West Darrell M. The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment

Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. — 140 p. — ISBN: 978-1-349-62495-9.Darrell West argues against prevailing wisdom that the media has increased in influence in the past decade. Covering over 200 years of American history, beginning in colonial America and ending with the present day, The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment provides an overview of the media in various key stages of American History, paying particular attention to the rise and fall in influence of the media elite. West organizes the book into five distinct media eras: the Partisan, Commercial, Objective, Interpretive, and Fragmented Media. Each chapter, organized around these media eras, includes case studies that illustrate the theme of that chapter. Ideal for the general reader as well as the academic, The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment offers an accessible, engaging book with a challenging thesis.About the authorThe Partisan Media
Dueling Newspapers: Hamilton versus Jefferson
The Alien and Sedition Laws
The Jeffersonian Era
The Jacksonian Revolution
The Weakness of the Partisan Press
The Commercial Media
The Impact ofTechnology on News Transmission
The Rise of Independent Editors
The Civil War
Reconstruction
The Emergence of Pulitzer and Hearst
The Spanish-American War of 1898
The Media and Nation Building at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
The Objective Media
The Rise of Objectivity
The Progressive Movement
World War II
The Expansion of Mass Education following the War
The Evaluation of Scholars
The Case of Vietnam
The Watergate Scandal
The Pinnacle of Source Credibility
The Interpretive Media
The Shift to Interpretation
The Rise of News Analysis
Ad Watches
Political Punditry
The William Kennedy Smith Trial
The Hill-Thomas Hearings
Impact on Media Credibility
The Fragmented Media
Fragmentation of the Media Marketplace
The Role of Murdoch and Turner in Fragmenting the Media
The Rise of the World Wide Web
The Decline of Homogeneous News Coverage
The O.J. Simpson Trials
The Clinton Sex Scandals
The Death of John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Backlash against the Media
The Future of the Media
The Declining Power of the Media Establishment
The Erosion of Media Professionalism
Protection in Large Numbers
Risks Facing the Fragmented Media
Future Scenarios for the Mass Media
Conclusion: The Crucial Media Role in Democracy
Appendix