve “democratic communication” has had disastrous consequences. Far from creating a liberal marketplace of ideas, it has resulted instead in a system dominated by powerful elites who have limited the range of political points of view, narrowed the field of reporting, and starved local news of funds. —Anya Shiffrin, The Nation

Inspired by Raymond Williams’ cultural materialism, H.F. Pimlott explores the connections between political practice and cultural form through Marxism Today’s transformation from a Communist Party theoretical journal into a ‘glossy’ left magazine. Marxism Today’s successes and failures during the 1980s are analysed through its political and cultural critiques of Thatcherism and the left, especially by Stuart Hall and Eric Hobsbawm, innovative publicity and marketplace distribution, relationships with the national UK press, cultural coverage, design and format, and writing style.

The fight for net neutrality is one of the most important policy struggles facing the U.S. today. By situating it within a long history of political and intellectual contestation, Newman masterfully theorizes and clarifies this vital issue. Engagingly written, deeply researched, and provocatively argued, this book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of democracy — Victor Pickard, coauthor of After Net Neutrality: A New Deal for the Digital Age

A surveillance-oriented internet was not inevitable. As Matthew Crain brilliantly documents, the data-obsessed web was manifested to appease and uphold the advertising beast. By untangling the historic strings of policy, politics, and financial interests, Profit over Privacy invites the reader to question why we've come to accept the panoptic internet we know today.—danah boyd, author of It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

As a former tech union organizer, this book is critically important to understanding the intersection between technology and the future of work around the globe. […] The authors bring the voice of the workers out of the shadows to let them tell their story of long hours, low pay, and a precarious working life. — Marcus Courtney, Former President of WashTech/CWA Local 37083, and Principal of Courtney Public Affairs

"News on the Right offers a broad and rich exploration of conservative news, covering its history, institutions, cultural forms and political consequences. Lively case studies, full of historical and cultural context, add a new dimension to our understanding of the production of news in an increasingly complex media ecosystem, and give us invaluable insight on a key force in modern politics." -- Daniel C. Hallin, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego

“Carley succeeds on multiple levels in achieving the goals he sets out clearly and early: linking racial exclusion to economic exploitation through Gramsci’s work, using a non-reductive approach to race and class, and presenting an analysis that transforms theory - - Jeffrey Masko

United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It) (2019) provides a thoughtful and detailed critical analysis of post-truth America by using history and recent events to examine the roles of news media and education resulting in a social and political milieu that enabled and sustains a Trump presidency. — Rachel Guldin

… Uncivil [is] a deeply affecting new podcast from Gimlet Media hosted by the author and academic Chenjerai Kumanyika and the journalist and broadcaster Jack Hitt. As well as telling the stories of overlooked figures and offering new perspectives on the civil war, it draws comparison between past and present events. — Fiona Sturges, The Financial Times