John Nerone is Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of Illinois.

• •Contents•Introduction•1 The printer's newspaper and the national public sphere•2 The editor's newspaper and the partisan public sphere•3 The commercial public sphere•4 The industrial media and the culture industries•5 Institutionalization, the professional media and the expert public sphere•6 The late modern press, the digital media, and the network public•Conclusion: Coming to judgment on public intelligence•References•Index

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015"The Media and Public Life is a masterpiece of media history, a lively, sensible story of memorable moments involving the press, politics, and public. John Nerone�s definitive social and institutional account will guide everyone from beginners to experts studying communication media at the core of late modern life."Kevin Barnhurst, University of Leeds"What difference do the media make in public life? All the difference in the world, according to this valuable and highly readable book by one of the leading US communication historians. The Media and Public Life is vintage Nerone: Smart, insightful and creatively formulated, it provocatively turns the conventional understanding of journalism upside-down, reintegrates journalism into the neighboring contexts from which it gets routinely separated, and offers us a nuanced and highly satisfying engagement with why the news media matter and why we should ensure that they continue to so so."Barbie Zelizer, University of Pennsylvania