This book traces the evolution of the newspaper, documenting its changing form, style and content as well as identifying the different roles ascribed to it by audiences, government and other social institutions.

Kevin Williams is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Swansea University. He is author of Get Me a Murder a Day! A History of Mass Communication in Britain (1998), Understanding Media Theory (2003) and European Media Studies (2005).

Introduction: News, Newspapers and Society 1. Spreading the Word: the Pre-history of Newspapers 1486-1660 2. Newspapers for the Few: Politics, the Press and Partisanship 1660-1789 3. Knowledge and Power: the Radical Newspaper 1789-1850 4. Transition to Democracy: the Press as 'the Fourth Estate' 1850-1890 5. The Northcliffe Revolution: the Rise of the Commercial Newspaper 1890-1922 6. Newspaper Wars: the Press in the Inter War Years 1922-1939 7. War, Social Change and Reconstruction: Newspapers at War and Peace 1939-1967 8. The Land of the Rising Sun: the Emergence of the Tabloid Newspaper 1967-1989 9. The Long Goodbye: the Newspaper and Technological Change 1989-present