Aeron Davis

The Summer of 2016 revealed a crisis in Britain's political, economic and media elite. Once successful leaders were dropping everywhere. These multiple crises at the top are no coincidence. The roots go back several years. We have been producing a generation of leaders who, regardless ofintent, are short-term, precarious, ignorant, un-rooted and self-serving. This isn't a matter of a few deficient personalities. It's a structural problem that has developed over decades.The central theme of the book is that: the British elite has lost control. They can earn more than ever before and their decisions have powerful consequences that are widely felt. They are highly skilled when it comes to pursuing their own self-interests. But, they are also rather less able to exertcontrol or predict the consequences of their actions. What is best for them can often be bad for their organisation, their employees or publics. These failings have an increasingly devastating effect on society and the wider public.

Elites at the End of the Establishment

Reckless Opportunists

Aeron Davis takes a close look at the state of elites today. He argues that the Brexit vote and 2017 election outcome are signs of a deeper leadership crisis that has been developing over decades. The great transformations of the 1980s onwards have not only upended societies, they have reshaped elite rule itself. Too many leaders today, regardless of intent, are ignorant, precarious, rootless and self-serving. Although richer, they have lost coherence, influence and control. Increasingly, they are just reckless opportunists, getting what they can amid the chaos they have created. Their failings are not only damaging wider society, they are undermining the very foundations of the Establishment itself. The book, based on interviews with over 350 elite figures, asks: how did we end up producing the leaders that got us here and what can we do about it?

Elites at the end of the Establishment

Reckless opportunists

Natalie Fenton

Des Freedman

Gholam Khiabany

A timely and provocative exploration of contemporary political communication from a world-leading author team. In an age of "fake news" and Youtube algorithms it can be tempting to see politics as all mediation, but this book refocuses on the broader contexts or neoliberalism, elites, populism, activism and so on. There′s more to Trump than Twitter.

Re-imagining Political Communications

Media, Democracy and Social Change

• This is a big-name author team. All are well-known critical scholars and activists. • Media and politics is a fast-moving field, so a cutting-edge intervention like this will be well-received. • As much as this is a "statement" title from leading academics, the ideas have also been used in the authors' PG teaching. This is a "supp" title that could reach any and all pol comms and media/politics reading lists.

In an age of ‘fake news’ and Facebook algorithims, it can be tempting to see politics now as all mediation. But there’s more to Trump than Twitter. This much-needed text puts politics back into political communications, refocusing on on the broader context of neoliberal capitalism that remains essential for understanding what political communications is, and can hope to be. We have to engage with democracy and capitalism, not just the digital ecology of social media, because focusing on the communicative can risk downgrading the political. Focusing on broad themes of structural inequality, technological change, political realignment and social transformation, Fenton and Davis explore political communications as it relates to debates around the state, infrastructures, elites, populism, political parties, activism and social movements, the legacies of colonialism, and more. This book provides both an expert introduction to the field of political communications, and a critical intervention to help re-imagine what a democratic politics might mean in a digital age, and a result it serves as essential reading for students, researchers and activists across both media and communication studies and politics.

A collection of short, sharp essays exploring the value of shared and accessible public knowledge in the face of its erosion.

Aeron Davis

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