Media and Communication

Media and Communication traces the historical development of media and communication studies in the 20th century. 



Paddy Scannell explores how the field formed and developed in both North America and in Europe, expertly introducing and explaining a host of essential media thinkers, ideas and concepts along the way.



Including a new chapter on media events, this second edition of a classic text provides a comprehensive yet personal – and always accessible – analysis of media and communication theory and history. It is an invaluable resource for students across media and communication studies, cultural studies, and sociology.


This is a lucid, generous, and strikingly original account of the emergence of media and communication studies as a vibrant academic field. Moving across sociology, critical theory, and cultural studies, Scannell takes stock of the key concepts and questions that have come to define the field over the past six decades. In this expanded and revised edition, Scannell identifies what is distinctive about the media of the 20th century - the immense power of live broadcasting and unscripted talk in public in shaping both the eventful and the everyday across much of the world. The result is a milestone intellectual history of media and communication studies that sets the conceptual coordinates for our digital present and future.

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