Media, Communication, and Democratic Decline: Thoughts on The Paradox of Democracy

The Paradox of Democracy: Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion, by Zac Gershberg and Sean Illing, argues that the study of democratic decline is mistakenly focused on reversal. Drawing on media ecology theory and an interpretive reading of media and politics in the Western world, the authors argue that the conditions that allowed liberal democracy to become temporarily dominant have now been disrupted and eroded by the rise of new forms of media and communication. This review article assesses that argument in terms of (1) the central role of media and communication in studying of trajectory of democracy; (2) the empirical contributions of political communication scholarship; and (3) the authors' call for revitalizing a core liberal institution: the press.