Coverage of the so called "mad cow disease" outbreak in the mid 1990s was accused by many commentators of starting a widespread public panic. Media critics have seen stories like this. TV shows like Jerry Springer's and a number of tabloid newspapers like the Mirror and the German Bild-Zeitung as evidence of a decline in the standards of the mass media. The growing emphasis on emotional or sensational human interest stories, the increasing coverage of private lives of public figures, and the falling off of coverage of serious news is often described as "tabloidisation". The essays in this book are scholarly studies of what is going on and what its implications are. Reality, it turns out, is much more complex than some of the laments suggest. as the contributors show, this is a problem which is repeated in country after country, and it is not certain that the media anywhere are getting more tabloid. What is more, there is no consensus about whether tabloidisation" is just dumbing down or whether it is a necessary tactic for the mass media to engage with new audiences who do not have the news habit.