AustLit

'It was that very astute and remarkable journalist, C. P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian, who said 'a newspaper has a moral as well as a material existence, and its character and influence are in the main determinated by the balance of these two forces'. This could be said of all individuals, all institutions, all businesses, all industries, all professions in a free society, but it applies with particular emphasis to some individuals (journalists are an example) and to some institutions (the press, radio, and television). Scott found the balance struck between the moral and the material existence of newspapers particularly significant because the newspaper 'plays on the minds and consciences of men'. So, too, do the other mass media of communication.' (Introduction)