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This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Javnost - The Public on 25 Feb 2017, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2017.1288779 ; In this article I make a case for the importance of public engagement and political commitment on the part of communication scholars. I do this initially by drawing on the work of Michael Burawoy who, in his 2004 Presidential Address to the American Sociological Association, made an impassioned argument for the rebirth of a public sociology. Burawoy's provocation has, however, been largely overlooked by scholars working in the field of communication and media. I then discuss the impact of the Research Excellence Framework on public communication research in the United Kingdom, a development that I so far consider to be, on the whole, positive for the field of communication and media research because it has provided incentives for academics to engage with publics. However, it is crucially important to ground this public engagement in critical theory, which means that we should question the traditional dichotomy between academic and activist. The grounds for engagement in theories of reciprocity and generality have implications for what "good" and "bad" public communication research might be. Clearly, however, we need to understand who our publics are. To this end, I discuss some of the difficulties, encountered personally, in conducting critically-informed public communication research.

John Urry's call for a paradigm shift in sociology away from a consideration of social interaction at a standstill or stasis and towards a consideration of flux and the infrastructures of movement that enable social interaction to take place has been adopted extensively, if unevenly, in sociology. As Allen-Robertson and Beer point out, work on mobility either focuses on the physical mobility of things and people or on information. Thus, it largely ignores Urry's initial call for the study of the movement of ideas (and, one could add, images) as well as humans and objects. Here I take up Urry's original call for the study of mobile ideas and images and argue that such a move is helpful in analysing change in the public sphere.

1. Post-Communist political systems and media freedom and independence / Karol Jakubowicz -- 2. The interplay of politics and economics in transitional societies / Colin Sparks -- 3. Between segmentation and integration : media systems and ethno-cultural diversity in Central and Eastern Europe / Sabina Mihelj -- 4. Gender (in)equality in in post-socialist media / Mojca Pajnik -- 5. Transnational capital, media differentiation, and institutional isomorphism in Central and Eastern European media systems / John Downey -- 6. Transnational media regulation in Central and Eastern Europe / Alison Harcourt -- 7. Back to the local? : transnational media flows and audience consumption patterns in Central and Eastern Europe / Vaclav Stetka.

AbstractIn a late October 2022 international YouGov public opinion poll, findings indicated that more Indians attributed responsibility for the Russian invasion of Ukraine to 'the West' rather than Russia (28% compared to 27%, while 45% indicated both were accountable or expressed uncertainty). This study seeks to elucidate why such perceptions prevail, drawing upon the longstanding strategic partnership between the former Soviet Union and, subsequently, Russia, with India dating back to the 1950s and the portrayal of the Russian invasion within Indian broadcast news media. We argue that the media coverage of the conflict exhibits three main frames: the invasion as an attack by Russia on Ukrainian sovereignty, an anti-West pro-Russia frame, and a perspective aligning with Indian national interests. Both international and domestic proponents of these frames actively seek to shape the narrative presented, with media organizations deciding which frames to prioritize and which political actors to endorse. Consequently, we argue that the news media plays a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions of the conflict, influencing the Indian government's approach toward the war.

Finding limited representation in established unions, a growing number of precarious and migrant workers of the gig economy have been turning to self-organization. Yet little is known about how these workers can compensate for their lack of material resources and institutional support and negotiate effectively with employers. Drawing on interviews, frame, and content analysis grounded in ethnographic research with the precarious and migrant workers of British 'indie' unions, we examine the significance of self-mediation practices in facilitating effective negotiations. We find that the effectiveness of campaigns can be enhanced by strategically integrating vibrant direct action of workers and allies with self-mediated messages, which are framed to resonate with the general public and mainstream media – a practice that we call communicative unionism. These findings extend labour movement scholarship by showing the analytical importance of considering workers' discursive power-building practices. They also contribute to addressing social movement studies' historical neglect of workers' collective engagements with employers.

The study of mundane, everyday uses of the Internet remains an emerging field of inquiry. Analysing data from a large seven country survey of Internet use and adapting concepts and methods developed by Bourdieu, we show that there are distinct clusters of users who use the Internet in diverse ways to solve everyday problems, such as buying a mobile phone or diagnosing an illness. Such everyday problem-solving is dependent upon degrees of economic, social, digital and cultural capital, and varies across countries. A comparative methodological strategy combined the use of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and for the first time in the field, multiple factor analysis for contingency tables (MFACTs). Extending the work of Bourdieu and the sociology of class more generally, we argue that digital capital functions as a bridging capital aiding the convertibility of other forms of capital to the benefit of already advantaged groups.