ABSTRACT
In Britain, it is reported, every quality daily or Sunday newspaper now has one: a recent and remarkable development. The problem, however, is that some respondents tend to confuse media critics, who expose the unethical operations of the media, with the conventional TV or film critics who comment on particular media performances. In the early 1990s the quality media were infected by 'tabloidization', while such popular media as MTV, Larry King Live (on CNN) or the weekly National Enquirer, started playing a political role. Much of the interest in 'quality control' originated in academe. Cynics look on ethics and MAS as useless and hazardous – and maintain that the improvement of the media (that is, better service of the public) is predicated not on noble principles but on power. If consumers stop consuming the media, or the products advertised in them, media owners will get the message. However, the boycott is used in the USA but not in Europe.
