Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-246) and index.

Introduction -- Comparing media. Shining city on hill -- Questioning a new orthodoxy -- Media system, public knowledge and democracy -- Media and democratic theory. Entertaining democracy -- Liberal dreams and the internet -- Media and new technology. Technology foretold -- Future of journalism -- Media and history. Narratives of media history revisited -- Press as an agency of social control -- advertising as a bounty system -- Media and culture. Media as custodians of cultural tradition -- Media and cultural theory in the age of market liberalism.