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Media Performance
Mass Communication and the Public Interest
- Denis McQuail - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 1992 | 368 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
This major text by the author of Mass Communication Theory offers a comprehensive analysis of the growing field of assessment and evaluation of the performance of mass media. Across different societies, with varying media systems, there is evidence of increasing concern with the nature and quality of media output as well as about the independence and diversity of media systems. In this broad-ranging overview, Denis McQuail outlines the varying means of media performance assessment which have been attempted. He analyzes the central questions of what the `public interest' means in this context, which criteria are relevant for assessing media performance, how such values are established and how they can be reconciled with the economic, industrial and audience market contexts.
Both encapsulating a major area of recent debate and research, and advancing it to a new level, this book will be essential reading for students of media and communication studies and for those actively involved with media policy and practice.
PART ONE: MASS COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY
Public Communication and Public Interest
Media Performance
The `Public Interest' in Communication
PART TWO: MEDIA PERFORMANCE NORMS
Performance Norms in Media Policy Discourse
Performance Norms in Media Policy Discourse
A Framework of Principle for Media Assessment
PART THREE: RESEARCH MODELS AND METHODS
Media Organizational Performance
PART FOUR: MEDIA FREEDOM
Concepts and Models of Media Freedom
Media Freedom
Media Freedom
PART FIVE: DIVERSITY
Varieties and Processes of Diversity
Taking the Measure of Diversity
Media Access and Audience Choice
PART SIX: OBJECTIVITY
Concepts of Objectivity
A Framework for Objectivity Research
Measuring Objectivity
Measuring Objectivity
PART SEVEN: MASS MEDIA, ORDER AND SOCIAL CONTROL
Media and the Maintenance of Public Order
Policing the Symbolic Environment
Solidarity and Social Identity
PART EIGHT: MEDIA AND CULTURE
Questions of Culture and Mass Communication
Cultural Identity and Autonomy
PART NINE: IN CONCLUSION
Changing Media, Changing Mores