Power Without Responsibility

Power Without Responsibility attacks the conventional history of the press as a story of progress; offers a critical defence and history of public service broadcasting; provides a myth-busting account of the internet; a subtle account of the impact of social media and explores key debates about the role and politics of media.

This book attacks the conventional history of the press as a story of progress; offers a critical defence and history of public service broadcasting; provides a myth-busting account of the internet; gives a subtle account of the impact of social media; and explores key debates about the role and politics of the media.

Power Without Responsibility has become a standard textbook on media and other courses, but it has also gone beyond an academic audience to reach a wider public. Hailed as a book that has 'cracked the canon' by the Times Higher Educational Supplement, it has been translated into five languages. In 2019, it was awarded the International Communication Association's Fellows Book Award. This ninth edition is based on a major overhaul of its content to take account of new developments (such as generative AI) and new scholarship in the field. It also contains a new chapter on the transformed opportunity for a reformed and buccaneering public service broadcasting in the face of automated misinformation and social division, locally, nationally and internationally.

This trailblazing text is essential reading for all students and scholars interested in British media and contemporary media and society.

Autorentext

James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Jean Seaton is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster, Director of the Orwell Foundation and Co-Director of the Chevening South Asia Journalism Fellowship programme.

Klappentext

Power Without Responsibility attacks the conventional history of the press as a story of progress; offers a critical defence and history of public service broadcasting; provides a myth-busting account of the internet; a subtle account of the impact of social media and explores key debates about the role and politics of media.

Inhalt

PART I

Press history

JAMES CURRAN

1. Press history as political mythology

2. The struggle for a free press

3. Janus face of reform

4. Industrialisation of the press

5. Era of the press barons

6. Press under public regulation

7. Post-war press: fable of progress

8. Press and the remaking of Britain

9. Moral decline of the press

PART II

Broadcasting history

JEAN SEATON

10. Reith and the denial of politics

11. Broadcasting and the Blitz

12. Public service commerce: ITV, new audiences and new revenue

13. Foreign affairs: the BBC, the world and the government

14. Class, taste and profit

15. Managers, regulators and broadcasters

16. Public service under attack

17. Broadcasting roller-coaster

PART III

Rise of new media

18. New media in Britain

    JAMES CURRAN

19. History of the internet

    JAMES CURRAN

20. Sociology of the internet

    JAMES CURRAN

21. Social media: making new societies or polarisation merchants?

    JEAN SEATON

PART IV

Theories of the media

JEAN SEATON

22. Metabolising Britishness

23. Public service understanding: moonshot time for the BBC and public service broadcasting

24. Broadcasting and the theory of public service

PART V

Politics of the media

25. Industrial folklore and press reform

    JAMES CURRAN

26. Contradictions in media policy

    JAMES CURRAN AND JEAN SEATON

27. Media reform: democratic choices

    JAMES CURRAN