This book celebrates the 25th anniversary of the journal Javnost – The Public, bringing together internationally renowned scholars from 20 countries to discuss topical issues in contemporary media and communication research. It focuses on challenging issues of the changing nature of publicness and the public sphere in the internet age, issues of democracy and the crisis of public communication and the tasks of media and communication research as a social practice. It critically reflects on the democratisation crisis and the demise of popular and scholarly optimism, which the emerging internet inspired in early 1990s, when Javnost – The Public was founded.
Slavko Splichal is Professor of Communication and Public Opinion in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and a fellow of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is Founder and Director of the European Institute for Communication and Culture and Editor of its journal Javnost - The Public.