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This book focuses on what is arguably the most devastating phenomenon in the history of modern civilization, the COVID-19 pandemic.
It shows how, on the one hand, the pandemic has exposed governments the world over to deal with a major health crisis; and, on the other, efforts by the ruling forces to enforce surveillance on people and disciplining them by maneuvering cutting-edge digital technology in the name of security and safety. Second, it explores how the mainstream versions of crisis communication and risk communication face huge challenges during a pandemic. Finally, it analyses how the pandemic propels an extraordinary expansion of infodemic - rapid spread of excessive quantities of misinformation and disinformation of the fake and false variety - and how social media in particular becomes its main tool in causing subversion of the prevalent information order.
Engaging, comprehensive and accessible, this book will be of immense importance to scholars and researchers of politics, especially governance and political communication, communication studies, and public health management. It will be vital for public policy professionals, experts in thinktanks, career bureaucrats, and non-governmental organizations.
List of contents
Introduction: Rethinking Pandemic Governance 1. Un/Known: Negotiating COVID-19 in Uncertain Times 2. 'Governancing' Contagion: Lockdown or Meltdown? 3. Governance Communication: The Biopolitical Trigger 4. Community, Crisis, Risk: Communicating (Dis)Engagement 5. The Infodemic Switch: Subversive Communication. Conclusion: Future Tense. Bibliography.
About the author
Dipankar Sinha is Professor of Political Science and Director, Centre or Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Calcutta, India. He is also Honorary Associate of the Centre for Media History, Macquarie University. Sinha’s research mainly focuses on communicative dialectics of governance and development in the post-globalization era. He has authored six books, co-authored four and co-edited two. He has also published widely in international and national journals and edited volumes.
Sinha’s most recent books from Routledge are The Information Game in Democracy (2018) and The Social Sciences in a Global Age: Decoding Knowledge Politics (2021).
Summary
This book focuses on what is arguably the most devastating phenomenon in the history of modern civilization, the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows how the pandemic has exposed governments the world over to deal with a major health crisis and their efforts to enforce digital surveillance on people to disciplinine them.
