ABSTRACT
At first glance there seems little justification for rehearsing old arguments and exploring dated material. However, while the status of union elites as ‘political insiders’ in the past might be questioned, there seems little doubt that unions must be regarded as ‘outsiders’. Given the role of the mass media in both reflecting and reproducing the most important patterns of domination and subordination, the heightened tensions and shifts in the balance of forces between capital and labour will find expression in the work of the news media. The criticisms of Habermas’ early formulation are familiar and, indeed, partly acknowledged by the author. It rests upon an idealised vision of ‘a golden age’ which underestimates the extent to which bourgeois class interests were successfully represented as a public interest and the extent to which voices other than those of the male bourgeoisie were excluded. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
