ABSTRACT
The idea that the mass media play a pivotal part in the nexus of power relations in society is by now largely accepted by most communication researchers, irrespective of theoretical differences. Nevertheless, analysis of the linkages between media organizations and other power-wielding institutions in society is still segmented and incomplete. Individual scholars have variously examined media relations to markets and business institutions, as in the political economy perspective (Murdock and Golding, 1977); to parties and political institutions (Seymour-Ure, 1974); and to a host of pressure groups, such as trade unions (Glasgow University Media Group, 1976), the women’s movement (Tuchman, Kaplan and Benet, 1978), the environmental lobby (Greenberg, 1975) and social reformers (Goldenberg, 1975; Gitlin, 1980). Lacking, however, has been a more enveloping scheme, stretching across several power domains, and designed to explain differences in the orientations of the mass media to a range of diverse social groups and organizations.
