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.

Stephen Coleman is Professor of Political Communication at the University of Leeds, UK He has published several articles and books, the most recent of which is How Voters Feel (2013). He is also an honorary professor of political science at the University of Copenhagen and research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Giles Moss is Lecturer in Media Policy at the University of Leeds, UK. His research focuses on various aspects of the relationship between media and politics and his work has appeared in a range of journals including British Journal of Politics & International Relations, Political Studies, and New Media & Society.

Katy Parry is Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, UK. She is a co-author of Pockets of Resistance (with Piers Robinson, Peter Goddard, Craig Murray and Philip Taylor, 2010), and Political Culture and Media Genre (with Kay Richardson and John Corner, 2012).

List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Contributors
1. Introduction: Can the Media Serve Democracy?
PART I: MEDIA SYSTEMS AND COMPARATIVE RESEARCH
2. The Idea of 'Systems' in Media Studies: Criticisms, Risks, Advantages; Paolo Mancini
3. The Fine Art of Comparing Media Systems: Opportunities, Pitfalls and Challenges; Kees Brants
4. Comparative Political Communication Research: The Undiminished Relevance of the Beginnings; Frank Esser
5. Mediatization of the Modern Publicity Process; Winfried Schulz
PART II: JOURNALISM, DEMOCRACY AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST
6. Public Service Broadcasting: Markets and 'Vulnerable Values' in Broadcast and Print Journalism; Stephen Cushion and Bob Franklin
7. Political Communication Research in the Public Interest; Denis McQuail
8. Journalists, Journalism, and Research: What Do We Know and Why Should We Care?; David H. Weaver
9. 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
10. Morals and Methods: A Note on the Value of Survey Research; David E. Morrison
PART III: PUBLIC CULTURE AND MEDIATED PUBLICS
11. The Dream Machine?: Television as Public Culture; John Corner
12. Audiences and Publics: Reflections on the Growing Importance of Mediated Participation; Sonia Livingstone
13. On Seeing Both Sides: Notes on the 2012 Presidential Debates; Elihu Katz and Menahem Blondheim
PART IV: CHANGING MEDIA, NEW DEMOCRATIC OPPORTUNITIES
14. Media Systems and Social Change: Challenges for Theory and Research; W. Lance Bennett
15. The Internet's Gift to Democratic Governance: The Fifth Estate; William Dutton
16. Towards an Inclusive Digital Public Sphere; Gianpietro Mazzoleni
17. Beyond the Po-Faced Public Sphere; Stephen Coleman
PART V: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
18. Jay Blumler: A Founding Father of Media Research; James Curran
19. Values are Always at Stake': An Interview with Jay G. Blumler; Katy Parry and Giles Moss
Notes
References