ABSTRACT
Taken collectively, what might the reader derive from this set of chapters that each address the issue of media empowerment in some form or another? For us there is an all-pervading theme apparent from all our contributors, albeit in some chapters it is more prevalent than others. Conceptually it is the ‘power paradox’ that the book’s title alludes to; namely that as an agent, all forms of media occupies space, takes a position and makes contributions that means other agents (citizens) have to take account of them. Thus even if particular media institutions seek to empower citizens, their very existence serves to diminish the centrality of citizen agency. In some ways this paradox is a re-articulation of the sociological debates surrounding structure versus agency set in the context of mediated politics (see Hay 2002 for an excellent account of this in a political context). The dilemma this book speaks to in relation to where political agency is located is about the ‘power’ afforded to the context of established institutions versus the conduct of individual actors. Each of the chapters in this volume help us to better understand the different ways in which this paradox is manifest and is played out through a co-constituting and co-construction of what makes up ‘real life’. Put another way, citizens both require institutional support (in this case media) to perform in empowered ways, and the nature of their empowerment is restricted and curtailed by these same institutions of media.
