'A significant contribution to academic research.' - The Political Quarterly '...makes an important contribution to debates around the relationship between celebrity and politics, democratic malaise and media effects, which should be of interest to, and should be read by, students both of politics and of media and society more generally.' - European Journal of Communication ... Read more '...an important book, contributing valuable empirical evidence on 'actually existing' public spheres and presenting us with some disturbing and thought and hopefully, action - provoking findings.' - Journal of Consumer Culture 'This book is... a text I will certainly be recommending to students engaged in postgraduate study of audiences, or with any interest in the relationship between media and political engagement.' - Participations 'It is almost as if I had been waiting for precisely this book...with inspiring conceptual clarity, detailed empirical study, and a very accessible style, the authors explore the complex character of citizens' media connection in modern democracies.' - Professor Peter Dahlgren, Lund University, Sweden 'This book may well prove to be an important one for those interested in the relationship between media and politics...This book is a demanding one to read, but it is a text I will certainly be recommending to students engaged in postgraduate study of audiences, or with any interest in the relationship between media and political engagement.' - Michael Higgins, Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 'Couldry et al have provided some significant and rigorous empirical research on public engagement with, and consumption of, the media. Their research makes an important contribution to debates around the relationship between celebrity and politics, democratic malaise and media effects, which should be of interest to, and should be read by students both of politics and of media and society more generally.' Heather Savigny, European Journal of Communication 'Nick Couldry, Sonia Livingstone, and Tim Markham apply a timely empirical lens to issues that have been taken-for-granted for too long. It has been too easy to assume a normative role for media in civic knowledge and participation in the face of evidence of decline and then to blame media for that decline. They show that the situation is much more subtle, nuanced, and complex than that; that while the media are central, media cannot alone address the broader conditions that strain a sense of public connection today.' - Professor Stewart M. Hoover, University of Colorado, USA Show Less