'The newspaper was the first instrument of mass communication in modern society. The mass media in general facilitate, through the transmission of information, meanings, values and beliefs, interaction among individuals, between individuals and the institutional orders of society, and among these institutions themselves. While characteristically the media purvey the prevailing ethos and style of the social order in which they exist, they also provide the means for a response and challenge to that order. A newspaper is itself a social institution, and while historically newspapers have been seen as adjuncts to or means for other institutional orders, such as the political, to carry out their social functions it would seem valuable to regard the media as autonomous orders themselves. This study attempts to examine one newspaper as an institution of mass media by an investigation of its policies, aims and achievements during its first year of operation.' (Chapter 1, Introduction)
