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Media and Morality: On the Rise of the Mediapolis

ISBN: 978-0-745-63503-3

October 2006

Polity

224 pages

Description
Roger Silverstone's compelling new book places the global media at the heart of the moral future of civilisation. It argues that the media (the press, broadcasting, the Internet and increasingly peer-to-peer technologies and networks) have a profound significance for the way in which the world is understood by its citizens. It also argues that without a clear understanding of that significance, and without a critique of the way in which the media go about their daily business, we are likely to see an erosion in the capacity of human beings to understand and respect each other, especially those whom they see and hear only in their mediation.

In a world of increasing polarisation and demonisation, the media have a powerful role to play. They can reinforce or they can challenge that polarisation. The book proposes that we should think of the global media as a mediapolis, a single space of political and social communication, in which the basis for the relationships between neighbours and strangers can be either constructed or destroyed. The mediapolis is a moral space, a space of hospitality, responsibility, obligation and judgement. And questioning its present and future requires attention to issues of media justice, media literacy and media regulation.

Media and Morality is essential reading for all students and scholars of the media but will be of equal fascination to anyone interested in the workings of our modern world.

About the Author
Roger Silverstone was formerly Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Features
  • A high quality, path-breaking book by one of the world’s leading scholars of the media.
  • Develops an original theory of the media as a moral space that is likely to generate much interest within media studies and sociology.
  • Will become a key text in debates on media and ethics and media theory, both core areas of the discipline.
  • Is likely to be recommended to students taking upper-level courses in those areas.