The book challenges the idea that processes of globalization are leading to an increasing homogenization of news on a worldwide scale by focusing on two defining crises of our time - 9/11 and the War in Afghanistan. The empirical analysis combines process-tracing, as well as both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of governmental discourses and news coverage of eight elite newspapers across the US, France, Italy and Pakistan. It develops a new multidisciplinary framework to expl...

Is the media obsession with image leading to a degeneration of politics? Are politicians more concerned with their appearances than with policy substance? Through the evidence provided by over 50 interviews with politicians across the UK and Italy - local councillors, MPs and MEPs - this book provides a very different picture of the world of politics than the one we often cynically imagine. By relying on extensive excerpts from frank and colorful conversations with the interviewees, the an...

We cannot truly understand - let alone counter - terrorism in the 21st century unless we also understand the processes of communication that underpin it. This book challenges what we know about terrorism, showing that current approaches are inadequate and outdated, and develops a new communication model to understand terrorism in the media age.

While globalization unifies the world, divisions re-emerge within it in the form of a spectacular separation between Islam and the West. How can it be that Huntington’s contested idea of a clash of civilizations became such a powerful political myth through which so many people look at the world?Bottici and Challand disentangle such a process of myth-making both in the West and in Muslim majority countries, and call for a renewed critical attitude towards it. By analysing a process...

Over the past few years, coverage of terror attacks has featured prominently in numerous media outlets. Drawing on both popular and academic articles, the essays in Media, Terrorism, and Theory: A Reader analyze the larger issues surrounding media's portrayal of terrorism, including terrorism as a media event, war and media, nationalism and media, public responsibility, and journalistic accountability. Renowned contributors from around the world explore these issues as they relate to a glo...

In this second volume of The Information Age trilogy, with an extensive new preface following the recent global economic crisis, Manuel Castells deals with the social, political, and cultural dynamics associated with the technological transformation of our societies and with the globalization of the economy.Extensive new preface examines how dramatic recent events have transformed the socio-political landscape of our worldApplies Castells’ hypotheses to con...

Terrorism is the most clear and present danger we confront today, yet no phenomenon is more poorly understood by policymakers, the media, and the general public. The Faces of Terrorism is the first serious interdisciplinary examination of terrorism in all its facets. What gives rise to it, who are its proponents and how do they think, and how--and why--does it work?Neil Smelser begins by tackling the fundamental problem of defining what exactly terrorism is. He shows why a...

**Praise for the first edition:This collection of essays comes mainly from academics but nobody should bridle at theorists lecturing practitioners. They properly challenge the way September 11th was reported - in a way that's both an endorsement of the role of the media and a wake-up call on its failures . . . anyone interested in our trade should read it.'** - Roger Mosey, Ariel**'A thoughtful and engaging examination of the effects of 9/11 on the field of journalism. Its...

This book introduces you to the key issues in contemporary studies on Terrorism. Its interdisciplinary approach provides a unique intellectual rigour which introduces readers to cutting-edge research.Bringing together chapters contributed by members of the Terrorism and Political Violence Association network, it offers an insight into a variety of traditional and critical perspectives. It also equips Undergraduate and Postgraduate students with the study skills needed to succeed in...

The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims traces how governments across Western Europe have responded to the growing presence of Muslim immigrants in their countries over the past fifty years. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews with government officials and religious leaders in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Turkey, Jonathan Laurence challenges the widespread notion that Europe’s Muslim minorities represent a threat to liberal democrac...

Television: Technology and Cultural Form was first published in 1974, long before the dawn of multi-channel TV, or the reality and celebrity shows that now pack the schedules. Yet Williams' analysis of television's history, its institutions, programmes and practices, and its future prospects, remains remarkably prescient.Williams stresses the importance of technology in shaping the cultural form of television, while always resisting the determinism of McLuhan's dictum that...

Since 9/11 we have been told that terrorists are pathological evildoers, beyond our comprehension. Before the 1970s, however, hijackings, assassinations, and other acts we now call 'terrorism' were considered the work of rational strategic actors. Disciplining Terror examines how political violence became 'terrorism', and how this transformation ultimately led to the current 'war on terror'. Drawing upon archival research and interviews with terrorism experts, Lisa Stampnitzky traces the p...