The newest edition of James L. Baughman's successful book TheRepublic of Mass Culture examines the advent of television and theimpact it had on the established mass mediaradio, film, newspapers,and magazines. When television captured the largest share of the massaudience by the late 1950s, rival media were forced to target smaller,subgroup markets with novel content: rock 'n' roll for teenage radio listenersin the 1950s, sexually explicit films that began to appear in the1960s, and analytical newspaper reporting in the 1970s and 1980s. Thegrowing popularity of cable TV posed new complications, especially fornetwork television. All in all, the capacity of individual media industriesto adapt not only determined their success or failure but also shaped thecontent of their products.Two new chapters examine new media entrants like Fox News, newtechnologies such as the Internet, and increasing industry concentration.Baughman discusses significant changes in media economics and audiencedemand that are having profound effects on radio program formats,television news coverage, and the very existence of newspapers.Carefully drawing on interdisciplinary communication research, TheRepublic of Mass Culture presents a lively analysis of the shifting objectivesand challenges of the media industries.
