Routledge Authoritarian and Populist Influences in the New Media (Global Interdisciplinary Studies Series)

The media is often viewed as a primary gauge which reflects the changing political landscape as societies transition from authoritarian regimes to democracies. Chronicling the process through media analysis provides deeper insights into the relationship between technology, the state, and social forces that are reflected in the public’s communications. This volume explores the challenges and political conditions that have shaped the media in several representative studies of the media in the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. The contributors analyse the legacy of the past on the development of the media in post-authoritarian regimes and explore the relationships between media, communication industries (public relations), and politics. The use of new communications technologies to manipulate the media and the public introduce a novel use of social media by populists as well as authoritarian regimes and their proxies. This book presents a comparative and global investigation of the role of the media in the realignment from established policies to an emerging milieu of new channels of communication that challenge traditional media practices. Review "The seven studies that comprise this pathbreaking volume provide valuable insight into the role of social media in the changing communication environment in post-authoritarian societies. They provide a wide-ranging assessment of the reactions of governments, non-state actors and the public to the new technologies and their attempts to expand the reach of their message and to assess its effectiveness." - Roger E. Kanet, University of Miami, USA. "All of the contributions to this stimulating volume engage in distinct ways with the importance and the challenges posed by the changing media technologies, as well as, the emersion and affirmation of social media in emerging and transitional democracies. The wide scope of the essays, the diversity of theoretical perspectives and the variety of methodological tools employed, open rich possibilities in the evolving field of the (new) media performance’s vulnerability to political control during transition phases." - Rui Alexandre Novais, University of Mindelo, Cape Verde. About the Author Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel is Director of the Interdisciplinary Global Studies Initiative at Auburn Montgomery, USA.