Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book is a classic and authoritative introduction to the history, sociolgy, theory and politics of students and teachers of media and communication studies.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part 1 Press History:
• 1 Whig press history as political mythology
• 2 The struggle for a free press
• 3 The ugly face of reform
• 4 The industrialisation of the press
• 5 the era of the press barons
• 6 The press under public regulation
• 7 The press in the age of globalisation
• Part 2 Broadcasting History:
• 8 Reith and the denial of politics
• 9 Broadcasting and the blitz
• 10 Social revolution?
• 11 The fall of the BBC
• 12 Class, taste and profit
• 13 How the audience is made
• 14 Video, cable and satellite
• 15 To be or not to be the BBC: broadcasting in the 1980s and 1990s
• Part 3 Rise of New Media:
• 16 Scientists, capitalist and cyberchartists
• 17 Sociology of the internet
• 18 New media in Britain
• Part 4 Theories of the Media:
• 19 Global futures, the information society and broadcasting
• 20 The sociology of the mass media
• 21 The liberal theory of press freedom
• 22 Broadcasting and the theory of public service
• Part 5 Politics of the Media:
• 23 Contradictions in media policy
• 24 Central debates in media policy