The book analyses the way in which broadcasting has been shaped by recent government legislation, and discusses the rise of satellite television. Preface, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Press History, Whig Press History as Political Mythology, The Struggle for a Free Press, The Ugly Face of Reform, The Industrialization of the Press, The Era of the Press Barons, The Press Under Public Regulation, The Press in the Age of Conglomerates, Broadcasting History, Reith and the Denial of Politics, Broadcasting and the Blitz, Social Revolution?, The Fall of the BBC, Class and Taste and Profit, How the Audience is Made, The Information Society: Video and Cable and Satellite, Theories of the Media, The Sociology of the Mass Media, The Liberal Theory of Press Freedom, Broadcasting and the Theory of Public Service, Politics of the Media, Contradictions in Public Policy, Alternative Approaches to Media Reform, Bibliography, Index.