Mediated Cosmopolitanism

'Most media organizations are cutting budgets for overseas reporting. Yet globalization is making the world ever more interdependent. Robertson's book is a fascinating study of how viewers can "recognize and identify with the distant Others who populate their television screens". It is essential reading for practitioners as well as scholars.'-James Painter, Reuters Institute, University of Oxford

'We live in an increasingly interconnected and precarious global age. Today's media have an incredibly important part to play in recognizing how distant Others are not so different from ourselves and in imagining how our world should be. Alexa Robertson's Mediated Cosmopolitanism lucidly and impressively explores the complexities and opportunities involved.'-Simon Cottle, Cardiff University

'Alexa Robertson offers a subtle and nuanced account of television news reporting and its audiences, showing how cosmopolitan sentiments are mediated through televisual storytelling and the popular imagination. A must-read book for all those interested in mass media, culture and politics in an epoch of globalization.'-Robert Holton, Trinity College Dublin

Media power in the global era has to do with how people understand the world, their place in it, and their relation to the others who populate it. Making connections with distant places and people is the work of cosmopolitan imagination, which involves seeing the world through the eyes of others. In this book, Robertson engages with the growing literature on cosmopolitanism to address these issues, approaching theoretical debates through an innovative empirical portal. Based on the analysis of over 2,000 news reports broadcast on national and global channels and interviews with journalists and audience members, Mediated Cosmopolitanism illustrates that the same everyday stories about the world can take on different meanings in different cultures. It argues that, if we are to understand how media actors may help people to make the connections that underpin a cosmopolitan outlook, attention must be paid to evidence that some actors may not do so, and also that national broadcasters could be more active agents of cosmopolitanism than global channels.

Accessibly written, the book is essential reading for advanced undergraduate and masters students, particularly of media studies, but also of sociology, politics and international relations.