Retooling Politics | Gonzalo Rivero
In 2020, I published my second book Retooling Politics: How Digital Media Are Shaping Democracy (Cambridge University Press), with Andreas Jungherr and Daniel Gayo-Avello. In the book, we use a needs-based framework to study the flow and reach of political information, the role of data in politics, and the impact of digital tools on contestation, political organizations, and democracy at large.
Jungherr, Rivero and Gayo-Avello’s Retooling Politics is simply exquisite. By all means this book represents one of the finest accounts I have come across to explain why and how digital media is the largest and most profound transformative power in today’s democracy. With a comprehensive, meticulous, and sharp use of the most current and influential literature in the social sciences, the authors build a brilliant and multi-disciplinary argument that will guide readers to better grasp how digital media has transformed our political realm.
Retooling Politics is simply the best book I have read on politics in the digital age. The authors show how political actors use legacy media, digital platforms, and data driven strategies to change how public information is produced, distributed, received, evaluated and used. This book updates the entire field with a timely focus on contemporary problems of democracy. It is destined to become a classic.
