Politicians and Mass Media in the Age of Empire

Betto van Waarden is an Assistant Professor of History at Maastricht University. His research focuses on the relationship between media and politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Van Waarden has published across academic disciplines and popular media, including articles in Le Monde Diplomatique, De Volkskrant, The Conversation and De Morgen. His scholarship earned him the Tom Reilly Award for Excellence in Journalism History Research.

• Introduction; 1. A hybrid system of media politics; 2. The politics of press consumption; 3. Traditional media management; 4. The will to personal publicity; 5. Journalists and the journalistic instinct; 6. Politicians as celebrity brands; 7. Politicians as communicative anchors; 8. Competition in the attention economy; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

'This is an intelligent and timely comparative study. It demonstrates how publicise or perish became the mantra of statesmen in the age of the mass media, with success directly correlated to an ability to exploit the proliferating network of local, national and transnational communication systems.' Chandrika Kaul, University of St Andrews