Media and Participation: A Site of Ideological-Democratic Struggle

摘要

We encounter the concept of participation in a wide variety of contexts, not least in many areas of contemporary media and communication research. Its ubiquity can easily lead to it being taken for granted, with its meaning remaining bland and uncontrover-sial. This will quickly change for anyone who reads this book; indeed, anyone who writes about participation in regard to politics and media and chooses to ignore this text will be running a serious risk. Nico Carpentier has written a volume that not only problematizes the term, but also links it to several conceptual frameworks. The result is not a final, ultimate definition of the concept, but rather a detailed insight into how and why it is and will remain contested, as a 'floating signifier'.