No News is Bad News
Radio, Television & the Public

Edited by Michael Bromley & Hugh Stevenson
April 2001
Pearson Education / Longman
ISBN: 058241833X
280 pages, Illustrated
$69.50 Paper original

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Provides an analytical overview of contemporary issues of the public accountability of broadcasting, as exemplified in the area of television and radio news and current affairs and documentary.

This volume of collected essays is a parallel text to the bestselling Sex, Lies and Democracy. The aim is to offer frameworks for the analysis of chiefly contemporary empirical evidence in three broad categories: critical statements of the 'problems'; analyses of orthodox (regulatory) solutions; and explorations of the alternatives.

Contents
PART I: PUBLIC SERVICE AND PRIVATE INTERESTS
1. Demise or renewal? The dilemma of public service to television in western Europe: Kevin Williams
2. The decline of public service broadcasting in the UK 1979-2000: Tom O'Malley
3. Sold out: Recent shifts in television news and current affairs in Australia: Graeme Turner
PART II: PRODUCTION OF JOURNALISM GENRES CHAPTER
4. Television news and citizenship: Packaging the public sphere: Simon Cottle
5. Authority and authenticity: Redefining television current affairs: Patricia Holland
6. 10pm and all that: The battle over UK TV news: Howard Tumber
7. British and American television documentaries: Carol Nahra
PART III: PROBLEMS OF ACCOUNTABILITY
8. Reporting changing democracy: Commercial radio and news in the UK of regions and nations: Michael Bromley
9. Who listens to radio? The role of industrial audience research: Jo Tacchi
10. How broadcast journalism training in the UK is adapting to industry changes: Heather Purdey
11. Public relations and broadcast news: An evolutionary approach: Brian McNair
PART IV: PUBLICS, PROTESTS AND PARTICIPATION CHAPTER
12. Outraged onlookers or influential voices? The role of lobby and pressure groups in the UK and USA: Granville Williams
13. What have you done for us lately? Public service broadcasting and its audiences: Anne Dunn
14. Alternative radio and television in South Dakota: A place study of public service electronic media in the US: Warren Bareiss
15. Participatory community radios building civil society in post-war El Salvador: Diane Agosta

Features
• Looks at the relationship between public accountability and formal broadcast regulatory regions.
• The book looks not only at the UK experience but also offers comparisons with the situation in other societies in the USA, Australia and Continental Europe.
• Contributions are drawn from a variety of disciplines and fields including sociology, education and training, media and cultural studies, journalism and television studies. A number of contributors either are or have been media practitioners.

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