This edited collection examines the multi-faceted phenomenon of transparency, especially in its relation to social movements, from a range of multi-disciplinary viewpoints. Over the past few decades, transparency has become an omnipresent catch phrase in public and scientific debates. The volume tracks developments of ideas and practices of transparency from the eighteenth century to the current day, as well as their semantic, cultural and social preconditions. It connects analyses of the ideological implications of transparency concepts and transparency claims with their impact on the public sphere in general and on social movements in particular. In doing so, the book contributes to a better understanding of social conflicts and power relations in modern societies. The chapters are organized into four parts, covering the concept and ideology of transparency, historical and recent developments of the public sphere and media, the role of the state as an agent of surveillance, and conflicts over transparency and participation connected to social movements.

This volume addresses the major questions surrounding a concept that has become ubiquitous in the media and in civil society as well as in political and economic discourses in recent years, and which is demanded with increasing frequency: transparency. How can society deal with increasing and often diverging demands and expectations of transparency? What role can different political and civil society actors play in processes of producing, or preventing, transparency? Where are the limits of transparency and how are these boundaries negotiated? What is the relationship of transparency to processes of social change, as well as systems of social surveillance and control? Engaging with transparency as an interrelated product of law, politics, economics and culture, this interdisciplinary volume explores the ambiguities and contradictions, as well as the social and political dilemmas, that the age of transparency has unleashed. As such it will appeal to researchers across the social sciences and humanities with interests in politics, history, sociology, civil society, citizenship, public policy, criminology and law.

"The book provides a compact theoretical account of the hidden functioning logic of the ideal of transparency. Transparency as a concept has become hugely popular in legal discourse and beyond. The book argues that there are underlying optical, conceptual, and social reasons why transparency makes sense to us: it promises immediate seeing and understanding. That is why it can form a powerful metaphor of controllability: in the state, for example, the governed are able to monitor the inner workings of the governor through transparency practices. The modern push for transparency is premised on the notion that the truth about governance is key to its legitimacy, and transparency can provide legitimacy through access to truth. The book argues that this premise is false. Instead of accessing legitimacy by providing truth, transparency is labelled by either-or logic, which is referred to as 'the truth-legitimacy trade-off' in the book: transparency can provide either truth or legitimacy. Through this argument, the book questions the neutrality promise vested in transparency and claims that transparency is primarily a tool for creating appearances. The book consists of nine chapters divided into three parts: The Opacity of Transparency, The Promise of Transparency, and The Reality of Transparency. It combines legal and policy themes and research with interdisciplinary inputs, such as social philosophy and cultural and media studies, contributing to the growing literature on critical transparency studies"--

This volume provides a comprehensive discussion of enduring and emerging challenges to ethical journalism worldwide. The collection highlights journalism practice that makes a positive contribution to people’s lives, investigates the link between institutional power and ethical practices in journalism, and explores the relationship between ethical standards and journalistic practice. Chapters in the volume represent three key commitments: (1) ensuring practice informed by theory, (2) providing professional guidance to journalists, and (3) offering an expanded worldview that examines journalism ethics beyond traditional boundaries and borders. With input from over 60 expert contributors, it offers a global perspective on journalism ethics and embraces ideas from well-known and emerging journalism scholars and practitioners from around the world. The Routledge Companion to Journalism Ethics serves as a one-stop shop for journalism ethics scholars and students as well as industry practitioners and experts.

Bringing together scholars, journalists, and researchers from 27 European countries, this book provides a comparative and longitudinal analysis of the evolution of conditions and standards relevant for sustainable, free, and plural media and journalism in Europe in the last ten years. Approaching the challenging and ever-changing concept of media pluralism from various complementary and sometimes conflicting angles, combining legal, economic, social, and political perspectives, chapters provide a holistic account of the concept of media pluralism, a key condition for a well-functioning democracy. This book draws on data from the Media Pluralism Monitor project, a scientific tool designed and implemented on a regular basis to document the health of media ecosystems, to provide insights into central dimensions of media systems across the EU and candidate countries. These include: the fundamental protection of freedom of expression and safety of journalists and the independence of media authorities; market plurality, transparency of ownership, media concentration, media viability, competition enforcement, and digital platforms’ dominance; disinformation, media literacy, and digital challenges; political independence, conflicts of interest, editorial autonomy, and the independence of public service media; social inclusiveness, including access to media and representation of women and community media. Offering a comprehensive overview of key areas of EU media policy, causes and solutions for the media economic struggle, and innovative examples of business models for journalism in the digital age, this book is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers of media policy and regulation, as well as policymakers.

This book brings together new research on the practices of newsmaking. Participation, engagement and collaboration have long been heralded as a vision, goal or emerging practice in the news. The claim in this volume is that they have now become sedimented as the common-sense baseline for everyday newsmaking routines. The issue for newsmakers is not ‘whether’ to engage with readers and users, but ‘how’ to engage with them. The contributions span a wide range of newsmaking contexts, including analytics-based online headline testing, the communication efforts of a Brussels-based free marketeer thinktank, collaborative science journalism and rapidly changing journalistic sourcing and writing routines from legacy to social media. Together they argue for a postfoundational perspective, which observes how participation, engagement and collaboration have emerged as a ‘foundation’ which is no longer questioned, but which can lead to new tensions in newsmaking. As such, the book provides inspirational reading for anyone in the social sciences and humanities who is interested in understanding how the ubiquity of participation, engagement and collaboration in the making of the news impacts on issues of power, transparency and control in the twenty-first century.

The Global Handbook of Media Accountability brings together leading scholars to de-Westernize the academic debate on media accountability and discuss different models of media self-regulation and newsroom transparency around the globe. With examination of the status quo of media accountability in 43 countries worldwide, it offers a theoretically informed comparative analysis of accountability regimes of different varieties. As such, it constitutes the first interdisciplinary academic framework comparing structures of media accountability across all continents and creates an invaluable basis for further research and policymaking. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of media studies and journalism, mass communication, sociology, and political science, as well as policymakers and practitioners.

This comprehensive Encyclopedia captures the intricacies of corporate communication, offering 87 clear, succinct definitions of important concepts within marketing, business, organizational communication and public relations followed by critical, literary analyses of significant research ventures.

Human rights due diligence (HRDD) has emerged as a dominant frame through which to conceptualise and operationalise responsible business conduct with respect to workers' rights in global supply chains. Legislation mandating HRDD is now found in several European countries and across various national regulatory agendas. Many scholars, practitioners, and activists are actively calling for further legalisation, believing that this will broaden respect for human rights. Yet to date, there has been little sustained scholarly analysis from a labour rights perspective. Observing that HRDD, as originally articulated in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, is open to multiple interpretations, this book examines global debates on the role and status of the concept. It also considers the implications of HRDD's ascension for transnational labour law as a distinct field of law, scholarship, and activism. Combining insights from transnational governance and business regulation with empirical analysis, this book argues that HRDD is not being institutionalised at either the global or national level in a way that renders it a transformative or even robust mechanism of transnational labour law. It also draws attention to the important, but largely overlooked, ways in which the rise of HRDD is leading to subtle shifts in the configuration of actors and institutions in labour governance.

A guide to journalistic ethics for today’s digital technologies With contributions from an international panel of experts on the topic, News Media Innovation Reconsidered offers a guide for the revitalizing of the ethical and civil ideals of journalism. The authors discuss how to energize journalistic practices and products and explore how to harness the power of digital technological innovations such as immersive journalism, the automatization and personalization of news, newsgames, and artificial-intelligence news production. The book presents an innovative framework of “creative reconstruction” and reviews new journalistic concepts, models, initiatives, and practices that clearly demonstrate professional ethics that embrace truth seeking, transparency, fact checking, and accuracy, and other ethical considerations. While the contributors represent numerous countries, many of examples are drawn from the Spanish-speaking media and can serve as models for an international audience. This important book: Explores the impact on the news media from mobile-first, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence-driven platforms Examines the challenges of maintaining journalistic ethics in today’s digital world Demonstrates how to use technology to expose readers to news outside their comfort zones Provides information for discerning truth from fake news Written for researchers, students in journalism and communication programs, New Media Innovation Reconsidered offers a much-needed guide for recreating journalistic ethics in our digital age.