'!a great book, exciting, and very clearly written' - Klaus Schonbach, University of Amsterdam 'This book invites us to be more generous and imaginative than we have been in how we interpret the story of media research and it leads the way by embodying that spirit. The effects tradition and cultural studies will never look the same again' - John D Peters, University of Ohio 'This is an excellent book that provides students with a broad series of summary outlines of key thinkers on media and communication, without conflating the two terms' - Michael Pickering, University of Loughborough 'This is an original and lucid account of the emergence of two linked academic fields -- media studies or mass communication and cultural studies...Scannell, a historian of the BBC and a brilliant analyst of both radio and TV, writes knowledgeably and perceptively about intellectual developments on both sides of the Atlantic...It will inform both newcomers to the study of media and communication and experts who inhabit these fields but not their history.It is a good reference and a good read -- highly recommended' - Michael Schudson is Professor of Communication and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego Magisterial in scope, Media and Communication traces the historical development of media and communication studies.Media Studies itself has a short history but many antecedents, and in this comprehensive and compelling book, Paddy Scannell sets out to describe and analysize its formulation in North American and Europe. Media and Communication: - Offers an accessible and comprehensive analysis of the development of media and communication theory - Includes a summary outline of all the key thinkers - Looks at the study of communication across a range of disciplines--history, literature, sociology, philosophy and linguistics - Challenges readers to engage with the central importance of communication.