Easy to read, and highly topical, Messages writes a history of mass communication in Europe and its outreaches, as a search for the origins of media forms from print and stage, to photography, film and broadcasting. Arguing that the development of the mass media has been an essential engine driving the western concept of an individual, Brian Winston examines how the right of free expression is under attack, and how the roots of media expression need to be recalled to make a case for the media's importance for the protection of individual liberty. Relating to the US constitution, and key laws in the UK which form the foundation of our society, this is a highly useful book for students of media, communication, history, and journalism.

The 1980s saw constant reports of an information revolution. This book, first published in 1986, challenges this view. It argues that the information revolution is an illusion, a rhetorical gambit, an expression of profound historical ignorance, and a movement dedicated to purveying misunderstanding and disseminating disinformation. In this historically based attack on the information revolution, Professor Winston takes a had look at the four central information technologies - telephones, television, computers and satellites. He describes how these technologies were created and diffused, showing that instead of revolution we just have 'business as usual'. He formulates a 'law' of the suppression of radical potential - a law which states that new telecommunication technologies are introduced into society only insofar as their disruptive potential is contained. Despite the so-called information revolution, the major institutions of society remain unchanged, and most of us remain in total ignorance of the history of technology.

This work suggests that Humphrey Jennings' re-enacted documentary about the London Blitz, Fires Were Started, is an understated propaganda masterpiece. The book provides an account of how Jennings recaptured the reality of the Blitz for his cumbersome camera through a process of meticulous research.