My first academic book review

I reviewed The Return of the Public by Dan Hind.

There review can be found in the April edition of the Journal of Communication. Or right here.

An excerpt: 

Dan Hind provides insightful analysis on the effect of neoliberal policies on the public sphere. He provides an interesting framework that helps connect private enterprise, the state and the media to the larger ideological underpinnings of neoliberalism and the threat it poses to the public sphere. The solutions he offers to “publicize” knowledge creation to create a better-informed citizenry have admirable intent. However, Hind's (2010) assertion that currently, “genuine public opinion, in the sense of rationally grounded and widely shared account of the world, is unable to form” (p. 122) is misguided. His dismissal of social media and the new journalism as marginal and unimportant to public life ultimately weaken the value of the solutions he offers.