Political Communication in Postmodern Democracy [Book] : Challenging the Primacy of Politics / Edited By Kees Brants, Katrin Voltmer.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: mediatization and de-centralization of political communication / Kees Brants and Katrin Voltmer -- Audience democracy: an emerging pattern in postmodern political communication / Jos de Beus -- Representation and mediated politics: representing representation in an age of irony / Stephen Coleman -- Mediatization and news management in comparative institutional perspective / Robin Brown -- Spin and political publicity: effects on news coverage and public opinion / Claes H. de Vreese and Matthijs Elenbaas -- Changes in political news coverage: personalization, conflict and negativity in British and Dutch newspapers / Rens Vliegenthart, Hajo G. Boomgaarden and Jelle W. Boumans -- A changing culture of political television journalism / Judith Stamper and Kees Brants -- A question of control: journalists and politicians in political broadcast interviews / Katrin Voltmer and Kees Brants -- The elephant trap: politicians performing in television comedy / Liesbet van Zoonen, Stephen Coleman and Anke Kuik -- Political consumerism as political participation? / Janelle Ward -- The new frontiers of journalism: citizen participation in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands / Tom Bakker and Chris Paterson -- The new cultural cleavage: immigration and the challenge to Dutch politics and media / Philip van Praag and Maud Adriaansen -- The mediation of political disconnection / Stephen Coleman, David E. Morrison and Simeon Yates -- 'Voting is easy, just press the red button': communicating politics in the age of big brother / Valentina Cardo -- What's reality television got to do with it? Talking politics in the net-based public sphere / Todd Graham.

This edited collection examines the changing faces of political communication in contemporary democracy. Based on comparative investigations of recent trends in the Netherlands and Great Britain, the essays provide fresh insights and new empirical evidence into the public representation of media-centred politics.