A Justice-Based Approach for New Media Policy

"A Justice-Based Approach for New Media Policy: In the Paths of Righteousness, the new book by Amit Schejter & Noam Tirosh is an important and original contribution to global media policy research. Linking media policy to issues of social justice, Schejter and Tirosh elevate media policy from the realm of technocrats and bureaucrats to the bustling arena of popular politics, exactly where it belongs. The coming decades will likely be decisive ones for the future of democracy worldwide, and as Schejter and Tirosh demonstrate, media policy will be crucial to how the matter is resolved." (Robert W. McChesney, co-author, "People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy", Mcchesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor, Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) "This very interesting book provides a valuable account of how marginalised communities in Israel - Palestinians, Ethiopian immigrants and Bedouins - have used communication technologies to regain their voices and to seek redistributive justice. It shows how the struggle for democratic media policies needs to be an essential part of wider struggles against discrimination and oppression." (Des Freedman, Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London, Author of "The Contradictions of Media Power and The Politics of Media Policy") "Net-based platforms give voice and presence to marginalized publics and issue. The tone and tenor of that voice varies, however, along with the texture of that presence. The thought-provoking and must read "A Justice-Based Approach for New Media Policy: In the Paths of Righteousness," sheds important and timely insight to these processes, by mapping how voice can turn into impact, and how impact can translate into long term and just policy." (Zizi Papacharissi, PhD, Professor and Head, Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago, Editor of Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Editor, Social Media and Society)

In this book, distributional justice theories developed by John Rawls and Amartya Sen are applied to the governance of today’s media, proposing a fresh, and innovative assessment of the potential role for media in society.In this book, distributional justice theories developed by John Rawls and Amartya Sen are applied to the governance of today’s media, proposing a fresh,  and innovative assessment of the potential role for media in society. Three case studies describe the utilization of new media by marginalized communities in Israel – Ethiopian immigrants, the Bedouin and Palestinians – and set the stage for media policy scholars, teachers and students to discuss an analytic framework for media policy that is fresh, different, innovative and original. Departing from the utilitarian principles that dominate Western liberal regimes, and that have led to the proliferation of media systems in which control is concentrated in the hands of the few, this work proposes an alternative that focuses on redistributing power and voice.