Full Description
What are the media's responsibilities? To whom are they accountable? Are they increasingly growing out of control? In the twenty-first century, our mass media are becoming more powerful and more difficult to hold to account, and attempts at control to prevent harm or make media more responsible are often viewed as infringements of market and media freedom. In this stimulating new study, Denis McQuail identifies problematic trends and issues and outlines the principles underlying media regulation and accountability. In a wide-ranging discussion, which demonstrates that freedom and accountability are not incompatible, the book includes: a review of relevant theory of media and society; a statement of basic communication/publication values; an overview of the system of media governance; an assessment of media effects; a clarification of key concepts, especially accountability, responsibility, freedom, and publication; an analytic framework and a comparative assessment of the alternative means available for holding media to account.
Contents
I. THE CONTEXT; 1. Accountability for publication in the information age; 2. The rise of the media as responsible actor; II. NORMATIVE THEORY OF MEDIA; 3. Publication and the public interest: the sources of media responsibilities; 4. From communication values to criteria of performance; III. GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC ROLES OF THE MEDIA; 5. The governance of the media: issues and means; 6. The responsibilities of the media: alternative perspectives; 7. On the media as cause; IV. THEORY OF MEDIA, FREEDOM, AND ACCOUNTABILITY; 8. Freedom and accountability; 9. Responsibility and accountability: conceptual distinctions; 10. A framework of assessment; V. WAYS AND MEANS OF ACCOUNTABILITY; 11. The media market; 12. Media law and regulation; 13. Alternatives to law and market; VI. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS; 14. Lessons from accountability theory; 15. Policy implications; Bibliography; Index
