1. Introduction : American journalism and the public sphere -- 2. The American news media : a critical theory perspective -- 3. The media, the war in Vietnam, and political support : a critique of the thesis of an oppositional media -- 4. From Vietnam to El Salvador : hegemony and ideological change -- 5. 'We keep America on top of the world' : TV news in the age of Reagan -- 6. Speaking of the president : political structure and representational form in US and Italian television news -- 7. Soundbite news : television coverage of elections, 1968-88 -- 8. Summits and the constitution of an international public sphere : the Reagan-Gorbachev meetings as televised media events -- 9. The passing of the 'high modernism' of American journalism.