Media Sociology and Journalism

Greg M. Nielsen is a professor of sociology at Concordia University in Montreal. He studies contemporary society through research on media, journalism, and political and social thought.

• Acknowledgments; Introduction: Between the Posts; 1 Fake Populism and News: Freedom versus Democracy; 2 Political Theory: Deliberative, Agonistic and Dialogic Democracy; 3 Contemporary Sociology, Journalism and Society; 4 Acts of Journalism: Truth, Ghosts and Migrant Subjects; 5 Writing Inequality into the Urban Commons; 6 Exotopy and Cultural Boundaries: The Secular Question in Quebec; Conclusion: Deliberative or Dialogic Democracy?; Conclusion: Is Another Journalism Possible?; References; Index

“Although focused on journalistic practices, this deeply original and timely work is of far wider interest. In the face of what the author terms ‘fake populism’, the analysis moves through a series of sophisticated readings of normative political theory, contemporary sociological theorizing and media studies, and on to a set of empirical studies of leading newspapers and their treatment of a number of pressing issues. Coursing through the analysis lies a deeply ethical questioning rooted in the dialogics of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. Is it possible, the author asks, to have a journalism that speaks with, and does justice to the experience of, those subjects outside the newspapers’ projected audience who are presented as carriers of urgent social problems and potential targets of political exclusion? And behind this question lies another, that of a dialogic democracy, one that, without having to give up a concern with truth, would remain inclusive, even as it seeks to bring different, conflicting viewpoints into conversation with each other” — Brian C.J. Singer, Senior Scholar, Glendon College, York University.