Media Pasts and Futures

This collection of short essays from leading media scholars reflects on critical issues of media history, power, ownership, influence and impact. The book uses the acclaimed media title Power Without Responsibility (PWR) as a calling card, a cue to reflect on the limitations of the media in different countries and to advocate solutions aimed at stimulating more democratic forms of communications.

Organised in five sections, contributions in this book identify the relevance of PWR and then pick out and develop core themes found in PWR, the influential text that serves as our point of departure. The first section provides both a reminder of PWR’s significance to media history and analysis and then explores its conclusions in relation to media systems in places including Europe, South and East Asia, Africa and Latin America. The second section takes up the argument that ‘market censorship’ impoverishes the media while the third explores the book’s lessons for contemporary media reform. The fourth section explores the contribution of public service broadcasting has on balance served the British nation and its relevance for future communications systems. Here, many contributors call for a revitalised conception of public service in their respective countries, and argue that the public service approach should be extended to the internet.

The fifth section considers PWR’s analysis of radical journalism in relation to both historical and contemporary initiatives while the concluding section features two original essays by the authors of PWR, James Curran and Jean Seaton, reflecting on their book 43 years and nine editions after it was first published.

Addressing an audience of scholars and students, this anthology draws on the experience and research of 26 authors from around the world to operationalise key concepts of media history, power and influence in a range of global contexts.