Media Debates [antikvár]

Preface In what has come to be called the post-9/11 world, in which international terrorism on the world stage influences virtually all human acttvity in some fashion, the media function as a central nervous system for society and culture. They do so in a fast-changing and increasingly interactive digital age. The media, and especially the news and information media, are both a social institution interacting with other such institutions—business, government, and so on—and a conduit for content that informs individuals, institutions, and society itself. Thus, in this age of the Internet and new media, the fundamental debates involving communication and society both change and remain the same. Although conceptions of the press and the news media are themselves under scrutiny, many of the issues involving how they perform their functions and the reliability of the content they offer are as lively and vibrant as ever. Whether the method of delivery is ink on paper, electronic communication, or the digital impulses of the World Wide Web, people continue to care and care deeply about the role media play in society and culture—the way they shape attitudes and opinions and influence politics and consumer behavior We ask whether the media are getting better or worse, and why. Well beyond the social, commercial, and political roles, people care specifically about the content they get from the media—^whether information and news in a newspaper or magazine or on television, opinion on radio, or entertainment at the movies or on cable. Universal concerns about freedom and fairness, for example, are tempered by current conditions but are still at the heart of discussion and debate about the media. In a global economy, Americans ponder how our media system differs from others in the world. Is it better or worse? The relationships between media and government—^who is influencing whom and why, matters of trust, accountability, and our right of access to diverse information and opinions—are always of concern. We worry about media bias and impartiality, matters of race and ethnicity, the nature of news and its foundations, the journalistic profession itself, and those industries so integrally related to media—advertising and public relations. This book is by no means a history, but it does benefit from historical insights of the many scholars and media commentators we cite as well as our own observations. When the book was first written, media-government XI