This is the first study of mass media in Germany from a social and cultural-historical perspective. Beyond the conventional focus on organizational structures or aesthetic content, it investigates the impact the media has on German society under varying political systems, and how the media is shaped by wider social, political and cultural context.

'This book is a valuable corrective to commonly-expressed assumptions about how 'the media works', and historians of modern Germany will ignore its conclusions at their peril.' Josie McLellan, German History

'...[A] well designed collection of commissioned essays...this volume can claim to offer a concise while diverse panorama of both the history of mass media in Germany and its actual media historiography.' - Andreas Fickers, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

'In their introduction, the editors classify their volume as a contribution to the 'cultural expansion of social history'. What their volume does, however, is more than that. For it also brings politics back into social and cultural history by demonstrating that, in an era of democratization and consumption, the spheres of politics on the one hand, and culture, entertainment and leisure on the other, could not be kept as clearly separated from each other as before.' - Dominik Geppert, Journal of Contemporary History