Dr. Jen Birks from Department of Culture, Film and Media has just published her new book titled News and Civil Society: The Contested Space of Civil Society in UK Media (2014) with Ashgate. This book examines the representation of civil society in news media, exploring the popular understanding of this contested space in relation to conflicting legitimating frames: as the neo-liberal Big Society, activist political participation, or postmodern apolitical tolerance. With close reference to prominent news stories, including the UK state visit of Pope Benedict XVI, anti-austerity protests and industrial action, police infiltration of the environmental movement, and the Occupy camp at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, News and Civil Society scrutinises different facets of contemporary civil society, civility and civic virtue. This book is a cross-disciplinary engagement with questions of national identity and pluralism, civil liberties and dissent, power and accountability. It has been well reviewed and will appeal to those with interests in media, journalism, sociology, citizenship and political studies.
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