The Routledge Companion to British Media History

"This will be the first port of call for students and lecturers around the world wanting to understand British media history. It covers a wide spectrum, summarises existing research, and breaks new ground. It is a landmark book." - James Curran, Professor of Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK "This impressively comprehensive compilation of essays on British media history comprises 50 essays by a wide range of scholars from universities throughout the UK. More than a typical historical analysis, the book problematizes (in Karen Weekes's definition) media history in considering whether media are a cause or a symptom of a larger cultural phenomenon. This cultural contextualization and interdisciplinary approach to media history offers an invaluable contrast to the more economically induced pressures of time and space created by the diverse digital media market environment. Another strength of the book is that the editors... planned it to reach the widest possible range of readers; at that, the book is a brilliant success... This volume is an invaluable resource for the study of British media history... Summing Up: Highly recommended." - M. R. Grant, emerita, Wheaton College, USA, in CHOICE

Martin Conboy is Professor of Journalism History in the Department of Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Journalism and History. He is the author of seven single-authored books on the language and history of journalism. He is on the editorial boards of Journalism Studies: Media History; Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism; and Memory Studies. John Steel is a lecturer in Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of Journalism and Free Speech (Routledge, 2012) and is published in the areas of media history, journalism studies and political communication. He has recently edited a special collection of articles in Media History on digital newspaper archives. He is currently working on normativity in journalism.

Introduction Part I - Media History Debates 1. The Devaluation of History in Media Studies 2. Media as historical artefacts 3. Doing Media History: The Mass Media, Historical Analysis and the 1930s 4. Media Studies in Question: The Making of a Contested Formation 5. Media archaeology: From Turing to Abbey Road, Kentish Radar Stations to Bletchley Park Part II - Media and Society 6. The political economy of media 7. Media effects 8. Citizen or Consumer? Representations of class in post-war media 9. Inscriptions and depictions of Race 10. Home Comforts? Media and the Family 11. Sex and sexuality in British Media 12. This Sporting life-world: Mediating Sport in Britain 13. Social Conflict and the Media: Contesting definitional power 14. The media and armed conflict Part III Newspapers 15. Ballads and the Development of the English Newsbook 16. Eighteenth century newspapers and public opinion 17. The nineteenth century and the emergence of a mass circulation press 18. Tabloid Culture: The Political Economy of a Newspaper Style 19. The Regulation of the Press 20. The Provincial Press in England: An Overview 21. Online and on Death Row: Historicizing newspapers in crisis Part IV Magazines 22. The role of the literary and cultural periodical 23. Specialist magazines as communities of taste 24. Contexts and developments in womens magazines 25. Mapping the male in magazines 26. Magazine Pioneers: form and content in 1960s and 1970s radicalism Part V Radio 27. The Reithian legacy and contemporary public service ethos 28. Pirates, popularity and the rise of the DJ 29. The long and winding road: histories and practices of womens radio 30. Radio drama 31. Radio Sports News: The Longevity and Influence of Sports Report 32. Radios Audiences Part VI Film 33. The British Cinema: Eras of film 34. British Cinema and History 35. The Horror! 36. The Documentary Tradition 37. The Censors Tools Part VII Television 38. The Television Sitcom 39. Drama on the Box 40. The Origins and Practice of Science on British Television 41. History on television 42. Reality TV 43. Journalism and Current Affairs Part VIII - Digital Media 44. Technologys false dawns: the past of media futures 45. Change and continuity: Historicizing the emergence of online media 46. Personal Listening Pleasures 47. Futures of television 48. Video games and gaming the audience fights back 49. From letters to tweeters: media communities of opinion 50. Digital memories and media of the future