Offering a critical analysis of the media, driven by core societal values such as social justice, equality, fairness, care for the other and humanity, this book investigates the media’s roles as actors of change and as protectors of the societal status-quo. This book was originally published as two special issues of Javnost – The Public.

Part I: Communication power and inequality 1. Inequality and Digitally Mediated Communication: Divides, Contradictions and Consequences 2. The New Spirit of Capitalism, Innovation Fetishism and New Information and Communication Technologies 3. Inequality and Liberal Democracy: A Critical Take on Economic and Political Power Aspects 4. For Public Communication 5. Beyond the Ladder of Participation: An Analytical Toolkit for the Critical Analysis of Participatory Media Processes Part II: Mediatisation and change 6. Explaining the Mediatisation Approach 7. Mediatisation and the Transformation of Capitalism: The Elephant in the Room 8. Changes in Contemporary Communication Ecosystems Ask for a ‘New Look’ at the Concept of Mediatisation Part III: Media, change and regulation 9. Particularistic and Universalistic Media Policies 10. A Radical Democratic Reform of Media Regulation in Response to Three Levels of Crisis Part IV: Critical scholarship in media and communication studies 11. Put a Ring on It! Why We Need More Commitment in Media Scholarship 12. Being (Truly) Critical in Media and Communication Studies: Reflections of a Media Scholar Between Science and Politics 13. Grounding Communication Studies in Enlightenment Criticality: Scaling Up Theoretical and Dialectical Ambition