The Press and Democratic Backsliding

This edited collection's 12 chapters, written by 21 different authors, suggest that the news media’s political coverage emphasizes electoral competition, strategy, entertainment, and candidate savvy instead of exposing the veracity of statements by politicians and their community engagement. Some chapters focus on the 2020 US election, during which journalists overemphasized candidates' political strategies, as several authors argue. However, three chapters contend that similar journalistic practices occur outside the US. Some authors provide strategies for improving political news coverage, such as a renewed emphasis on local issues. For example, one chapter suggests that US sheriff’s offices and school boards represent community venues where democratic values frequently clash; more news coverage could enhance voter insight. While all submissions offer a comprehensive literature review, some supply case studies and original research. This book is an excellent companion to Matt Carlson, Sue Robinson, and Seth C. Lewis's News after Trump: Journalism’s Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture (2021). Recommended for libraries in higher education with journalism, mass communication, and political science graduate degree programs. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. * Choice Reviews *
In a time of heightened and seemingly endless uncertainty in and around domestic and global political arenas, this volume provokes us to reconsider intersections of the press and power to complicate what has become binaries of good and evil. Balancing normative theory and practice with critical approaches that extend and blend social responsibilities of citizens and mediaites, normative practices of the press and politicians, and interpretive lenses rooted in power, readers are engaged in a rethinking of the future for journalism, political communication, and democracy. -- Robert E. Gutsche Jr., Florida Atlantic University