This book covers considerable ground, raising a variety of empirical and theoretical issues and employing diverse methodological orientations. We have not built a single story here, as different authors read the trends and possibilities in sometimes conflicting ways.What unites the chapters is their fundamental concern with the present and future of democratic political systems in which mass communication and newer communication techniques and technologies play important roles in the exertion of power and distribution of values. In this conclusion we summarize some key themes and issues and lay out directions for future research. First, we suggest a framework for organizing different understandings about the role of communication both as it affects the overall quality of public life and as it shapes citizen engagement in the specific policy decisions in democracies.

A SIMPLE MODEL OF COMMUNICATION IN DEMOCRACIES

From Aristotle's analysis of rhetoric, to Mill's designs for a marketplace of ideas, to Habermas's idealization of the public sphere and Dahl's comparative theory of polyarchy, theorists of democracy have concerned themselves with the delivery, distribution, quality, and uses of information by citizens. We propose here a brief adaptation of Dahl's (1989) account of polyarchy to identify and develop theoretically grounded research into some of the crucial issues emerging from political communication trends apparent at the end of the century.

Dahl argues that democracy in the ideal is defined by the equally empowered rule by all. Even if everyone is unlikely to participate in all decisions, no citizen in a fully evolved democracy is excluded from doing so based on restrictive participation requirements or discouraging burdens for becoming informed and expressing effective preferences.

Mediated political communication has become central to politics and public life in contemporary democracies. Traditional features of politics persist, from old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning to party and social movement organizing. And people still engage in direct, unmediated political discussion with one another. However, many polities have reached a point where governance, along with a host of related processes such as opinion formation, could not occur in their present forms without various uses of media. Hence the title of this book.

Many of the political changes that ushered in the twenty-first century, from the declining importance of nationalism in most postindustrial democracies, to the shifting patterns of participation within them, are typically linked to media processes, either as causes or as adaptive mechanisms. While some aspects of civic life such as voting, party identification, and national sentiments have eroded in many nations, other activities such as joining causes, protesting unpopular policies, and forming new regional and global communities appear to be on the rise (Inglehart 1997; Archibugi, Held, and Kohler 1998). Political and academic debates question whether changing patterns of participation and identification pose alarming threats to the legitimacy of democratic governments, or whether they are simply routine, even liberating, adjustments to new global social and economic conditions (Bennett 1998; Pool 1990; Putnam 1993, 1995; Rahn and Transue 1998). Answering the core questions about citizen experience in the democratic process increasingly requires understanding the centrality of mediated political communication both in the governing process and in citizen perceptions of society and its problems.