Media and Power 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. The book also provides a guided tour of 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? What are the limitations of the US-based model of ‘communications research’? Is globalization disempowering national electorates or bringing into being a new, progressive global politics? Is public service television the dying product of the nation in an age of globalization? What can be learned from the ‘third way’ tradition of European media policy? Curran’s response to these questions provides both a clear introduction to media research and an innovative analysis of media power, and is written by one of the field’s leading scholars. James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the editor or author of fourteen books about media, including Power Without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain (with Jean Seaton, 6th edition, 2002), and Mass Media and Society (edited with Michael Gurevitch, 3rd edition, 2000). COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY Series Editor: James Curran Glasnost, Perestroika and the Soviet Glasgow Media Group Reader, Media Volume 1 Brian McNair News content, language and visuals Edited by John Eldridge Pluralism, Politics and the Marketplace Glasgow Media Group Reader, The regulation of German Broadcasting Volume 2 Vincent Porter and Suzanne Hasselbach Industry, economy, war and politics Edited by Greg Philo Potboilers Methods, concepts and case studies in The Global Jukebox popular fiction The international music industry Jerry Palmer Robert Burnett Communication and Citizenship Inside Prime Time Journalism and the public sphere Todd Gitlin Edited by Peter Dahlgren and Colin Sparks Talk on Television Seeing and Believing Audience participation and public debate The influence of television Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt Greg Philo An Introduction to Political Critical Communication Studies Communication Communication, history and theory in Second edition America Brian McNair Hanno Hardt Media Effects and Beyond Media Moguls Culture, socialization and lifestyles Jeremy Tunstall and Michael Palmer Edited by Kark Erik Rosengren Fields in Vision We Keep America on Top of the World Television sport and cultural Television journalism and the public transformation sphere Garry Whannel Daniel C.Hallin Getting the Message A Journalism Reader News, truth and power Edited by Michael Bromley and Tom The Glasgow Media Group O’Malley Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion Tabloid Television Its dubious impact on American society Popular journalism and the ‘other news’ Michael Schudson John Langer Nation, Culture, Text International Radio Journalism Australian cultural and media studies History, theory and practice Edited by Graeme Turner Tim Crook Television Producers Media, Ritual and Identity Jeremy Tunstall Edited by Tamar Liebes and James Curran De-Westernizing Media Studies News and Journalism in the UK Edited by James Curran and Myung-Jin Park A textbook, third edition Brian McNair British Cinema in the Fifties Christine Geraghty What News? The market, politics and the local press III Effects Bob Franklin and David Murphy The media/violence debate, second edition In Garageland Edited by Martin Barker and Julian Petley Rock, youth and modernity Johan Fornäs, Ulf Lindberg and Ove Media and Power Sernhede James Curran The Crisis of Public Communication Journalism after September 11 Jay G.Blumler and Michael Gurevitch Edited by Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan Media and Power James Curran London and New York First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. © 2002 James Curran All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-41774-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-72598-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-07739-7 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-07740-0 (pbk) To Margaret Contents Introduction ix Acknowledgements xi PART I Media history 1 1 Rival narratives of media history 3 2 New media and power 55 3 Capitalism and control of the press 79 PART II Media sociology 105 4 New revisionism in media and cultural studies 107 5 Renewing the radical tradition 127 6 Globalization theory: the absent debate 166 PART III Media politics 185 7 Globalization, social change and television reform 187 8 Media and democracy: the third way 217 Notes 248 Bibliography 261 Index 301 vii Introduction Chapter 1 has been published, in a shorter version, in Dutch; Chapter 2 in Chinese and Swedish; Chapter 3 in Spanish (and in a longer version in Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Portuguese); Chapter 4 in French, Korean, Swedish and Spanish; Chapter 5 in Swedish and Spanish; Chapter 6 in Japanese and Korean; and Chapter 8 in Czech, Chinese, Greek, Korean, Japanese and Roumanian. Chapter 7 is untranslated, uncited and virtually unread.1 If it was not for these selective indications of interests, I doubt whether I would have had the temerity to microwave these essays and serve them reheated as a book. In fact I temporized for some time, but in the end went ahead for two main reasons. The essays that have been selected for republication all focus on some aspect of media and power. They examine, through the lens of different methodologies, traditions and disciplines, three recurring themes: the relationship of the mass media to power in society; how control is exercised over the media; and the nature of the power exerted by the media. Not all essays are consistent in what they argue (though they mostly are), but they offer an underlying coherence and consistency in terms of their focus. The essays in this book have a further thing in common. They are all critical reappraisals of large bodies of literature. Covering a wide area, they offer a guided tour of major debates in media research. They add up, I hope, to being a maverick kind of textbook.2 Since many people will only look at parts of the book rather than read it from beginning to end, it may be helpful to offer a short guide. Part I is devoted to media history. It begins with a survey that charts for the first time the main rival interpretations of British media history, concluding with an outline synthesis. The second chapter examines the impact of new ‘media’— broadly defined as new institutions and channels of communication—over more than a millennium of history. The third chapter examines how changes in the economic structure of the press transformed its place in society. All three chapters attempt in different ways to understand the part played by the media in the making of modern society. Part II focuses on media sociology, and related areas of work. Chapter 4 describes the mid-life crisis of radical media studies. Chapter 5 takes a look at a ix x Introduction more conservative tradition of ‘communications’ research centred in the United States, and advances a critical alternative. Chapter 6 marvels at how differently two self-referencing traditions—cultural studies and political economy— interpret globalization, and examines initial attempts to reconcile them. All three chapters offer ‘historical’ accounts of a new field of research and seek to convey the intellectual excitement that has fuelled its development. Taken together, they offer an outline of the field’s main traditions of thought; where the main battle lines have been drawn; where the main advances and retreats have taken place; when and why once-conquering ideas and themes have lost impetus, been rejected or revised. Part III is concerned with the politics of the media. Chapter 7 considers how globalization, new technology and social change are affecting the organization and performance of television, while Chapter 8 reassesses theories of media and democracy. Both chapters are partly expository in that they outline different debates, and partly prescriptive in that they advocate a range of reforms. Chapter 7 argues that public service broadcasting should break free from its one-nation legacy, while Chapter 8 claims that the democratic role of the media can be strengthened through the ‘third way’ policies of western Europe. In short, this book lends itself to different uses. It can be read as a textbook offering summaries of academic debates. It can be viewed as a single commentary on media power that attempts to look at media control and influence in the context of wider power relationships in society. And it can be looked at as one person’s attempt to make sense of the intellectual arguments that are transforming media studies. The essays in this book have been edited in different ways. Two early essays (Chapters 2 and 3) have been included relatively unaltered because they are in areas of media history where the currents of change are slow-moving.