Human Rights in the Media: Fear and Fetish

Human rights law has a significant impact today, globally and at the domestic level, on law, politics and life. Despite its extensive institutionalisation and its universal, transnational and domestic acceptance and presence, the value of human rights law is highly contested in politics and in practice. The media plays a role in constructing this polarity through its representation of political and ideological viewpoints and its, arguably, significant influence on public perception of rights.

This book seeks to untangle the interrelationships amongst the representation of rights in the media, public opinion on rights, and human rights law and practice. Contributors to the volume explore issues such as the extent of media engagement with human rights law, the media's conception and interpretation of human rights law and its awareness of the impact of human rights law and the effect of media representation on public perception of human rights law. The book offers a critical appraisal of the media's role in representing human rights provoking debate on the ways in which the media reflects or neglects ongoing and significant legal and academic debates about the salience and value of human rights.