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A systematic examination of the relationship between post-Marxist discourse theory and media studies. This volume interrogates discourse theory - as read via the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe - through an engagement with major approaches to critical media politics and a range of issues in contemporary media politics.

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Note on Contributors Discourse Theory and Critical Media Politics: An Introduction; S.Phelan & L.Dahlberg Discourse Theory as Critical Media Politics? Five Questions; L.Dahlberg From Media to Mediality: Mediatic (Counter-)Apparatuses and the Concept of the Political in Communication Studies; O.Marchart What Does Democracy Feel Like? Form, Function, Affect, and the Materiality of the Sign; J.Gilbert Ideology and Politics in the Popular Press: The Case of the 2009 UK MPs´ Expenses Scandal; Wei-yuan Chang & J.Glynos The Media as the Neoliberalized Sediment: Articulating Laclau´s Discourse Theory with Bourdieu´s Field Theory; S.Phelan Post-Marx beyond Post-Marx: Autonomism and Discourse Theory; J.Zeljko Bratich Multiplicity, Autonomy, New Media, and the Networked Politics of New Social Movements; N.Fenton Mediated Construction of the People: Laclau´s Political Theory and Media Politics; J.Simons Mobilizing Discourse Theory for Critical Media Politics: Obstacles and Potentials; P.Dahlgren Index

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´I came to this collection as a discourse theory sceptic. I still have doubts, but the editors´ lucid and helpful introduction, and the excellent chapters, have opened my eyes and ears to the potential value of this approach. This is a major contribution to theorising the contemporary media.´

- David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds, UK

´Lincoln Dahlberg and Sean Phelan have compiled an excellent collection of studies on Discourse Theory and Critical Media Politics that clarify how discourse theory can work to enrich media/communication studies. The introduction provides a succinct overview of contemporary discussions and positions concerning discourse theory and the succeeding articles provide articulation of the concept with studies of media, democracy, and contemporary politics.´

- Douglas Kellner, UCLA, USA

´This is a most welcome volume. It presents a long overdue engagement between media politics and discourse theory. Combining theoretical discussion and empirical illustration, this important volume takes Discourse Theory forward in this crucial field.´

- Lasse Thomassen, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

´...this collection provides the reader with a very clear and lucid explanation of discourse theories and critical media politics.´ - Journal of Language and Politics

´[This volume] helps to fill a needed gap in revealing the positive potentials of combining discourse theory with critical media politics both in terms of theoretical complementarity and practical implications [It] is a great source for anyone interested in the growing role of ´media´ for twenty-first-century politics.´ Peter Bloom, Critical Discourse Studies

´[The contributors´] approach and topics are definitely political, critical, original and, I would add, rigorous, in their continuity with the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.´ - Yves Laberge, Media, Culture & Society

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