The Media and the Public explores the ways a range of media, from the press to television to the Internet, have constructed and represented the public. * Provides a new synthesis of recent research exploring the relationship between media and their publics * Identifies ways in which different publics are subverting the gatekeeping of mainstream media in order to find a voice and communicate with others * Situates contemporary media-public discourse and relationships in an historical context in order to show the origin of contemporary public/political engagement * Creates a theoretical expansion on the role of the media in accessing or denying the articulation of public