Why Voice Matters

Nick Couldry has emerged as one of the most brilliant critics we have of neoliberalism and its assault on almost every aspect of public life. What is unique about this book is that it not only understands neoliberalism as an economic discourse but also, if not more importantly, as a profound and powerful mode of cultural politics. This is one of the best books I have read in years about what it means to engage neoliberalism through a critical framework that highlights those narratives and stories that affirm both our humanity and our longing for justice. This book should be read by everyone concerned with what it might mean to not only dream about democracy but to engage it as a lived experience and political possibility -- Henry Giroux
An important and original book that offers a fresh critique of neoliberalism and its contribution to the contemporary crisis of ‘voice’. Couldry’s own voice is clear and impassioned - an urgent ‘must-read’.  -- Rosalind Gill
Nick Couldry sets out a provocative critique of the democratic shortcomings of the neoliberal social order, while offering some compellingly radical arguments for the role of the media in creating new spaces of citizen-government relations.  -- Stephen Coleman
This is an important book... In focusing our attention on the importance of voice, in putting it at the heart of contemporary political and economic change, and in summoning an array of contrasting services, Couldry has done us a very valuable service. -- John Street
A valuable contribution to the field... Resisting a familiar tendency of scholarship in which a critique of neoliberalism is paired either with Utopian thought experiments [or] with an ennui toward practical action, Couldry′s work is refreshingly productive in its scope. The author not only skilfully outlines the problems that are present in the age of neoliberalism, but offers a platform to discuss how scholars and citizens can spur shifts in values in order to move forward towards a more democratic post-neoliberal world today and into the future... Why Voice Matters is a grounded, imaginative and valuable piece of writing that will appeal to a broad-based audience of scholars in the field of communication and beyond. -- Garrett Broad
"Nick Couldry gives a very interesting analysis of the challenge of ′voice′ in our times." -- Emile McAnany * Communication Research Trends v30-4 *