Understanding history informs our expectations about the future. When studying mass media from a liberal arts perspective, knowledge of media history provides the foundation for understanding developments in media policy, issues of consolidation, and likely effects of new communication technologies. Too many introductory media textbooks have abandoned the attention to history that students need. Perry's book was written to be used in conjunction with other texts like those by Vivian, Baran, Dominic, Turow, and many others. In addition, most textbooks that concentrate on media history either focus on the print media to the exclusion of electronic media, or concentrate on broadcast history while only briefly addressing print. This text balances coverage of both. It also addresses the history of film.