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.
