Description: Key Features: A-to-Z, country-by-country summaries of the ebb and flow of media freedom are paired with national media freedom measures over time. Introductory chapters discuss such topics as the theoretical premises behind the nature and importance of media freedom, historical trends, and the challenges of coding for media freedom in a way that ensures consistency for comparison. Concluding material covers the historical patterns in media freedom, how media freedom tracks with other cross-national indicators, and more.
Brief description: Douglas A. Van Belle is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He is currently examining how science fiction as thought experiment shapes the conceptual space between science and society. Other areas of research include simulations of international politics, rational choice and revolutionary collective action, global media freedom, the social nature of science and SETI, Palaeontology and scientific progress in the Social Sciences, media's influence on foreign aid bureaucracies, international information flows and the necessary conditions for the adoption of disaster risk reduction policies, the role of science fiction in society, and the use of science fiction to teach politics. His latest novel, A World Adrift, is set in the skies of Venus, 800 years after it was first colonized, and explores the human impact of the politics of extreme resource scarcity.
Review Quotes: This work provides historical media freedom information for all independent countries since WW II. This guide begins by defining media freedom. This is no small task, but the authors use simple exemplar questions to categorize countries as either "not free," "imperfectly free," or "free." Impressive in its scope and accomplishment, this work is an excellent source for those interested in media freedom. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.--W. J. Breitbach "CHOICE" (1/1/2015 12:00:00 AM)