"Media power" is one of those phrases that trips easily off the tongue. Of all the assumptions it contains, none is more controversial and disputed than the belief that audiences are highly susceptible to media influence.

Media owners and executives will have none of it. Audiences don't like to see themselves as pliable. So where does the truth about media power lie?

This is just one of the questions taken up by Des Freedman in his book, The Contradictions of Media Power​, which was published last week.*

He also considers whether the concentration of media ownership, whether by an organisation or an individual, is as risky and dangerous as many believe. And he looks at the emerging influence of social media as gatekeepers.

Freedman, a media professor at Goldsmiths and chair of the Media Reform Coalition, has already had several favourable reviews of his book.

"Each page bristles with keen and original insights", wrote Robert McChesney, professor of communication at Illinois university, and author of key works on media ownership.

"This book is simply the best version of the political economy reading of media power that we have," says Nick Couldry, professor of media, communications and social theory at the London School of Economics.

Freedman "is critical but never simplistic, rigorous without being pedantic, and passionate without ever sacrificing intellectual depth," notes David Hesmondhalgh, professor of media and music industries at Leeds university.

*More info: Bloomsbury