Democracy is an overused word these days. That, in itself, would not be a bad thing if it were being used correctly, but the trouble is that it rarely is. There is a growing assumption - perpetuated by the mass media - that democracy is simply the will of a large group of people expressed in some collective form or another. This is a simplistic and inaccurate view and one which I most definitely d...

As I look around the web at various news media sites, comment pieces and blogs I can't help thinking that the concept of democracy is being completely misrepresented again and again. One of the biggest misconceptions, in my view, is this belief that we need an elected second chamber which seems to be gaining ground. This really worries me. Democracy is extremely hard to define in a nutshell. ...

Could Populus mark a change in the media narrative? There are two critical things about a poll - the actual voting intention numbers themselves and how it is reported in the media. It might be recalled that the final YouGov poll of 2008 showing C42-L35-LD14, numbers that are not that much different from today’s Populus poll

‘Omran Salman, editor of the reformist Arabic website Aafaq.org, takes strong exception to European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering’s suggestion that the Arab world may not be ready for western-style democracy. These people [like Poettering] believe that Arabs deserve nothing better than their present governments - [that is,] they do not deserve the democracy enjoyed by civil...

Telegraph Media Group is promoting Christopher Hope, home affairs editor of the Daily Telegraph, to the new role of Whitehall editor. By Oliver Luft

PM to risk provoking diplomatic row today by making speech on democracy and media freedom benefits.

The Evening Standard editor Victoria Wadley is set to go if the Lebedev deal goes ahead, with all eyes now on the Tatler editor Geordie Greig to take her place. According to the Media Guardian: "Lebedev intends to make the Standard fresher and younger, and possibly more progressive, and move the paper away from the direct influence of Paul Dacre, the powerful and opinionated editor-in-chief of Ass...

The quality of traditional media coverage of political opinion polling has been a common cause of complaints amongst political bloggers. The most obvious problem is when an opinion poll from one polling company is compared not with the previous poll from that company but against an older one because the intervening one happened to have

Israel Democracy Institute is an independent think tank which seeks to promote the strengthening of democracy in Israel and the creation of an inclusive society which recognises the position of the Arab Community. Areas of research include religion and state, national security, economic policy, education, the media, and Jewish and Israeli politics in general. The English language website provides ...

And while we're on the subject of candidates and the media. Democracy in America points us to a fabulous playground of information. Want to know who leads in news mentions? How about the blogosphere? Or Twitter? Or all of the...