“Alan Taylor’s penetrating study examines how the U.S. media shape the public discourse and, consequently, American foreign policy…

Taylor identifies how cross-ownership is used to reinforce this ideological message - specifically, how film is used to reinforce the legitimacy of another medium: news broadcasting…Taylor takes a historical approach to the evolution of U.S. corporate media, from the beginning of the U.S. broadcast system in the 1920s to the media coverage of the Iraq war, paying particular attention to the events of 9/11. The author declares: “The question to ask is: have we invited a press to witness a war, or have we created a war to prove that this freedom of expression is possible?”

Taylor employs elements of a number of approaches - Rhetorical resp. Dramaturgical Perspective, and certain key elements of the Auteur theory - sometimes moving from one approach to another. He establishes a historical overview, generating a chronology that demonstrates the development of the concentration of ownership n the U.S. media…One of the objectives of the book, then, is to encourage a more active citizenry: a “wakeful political literacy” that promotes critical understanding of the current state of American mainstream media…Altogether, this is a very thorough, penetrating study that furnishes a valuable perspective into the American media system”