The Place of Media Power: Pilgrims and Witnesses of the Media Age

This fascinating study focuses on an area neglected in previous studies of the media: the meetings between "ordinary people" and the media. Couldry explores what happens when people who normally consume the media witness media processes in action, or even become the object of media attention themselves. Such encounters, Couldry argues, offer a new way of thinking about the media's impact on contemporary social life, the basis of their social authority, and the possibility of challenging it.

Nick Couldry is a Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College, University of London.