Curran and Seaton: Power Without Responsibility

James Curran and Jean Seaton's Power Without Responsibility is the key text of UK media history and a named theorist-pair on the AQA A-Level specification. First published in 1981 and now in its ninth edition (2024), the book traces the development of the UK press and broadcasting from the late nineteenth century to the present day and makes a sustained argument about the dangers of concentrated media ownership. In this lesson we will set out their argument in detail, place it in historical context, and apply it to the contemporary UK media landscape.

Who Are Curran and Seaton?

James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, and one of Britain's most cited media scholars. Jean Seaton is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster and Official Historian of the BBC. Their collaboration combines Curran's sociological and political-economic focus with Seaton's historical and institutional expertise. The title Power Without Responsibility is a deliberate echo of Stanley Baldwin's 1931 attack on press barons — Baldwin accused Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook of "aiming at power but power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages". Curran and Seaton argue that Baldwin's complaint still applies.

The Central Argument

Their central argument can be stated briefly: the UK media, and especially the press, is dominated by a few large corporations whose pursuit of profit has reduced the quality, diversity, and democratic value of media content.

Breaking this down:

1. UK media ownership is highly concentrated.
2. Concentration is driven by the profit motive.
3. Profit-driven conglomerates tend to produce narrower, more commercial content.
4. Diversity of voice and accountability suffer.
5. The resulting media fails its democratic function of informing citizens.

This is a classic political-economy argument, but Curran and Seaton develop it through meticulous historical research rather than abstract theory.

UK Press History in Outline

Understanding the argument requires a brief tour through UK press history.

Period	Key Development
Early 1800s	Radical press — Cobbett's Political Register, Poor Man's Guardian — serves working-class readers
1840s–1860s	Repeal of stamp duties; press "freed" but actually becomes commercial
Late 1800s	Press barons emerge: Harmsworth (Daily Mail 1896), Pearson, Astor
Interwar	Beaverbrook, Rothermere, Northcliffe dominate; Baldwin's "harlot" speech
Post-WWII	Mass-circulation national press; regional titles proliferate
1970s–80s	Rupert Murdoch buys The Sun (1969) and The Times (1981); union-busting at Wapping (1986)
1990s–2000s	Digital disruption begins; ownership further concentrates
2010s	Leveson Inquiry (2011–12) after phone-hacking scandal; IPSO/IMPRESS split
2020s	Continued decline of print; online giants (Google, Meta) capture ad revenue

Curran and Seaton argue that the story is not, as conventional histories have it, one of progressive liberation of the press. It is one of commercial capture: early radical papers were pushed out by rising production costs and advertising-driven economics, replaced by commercial titles oriented toward mass audiences and advertiser demands. The "free press" turned out to be a market-driven press.

Concentrated Ownership

Curran and Seaton document the extreme concentration of UK press ownership. In 2026, the UK national newspaper market remains dominated by a small number of companies:

Company	Main Titles	Ownership
News UK	The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times	Rupert Murdoch / News Corp
DMGT	Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Metro, i	Rothermere family
Reach plc	Daily Mirror, Daily Express, local titles	Listed company
Telegraph Media Group	Daily/Sunday Telegraph	(Ownership contested through 2024–26)
Guardian Media Group	The Guardian, The Observer	Scott Trust
Financial Times	FT	Nikkei

Between them, a handful of owners control the national daily agenda. Online news is less concentrated in terms of titles but more concentrated in distribution: Google, Meta, and Apple control most news traffic.

flowchart TD
    A[UK National Press] --> B[News UK<br/>The Sun, The Times]
    A --> C[DMGT<br/>Daily Mail]
    A --> D[Reach plc<br/>Mirror, Express]
    A --> E[TMG<br/>Telegraph]
    A --> F[Guardian Media Group]
    A --> G[FT]
    B --> H[Rupert Murdoch]
    C --> I[Rothermere family]

Curran and Seaton argue this concentration has several consequences:

1. Reduced diversity of viewpoints. A few owners' worldviews dominate public debate.
2. Political bias. Most UK national press leans right, skewing political coverage.
3. Editorial interference. Owners are known to intervene in content (Murdoch's editorial meetings, for example).
4. Barriers to entry. New entrants cannot compete with established titles' economies of scale and distribution.
5. Self-censorship. Journalists may temper critical coverage for fear of displeasing proprietors.

The Profit Motive and Its Effects

Curran and Seaton are clear that the profit motive shapes content in predictable ways:

• Advertiser-friendly content. Advertisers want large audiences in affluent demographics; titles tailor content to these audiences.
• Sensationalism. Shocking, emotional, or celebrity-driven content drives sales and clicks.
• Soft news dominates. Entertainment, lifestyle, sport, celebrity gossip crowd out hard news and political analysis.
• Cost-cutting on journalism. Investigative reporting is expensive; churnalism (rewriting press releases and agency copy) is cheap.
• Declining foreign coverage. Foreign bureaus have been cut dramatically.
• Clickbait in digital form. Online, the same logics produce clickbait headlines, listicles, and engagement-farming.

These tendencies, they argue, erode the press's democratic function. Citizens need reliable information to participate in democracy; concentrated, profit-driven media struggle to provide it.

Conglomeration and Cross-Media Ownership

Beyond press concentration, Curran and Seaton highlight conglomeration — the combining of media and non-media businesses into large groups. News Corp (and its sibling Fox Corporation) owns newspapers, TV (Fox News in the US), book publishing (HarperCollins), and formerly film (21st Century Fox, sold to Disney in 2019). Such groups can cross-subsidise, cross-promote, and exert political leverage on a scale unavailable to smaller competitors.

Cross-media ownership rules once limited the overlap between press and broadcasting. These have been progressively relaxed in the UK, allowing companies like News UK and Sky (until its acquisition by Comcast in 2018 separated UK newspaper and broadcast interests) to exercise influence across formats.

The Radical Press That Was Lost