In this major new book, James Curran addresses three key questions about media power: How much power do the media have? Who really controls the media? What is the relationship between media and power in society?Media and Power addresses three key questions about the relationship between media and society.*How much power do the media have?*Who really controls the media?*What is the relationship between media and power in society?In this major new book, James Curran reviews the different answers which have been given, before advancing original interpretations in a series of ground-breaking essays.This book also provides a guided tour of the major debates in media studies. What part did the media play in the making of modern society? How did 'new media' change society in the past? Will radical media research recover from its mid-life crisis? Is public service television the dying product of the nation in an age of globalization? Media and Power provides both a clear introduction to media research and an innovative analysis of media power.

This work examines the role and influence of the media in every sphere of American politics. Organized thematically, the book analyzes the relationship between the media and key institutions, political actors and nongovernmental entities, as well as the role of the new media, media ethics and foreign policy coverage. Written by leading scholars in the field, the chapters serve as broad overviews to the issues while discussion questions and suggestions for further reading encourage deeper inquiry. Designed to complement a wide variety of classes the book is a look at the pervasive influence of the media in American society.

Although there may not be a consensus on what the media's role in politics is or should be, it is clear that the media's pervasive influence has profoundly changed politics in America. In this collection of 37 essays (15 of them new to this edition), Graber explores the history of mass media and its ability to shape political agendas. The new essay titles include, Open Season: How the News Media Cover Presidential Campaigns in the Age of Attack Journalism and I Am on TV, Therefore I Am.

How powerful are the news media? In what way do they operate as agents of social control, and to what extent is command of information necessary to gain and maintain power in this age of global communication. Agents of Power: The Media and Public Policy, Second Edition boldly explores these timely issues to emphasize the interdependence of mass media and politics in the United States and abroad. A "global" book about a "global" world on the brink of the twenty-first century, it focuses on actual political, economic, and cultural events. Updated and expanded topics in this major revision include: the social control function of the news media and the world wide interaction of media and politics from Washington to Moscow, from the newsroom to the board room; the growing power of the image-maker industry in manipulating media coverage of election campaigns and the course of public policy; and a history of the media; the frustrated search for a world information order; and current attempts to diversify newsrooms and news coverage.

This book represents a significant contribution to the discussion on the part played by communication, especially in its mediated forms, in people’s lives, dwelling on the nature of the relationship between the notion of power and the media in current Western societies. The media have dramatically increased their capacity to exercise their symbolic force over other fields of cultural production, by partly structuring those intrinsic rules, values, and practices that organize, for example, the political system or the academic world from the inside. On the other hand, the media are intertwined environments subjected to the influence of other cultural, economic, and political forces, which, in turn, reveal themselves to be capable of framing reality through the media themselves. Particularly focusing on the topic of the economic crisis, the various chapters of this edited volume highlight how the relationship between the media and other forces capable of pervasively exercising their power appears to be, paradoxically, as strict as it is opaque. Social media and smart mobile technologies have increasingly affected the modalities whereby other institutions and organizations reflect on themselves and develop their worldviews. At the same time, however, politics and economics experts and strategists have all learned how to ‘exploit’ this potential for their own purposes. Detecting the opacity that characterizes this form of ‘exploitation’ is the first step in the acknowledgment of this phenomenon.

A critical introduction to meaning and power in an age of participatory culture, social media and digital platforms. Helps students to understand the central role media play in the social world, and how they can become informed media citizens themselves.

While policymakers in the world reiterate the importance of protecting voice diversity, traditional media conglomerates and new social media giants make their task increasingly challenging. This book assesses the current state of policy-making on media plurality and explores novel policy ideas for funding, regulatory and structural interventions.

Media power is a crucial, although often taken for granted, concept. We assume, for example, that the media are 'powerful'; if they were not, why would there be so many controversies over the regulation, control and impact of communicative institutions and processes? Further, we assume that this 'power' is somehow problematic; audiences are often treated as highly susceptible to media influence and too much 'power' in the hands of one organization or individual is seen as risky and potentially dangerous. These concerns have been at the heart of recent controversies involving the relationships between media moguls and political elites, the consequences of phone hacking in the UK, and the emerging influence of social media as vital gatekeepers. Yet it is still not clear what we mean by media power or how effective it is. This book evaluates contrasting definitions of media power and looks at the key sites in which power is negotiated, concentrated and resisted - politically, technologically and economically. Combining an evaluation of both previous literature and new research, the book seeks to establish an understanding of media power which does justice to the complexities and contradictions of the contemporary social world. It will be important reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and activists alike.