The Information Game in Democracy

This book examines democracy and governance from the unconventional and largely under researched vantage point of information. It looks at the exclusionary informational dynamics in democracy and analyses the role of information capitalism, new technology, virtual networks, cyberspace and media.

While emphasizing the foundational value of information as the ‘source code’ of modern societies the book explains how it is strategically maneuvered in technologies of governance in so-called established and credible democracies. It studies the neutralization and subversion as well as the complex, nuanced and multidimensional act of othering of people, who are supposed to be the repository of power in democracy and in whose interest the business of governance is expected to be conducted. The work highlights the challenges of technocratic interpretations, stunted public policy communication, hyped information society, cooption through the state-of-the-art capitalism, rhetoric of virtual networks and the often-unilateral agenda of mainstream media.

A major intervention in understanding the nature of contemporary democracy and polity, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, media, political communication and technology studies.

Dipankar Sinha is Professor of Political Science, University of Calcutta, India. He is Honorary Associate, Centre for Media History in Macquarie University, Sydney, and Nominated Member, Association of Third World Studies, USA. He also acts in advisory capacity in academic, governmental, non-governmental and civil society organisations. His broad interest relates to informational and communicative modes of development, democracy and governance in the globalizing era. He has authored Communicating Development in the New World Order: A Critical Analysis (1999), Media Sanskriti [Media Culture] (2003), Development Communication: Contexts for the Twenty-First Century (2013), and Development Narratives: Walking the Field in Rural West Bengal (2014). His co-authored volumes include Media, Gender and Popular Culture in India: Tracking Change and Continuity (2011). He has also co-edited Webs of History: Information, Communication and Technology from Early to Post-Colonial India (2005) and Democratic Governance in India: Reflections and Refractions (2007).