Key Words/Ideas:

• Liberal Free press
• James Curran and Jean Seaton
• PSB
• Free Market
• Governance
• Jurgan Habermas – Public Sphere
• Uses and Gratifications
• Conglomerate
• Merger
• Deregulation and regulation
• Imagined Communities
• Identity
• Stuart Hall – Reception theory
• Mean world Index
• Antonio Gramaci – Hegemony
• Media Literacy
• Noam Chomsky
• Integration
• Moral Panic
• Hypodermic Needle theory

Opening Para:

Printing press was invented in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. This introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unregulated circulation of information and ideas transcended borders and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and boosted the emerging middle class. Mass Media and Democracy by James Curran focuses on Jurgen Habermas and his concept of the ‘Public Sphere‘, basically arguing that the developments in education and the mass media allowed for a greater access to information particularly with regard to government, authority and the exercise of control.