Messages: Free Expression, Media and the West

Free expression is in trouble.It can no longer be certain of its best protection--"the general will of the people" -- as Alexander Hamilton put it over two centuries ago. Today, the public, faced with the excesses of tabloid journalism and explicitness of all kinds in other media, appears no longer to be convinced that free expression is a crucial foundation of civil society. Yet, for all its faults, free expression under the law has, as Churchill once said of democracy, to be better than any alternative system. Messagesis a search for the origins of media forms, from print and stage to photography, film and broadcasting. With a wealth of illuminating anecdotes and quotations, Brian Winston clearly and forcefully argues, in jargon-free language, that the development of mass media has been an essential engine underpinning all human rights and driving the Western concept of the individual.

Preamble

xi

PRINT

Prologue I 'THE LIBERTY TO KNOW': PRINT FROM 1455

3

(28)

'The work of the books'

3

(6)

'Without the help of reed, stylus or pen'

9

(10)

'The Donkey Pope' and 'Lutheran Maniacs'

19

(3)

'If it's banned in Rome...'

22

(6)

'Crowding free consciences'

28

(3)

1 'TAKING OFF VIZARDS AND VAILES AND DISGUISES': NEWSPAPERS FROM 1566

31

(35)

'Prodigious and admirable stories'

31

(7)

'You may balance ... and accordingly beleeve'

38

(14)

'An Act for the restraint of printing'

52

(6)

'Was it for me to examine the deeds of the government?'

58

(8)

2 'CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW': JOURNALISM FROM 1702

66

(35)

'Giants to write it'

66

(8)

'No previous restraints on publications'

74

(7)

'Un des droits les plus précieux de l'homme'

81

(5)

'The times that try men's souls'

86

(15)

3 'HERE'S THE PAPERS, HERE'S THE PAPERS!': JOURNALISM FROM 1836

101

(48)

'He is an editor — he is on public duty'

101

(13)

'There sat a fourth estate'

114

(6)

'To secure circulation amongst both poor and rich'

120

(7)

'The free press is the ubiquitous vigilant eye of a people's soul'

127

(8)

'The newspaper of the twentieth century'

135

(14)

IMAGES, SPECTACLE AND SOUND

Prologue II 'LEAL SOVVENIR': IMAGING FROM 1413

149

(27)

'Reflection painting'

149

(9)

'La peinture est morte'

158

(13)

'You press button. We do the rest'

171

(5)

4 'WHO KNOWS NOT HER NAME': THEATRE FROM 1513

176

(35)

'Prose, not verse; modern, not ancient; Italian, not Latin'

176

(6)

'A shew place of all beastly and filthy matters'

182

(10)

'An object of idolatry on all sides'

192

(8)

'Public stage plays shall cease'

200

(11)

5 '50 MUCH FOR STAGE FEELING': STAGE AND SCREEN FROM 1737

211

(40)

'The gaiety of nations'

211

(5)

'On the stage he was natural'

216

(3)

'The liberty of the stage'

219

(4)

'Pictures in glasse to make strange things appear'

223

(3)

'A child could take his parents'

226

(10)

'Living moving pictures'

236

(11)

'Merde!'

247

(4)

6 'GIVE THE PUBLIC WHAT WE THINK THEY NEED': RADIO FROM 1906

251

(38)

'Peace to men of good will'

251

(8)

'Say "goodnight" Gracie'

259

(14)

'Heard echoing in the loneliest cottage in the land'

273

(7)

'A conspiracy of silence'

280

(9)

7 'AMERICAN SHOTS': CINEMA FROM 1925

289

(41)

'The same scene shot three times'

289

(7)

'Out of the cradle endlessly rocking'

296

(13)

'Of all the arts for us the most important is cinema'

309

(7)

'You ain't heard nothin' yet'

316

(14)

8 'SEE IT NOW': TELEVISION FROM 1954

330

(45)

'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars'

330

(2)

'The ideal way of sending messages'

332

(10)

'A vast wasteland'

342

(9)

'Television has come to stay'

351

(15)

'Multiple systems operators'

366

CONVERGENCE

Epilogue 'FREE EXPRESSION IS IN VERY DEEP TROUBLE': MEDIA TO 1991 AND BEYOND

375

(1)

'The digital microchip is the Gothic Cathedral of our time'

375

(7)

'Films in the future'

382

(2)

'You can't be frivolous in hot metal'

384

(12)

'What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly'

396

(6)

Notes

402

(12)

Index

414

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Messages: Free Expression, Media and the West from Gutenberg to Google

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FREE SHIPPING

Rent More, Save More! Use code: BBRENTAL

5% off 1 book, 7% off 2 books, 10% off 3+ books

Messages: Free Expression, Media and the West from Gutenberg to Google

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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