During the last years the mass media have paid less and less attention to parliamentary activities. That is so because the real decision making, the real power, has shifted from the legislature to the executive. There are also other reasons for the declining interest in parliament: its complicated functioning, the limited interest of parliament in topical subjects, the often lengthy and technical debates. Parliament and mass media could, however, try to bridge the gap between eachother, e.g. by broadcasting special programmes (...) on parliamentary activities. This might give the parliament a chance to reconquer a portion of its lost power. However, it remains to be proved that there is a genuine political willingness to restore the legislature as the dominant political power centre. The mass media cannot and may not be a party to this conflict. They can only be a tool. (shrink)

Why do we understand media the way we do? Sometimes we think about media simply as means of communication and instruments of human creativity. At other times we understand media as powerful technologies that influence human culture and that can even govern how we think and act. Dominic Boyer grapples with these complexities in Understanding Media, where he questions what our different strategies of engaging media actually tell us about media, their messages and powers." "Understanding Media explores, in a serious (...) yet entertaining way, our common habits of thinking about the presence and significance of media in our lives. Offering analysis of the philosophical and social foundations of contemporary media theory as well as everyday strategies of knowing media, it addresses the advantages and limitations of different ways of understanding media. Boyer also reflects on the practical issue of how we can know media better than we do."--Jacket. (shrink)