ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that sociologists interested in contemporary mass communications need to pay careful and detailed attention to the ways in which the economic organisation and dynamics of mass media production determines the range and nature of the resulting output. In the author's view, any sociological analysis of the ways in which the mass media operate as ideological agencies which fails to pay serious attention to the economic determinants framing production is bound to be partial. In addition to highlighting problems of methodology, the Panorama piece also exemplifies the key conceptual focus of much contemporary British work — namely its concern with the relationship between the media and the state. The chapter also argues that the production of ideology cannot be separated from or adequately understood, without grasping the general economic dynamics of media production and the determinations they exert.
