Description
The new edition of James L. Baughman's successful book The Republic of Mass Culture examines the advent of television and the impact it had on the established mass media—radio, film, newspapers, and magazines. When television captured the largest share of the mass audience by the late 1950s, rival media were forced to target smaller, subgroup markets with novel content: rock 'n' roll for teenage radio listeners in the 1950s, sexually explicit films that began to appear in the 1960s, and analytical newspaper reporting in the 1970s and 1980s. The growing popularity of cable TV posed new complications, especially for network television. The capacity of individual media industries to adapt not only determined their success or failure but also shaped the content of their products.
Two new chapters examine media entrants like Fox News, technologies such as the Internet, and increasing industry concentration. Baughman discusses significant changes in media economics and audience demand that are having profound effects on radio program formats, television news coverage, and the very existence of newspapers.
Carefully drawing on interdisciplinary communication research, The Republic of Mass Culture presents a lively analysis of the shifting objectives and challenges of the media industries.Reviews
"Successfully integrates media content, commerce, technology, and external influences and . . . traces the interconnected web of the established media and the emergent medium of television . . . An important contribution to the history of media industries."—American Historical Review , reviewing a previous edition or volume"A remarkably complete historical account of the changing nature of the media industries in postwar America."—Virginia Quarterly Review , reviewing a previous edition or volume "Factual and anecdotal, Baughman's book will be useful to students and scholars seeking a wide overview of media history since 1941 . . . His work is unusual in its breadth: it covers not only motion pictures and television but also radio, newspaper and periodical publishing, and even to some extent the music industry."—Journal of American History , reviewing a previous edition or volume "We need books like James L. Baughman's The Republic of Mass Culture."—Mike Conway, Journalism History "A useful reference for media scholars at many levels . . . comprehensive in its coverage, giving especially good coverage to journalistic and other sources often overlooked by academics."—Megan Mullen, Technology and Culture
Author Information
James L. Baughman is a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His previous books include Henry R. Luce and the Rise of the American News Media (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
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The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Filmmaking, and Broadcasting in America since 1941