Comparative Media History An Introduction: 1789 to the Present

by Chapman, Jane L.

• ISBN13: 9780745632421
• ISBN10: 0745632424
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-11
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

Comparative Media History is a unique thematic textbook which introduces students to the key ideas underpinning media development. It is an essential first step to a better understanding of both the media industry today and the way in which it evolved over time. The textbook compares developments and influences from a broad perspective, highlighting and contrasting different countries, industries and periods of history in order to encourage an understanding of cause and effect. In a style which is clear, accessible and provocative, Jane Chapman argues that most of the roots of today's media - even the globalizing impulse - lie in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The book emphasises continuity and certain decisive factors such as the social use of technology, the character of the institutions in which it is applied and the political approach of the specific countries involved. The unique comparative element to this book, both across countries and industries, will enable students to reflect on key issues in media studies, including those of diversity, form, method and choice, both past and present. It will become an essential text for any student of the media and its history. For more information about the book and the author, please see www.janechapman.co.uk

Author Biography

Jane Chapman is Principal Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Lincoln.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Antecedents, Continuities and Discontinuities

Newspapers, Radicalism, Repression and Economic Change, 1789-1847

The Focusing of Political Communications and Newspaper Business, 1848-81

Popularization, Industrialization and The Triumph of Technology, 1881-1918

Commercialization, Consumerism and Technology, 1881-1914

Politics, New Forms of Communication and the Globalizing Process, 1881-1918

Discovery and Exploitation of The Masses Formula, 1918-1947

The Business and Ideology of Mass Culture, 1918-1939

War and Beyond, 1939-1947

The Global Age, 1948-2002

Cold War and the Victory of Commercialism, 1948-1980

Continuity and Change since 1980

Notes

References and Bibliography

Index

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