The number of people reading and writing political blogs in the UK continues to grow, just as political bloggers grow in influence and authority. Now in its sixth year, the Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging comprises contributions from leading media commentators and bloggers analysing the state of the blogosphere and predicting where it might move next, as well as chronicling the pitfalls to avoid. The guide also contains blogging league tables, as voted for by Total Politics readers, which charts which blogs are the most influential in their field.
Exploring the forms and meanings of mediated politics beyond the news cycle, this book encompasses genres drawn from television, radio, the press and the internet, assessing their individual and collective contribution to contemporary political culture through textual analysis and thematic review.
"An essential guide for anyone hungry to learn how journalism should be practised today, and will be tomorrow. Hill and Lashmar encapsulate the transformative impact technology is having on journalism, but anchor those changes in the basic principles of reporting." - Paul Lewis, The Guardian "As the news business transforms, Online Journalism is a fantastic new resource for both students and lecturers. Informative, straightforward and easily digested, it’s a one-stop shop for the skills, knowledge, principles and mindset required for journalistic success in the digital age." - Mary Braid, Kingston University Online and social media have become indispensible tools for journalists, but you still have to know how to find and tell a great story. To be a journalist today, you must have not only the practical skills to work with new technologies, but also the understanding of how and why journalism has changed. Combining theory and practice, Online Journalism: The Essential Guide will take you through the classic skills of investigating, writing and reporting as you master the new environments of mobile, on-demand, social, participatory and entrepreneurial journalism. You will also develop must-have skills in app development for smartphones and tablets, as well as techniques in podcast, blog and news website production. What this book does for you: Tips and advice from leading industry experts in their own words QR codes throughout the book to take you straight to multimedia links A fully up-to-date companion website loaded with teaching resources, detailed careers advice and industry insights Exercises to help you hone your skills Top five guided reading list for each topic, so you can take it further Perfect for students throughout a journalism course, this is your essential guide!
This book traces the word ‘progressive’ through modern British history, from the Enlightenment to Brexit. It explores the shifting meanings of this term and the contradictory political projects to which it has been attached. It also places this political language in its cultural context, asking how it relates to ideas about progressive social development, progressive business, and progressive rock music. ‘Progressive’ is often associated with a centre-left political tradition, but this book shows that this was only ever one use of the term – and one that was heavily contested even from its inception. The power of the term ‘progressive’ is that it appears to anticipate the future. This can be politically and culturally valuable, but it is also dangerous. The suggestion that there is only one way forward has led to fear and doubt, anger and apathy, even amongst those who would like to consider themselves ‘progressive people’.
Duncan Watts examines the institutions and practices of British government and politics and makes selective comparisons with the experience of other countries, mainly liberal democracies.
This study of five key policy areas, from welfare reform to foreign policy, demonstrates that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition failed to fulfil its promise to reverse the rising power of the State. It exercised more subtle forms of 'soft power', often in partnership with the private sector, and to the detriment of ordinary citizens.
Representative politics is in crisis. Trust in politicians is at an all-time low. Fewer people are voting or joining political parties, and our interest in parliamentary politics is declining fast. Even oppositional and radical parties that should be benefitting from public disenchantment with politics are suffering. But different forms of political activity are emerging to replace representative politics: instant politics, direct action, insurgent politics. We are leaving behind traditional representation, and moving towards a politics without representatives. In this provocative new book, Simon Tormey explores the changes that are underway, drawing on a rich range of examples from the Arab Spring to the Indignados uprising in Spain, street protests in Brazil and Turkey to the emergence of new initiatives such as Anonymous and Occupy. Tormey argues that the easy assumptions that informed our thinking about the nature and role of parties, and ‘party based democracy’ have to be rethought. We are entering a period of fast politics, evanescent politics, a politics of the street, of the squares, of micro-parties, pop-up parties, and demonstrations. This may well be the end of representative politics as we know it, but an exciting new era of political engagement is just beginning.
Bringing political philosophy out of the ivory tower and within the reach of all, this book provides us with the tools to cut through the complexity of modern politics.
The legacy of Blair and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan continue to loom large for the Labour Party, whether in opposition or in government, giving rise to fierce debates over Labour's attitude and posture towards the wider world. This book considers the idea of Labour's international identity, examining how world events and Labour's response to them have helped to shape ideology, political culture and domestic agendas from the 1920s until the Iraq War. It provides a fascinating and original exploration of Labour both on the world stage and at home - from the influence of the Soviet Union on political thought in the interwar years to the international student revolts of the 1960s, and from media in the 1990s to Kosovo and New Labour Interventionism. This is essential reading for scholars of modern British politics, as well as anyone interested in the motivations and influences behind the Labour Party's actions on the world stage.
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
