Digitizing Democracy

What are the key challenges facing our increasingly digitized democracy, and how might we as citizens contribute to resolving them? This book explores these questions, adopting a multi-disciplinary approach that combines work from media studies, journalism studies, and political science scholars, and draws on trends in countries including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, and Indonesia. The book is divided into four main themes: (1) the impact of digital communication on politics and government; (2) the future of news and journalism in the network society; (3) the potential of digital media to enhance civic engagement and social inclusion; and (4) visions for the future of digital democracy.

Part I: Politics and Government1. Fake News and Democratic Culture (Brian McNair)2. Mapping pressures on the ‘sensible centre’/consensual model of liberal democracy (Eric Louw)3. Surround-sound elections: campaigning in a fast-evolving digital media environment (Edwina Throsby)4. From ‘Crush the Saboteurs’ to ‘Coalition of Crackpots’: The role of the partisan ‘Tory’ press and the power of alternative media during Brexit and #GE17(Aljosha Karim Schapals)5. Shifting Conceptions of Voice in Citizen-Government Interactions Using Digital Media in Indonesian Local Democracy (Terry Flew & Rido Panjaitan)Part II: News and Journalism6. Journalism as an advocate for social change and public engagement: Reporting environmental crisis in the digital era(Susan Forde)7. Mining the depleted ‘rivers of gold’: Public notices and the sustainability of Australian local news in a digitized democracy(Kristy Hess)8. Journalism and democracy in the network society(Amanda Gearing)9. "Cloudy with a chance of sh!tstorm": Examining the role of social news outlets in the Hack Live: Is Male Privilege Bullsh!t? social media ritual (Edward Hurcombe)Part III: Digital Societies10. Digital Public Spheres in Australia (Axel Bruns)11. Beyond Deficit Discourse: Reframing Debate in Indigenous Education(Kerry McCallum, Lisa Waller & Tanja Dreher)12. The role of social media during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution: A real catalyst, or merely a facilitating factor? (Aljosha Karim Schapals)13. IndigenousX: unencumbered, connected(Sandra Phillips, Sandy O’Sullivan, Luke Pearson)Part IV: New Visions14. Digital bullets wound traditions of politics and the media (David Fagan)15. The Era of Mega-Leaks(Rodney Tiffen)16. The Unfinished Robots Revolution: Ten tips for humans(John Keane)

Aljosha Karim Schapals is a Lecturer in Journalism and Political Communication at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and a Research Associate in the “Journalism beyond the Crisis” project funded by the Australian Research Council. Axel Bruns is a Professor in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. His latest book is Gatewatching and News Curation: Journalism, Social Media, and the Public Sphere.Brian McNair is the author of many books and essays on journalism, including Fake News (Routledge, 2018), Introduction to Political Communication (6th edition, Routledge, 2017), and Communication and Political Crisis (Peter Lang, 2016).