| List of illustrations |
| Acknowledgements |
| Notes on contributors |
| | Foreword |
| | ELIHU KATZ |
| | Editor’s introduction |
| | MICHAEL BAILEY |
| 1. | Narratives of media history revisited |
| | JAMES CURRAN |
SECTION I
The liberal narrative |
| 2. | Renewing the liberal tradition: The press and public discussion in twentieth-century Britain |
| | MARK HAMPTON |
| 3. | Change and reaction in BBC Current Affairs Radio, 1928–1970 |
| | HUGH CHIGNELL |
SECTION II
The feminist narrative |
| 4. | The angel in the ether: Early radio and the constitution of the household |
| | MICHAEL BAILEY |
| 5. | ‘Going to Spain with the boys’: Women correspondents and the Spanish Civil War |
| | DAVID DEACON |
SECTION III
The populist narrative |
| 6. | ‘A moment of triumph in the history of the free mind’?: British and American advertising agencies’ responses to the introduction of commercial television in the United Kingdom |
| | STEFAN SCHWARZKOPF |
| 7. | The Pilkington Report: The triumph of paternalism? |
| | JEFFREY MILLAND |
SECTION IV
The libertarian narrative |
| 8. | ‘A stream of pollution through every part of the country?’: Morality, regulation and the modern popular press |
| | ADRIAN BINGHAM |
| 9. | ‘Outrageously bad taste’: The BBC and the controversy over This is Your Life in the 1950s |
| | SU HOLMES |
SECTION V
The anthropological narrative |
| 10. | Television in Wales, c. 1950–70 |
| | JAMIE MEDHURST |
| 11. | ‘Nation shall speak peace unto nation’: The BBC and the projection of a new Britain, 1967–82 |
| | DANIEL DAY |
SECTION VI
The radical narrative |
| 12. | The birth of distance: Communications and changing conceptions of elsewhere |
| | GRAHAM MURDOCK AND MICHAEL PICKERING |
| 13. | What fourth estate? |
| | JULIAN PETLEY |
SECTION VII
The technological determinist narrative |
| 14. | The question of technology |
| | PADDY SCANNELL |
| 15. | Narrating the history of media technologies: Pitfalls and prospects |
| | MENAHEM BLONDHEIM |
| Bibliography |
| Index |