Demanding Democracy by Christopher Silver

Book Review by Rory Scothorne | 29 Dec 2015
Book title: Demanding Democracy: The Case for a Scottish Media
Author: Christopher Silver

The central argument of Christopher Silver’s excellent book Demanding Democracy: The Case for a Scottish Media is twofold: every nation is held together by a responsible, public-spirited media, and Scotland doesn’t have one. In a series of interconnected essays on the media’s coverage of last year’s independence referendum, the BBC’s role in Scotland, the history of Scottish newspapers, and social media, Silver insists that the complexity and talent of modern Scotland is lost on a British media establishment increasingly ill-equipped to represent it.

His analysis of this failure is damning. He draws on media theory, history and a fascinating selection of interviews with industry insiders to argue that the ‘sub-national’ status of the media in Scotland, combined with the growing influence of the market, has played a crucial role in both creating and constraining Scotland’s national potential. It’s a powerful argument, presented with didactic clarity, but it has its limits. Silver’s insistence that a ‘national’ media is desirable is never properly justified, and the evidence and theory he presents suggests we are heading into an era of partisan fragmentation rather than the unified ‘public sphere’ he hopes for. What is clear is that the media should not be controlled by a small, wealthy elite; if the future holds more conflict over the forms of communication which hold nations together, maybe that’s something to be welcomed instead of feared.

Out now, published by Wordpower Books, RRP £11.99