Political Journalism in Transition: Western Europe in a Comparative Perspective

Raymond Kuhn · Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Nov 2013 · I.B.Tauris

About this ebook

The 21st century has already seen dramatic changes affecting both journalism and politics. The rise of a range of new digital and networked communication technologies combined with the stagnation and decline of many traditional mass media has had a profound impact on political journalism. The arrival of new digital media has affected the ways in which political actors communicate with the public, with or without journalists as intermediaries. Newspapers that once held political leaders to account are now struggling to survive; broadcasters that once gathered whole nations for the evening news are now fighting for relevance faced with innumerable new competitors on cable and digital television; online-only media, such as blogs and social networking sites, are changing how we communicate about politics. News media remain central to political processes, but the ways in which journalists and politicians interact are changing. This book examines how and provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the state of political journalism in Western Europe today, including the many challenges facing journalists in this important period of transition.

About the author

RAYMOND KUHN is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, and assistant professor at Roskilde University. His work deals with comparative media studies, political communication, and digital politics. Ground Wars: Personalized Communication in Political Campaigns, his first book, was published by Princeton University Press.