Mass Communication And Mass Society Abstracts

Communication Problems in a Mass Society: Mass Audience, Mass Communication and Development. - Authors: Moemeka, Andrew A.
Abstract: This paper examines the problem of how to reconcile the practical realities of the nature of the mass audience with the demands of personal and social development, particularly in Africa and other Third World Countries, where the demands of modernization have confronted traditional norms and values. After defining and clarifying key concepts such as development, communication, mass communication, mass society, mass audience, and types of audience participation, the paper explores the relationship between the mass media and the mass audience, and discusses the effects of the media in terms of conflict theory, social criticism, and the theories of ideological effects. The paper asserts that the agenda setting power of the mass media results in a non-spontaneous mass culture which pacifies and stupefies the masses instead of educating them, and argues that under these conditions, modernization can be achieved only in terms of physical development, and not in human and socio-cultural dimensions. The paper suggests that participation is a key element in development, and supports this idea with the positive results of a pilot project in which the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation involved members of rural villages in its programming, production, and presentation. Finally, the paper advocates the Democratic-Participant Media theory which: (1) is based on the demassification of media messages and contents so that they become situation and community or group specific and directly relevant to individual communities or groups; and (2) assists in inducing critical thinking that helps ensure intelligent decisions and builds up the people's self-confidence. - eric.ed.gov

The Mass Media and Urban Development: An Historical Overview
Authors: Jowett, Garth S.
Abstract: The mass media in the United States have played a major role in the emergence of a mass society resulting from the interaction of urbanization, industrialization, and modernization and have thus become an integral part of the total social fabric. Society's culture and social structure shape its system of mass communication so that the development, from the 1830s to the present, of urbanization has brought about an allied development in mass communications. First, the need for urban communication forms was met by the urban press. Then, as urban life became increasingly complex, the telegraph, telephone, and motion picture were developed, followed in the twentieth century by radio and television. As essentially products of an urban society, the contents of the mass media are concerned mainly with urban life and reflect urban values. - eric.ed.gov

The Three Paradigms of Mass Media Research In Mainstream Communication Journals
by W. James Potter1, Roger Cooper1, Michel Dupagne1
Scholars who write about the paradigms influencing mass media research differ in their speculations. This study was conducted to provide an empirical analysis by examining six characteristics of mass media research articles published in eight major communication journals. The social science paradigm was found to account for over 60% of the studies, while the interpretive paradigm accounted for about 34% and the critical paradigm less than 6%. It was concluded that the social science paradigm, while being the majority paradigm in the mainstream journals, could not be considered a dominant paradigm in the research field. Also, even though most of the research emulated the social science paradigm in purpose, it failed to meet scientific standards of theoretical orientation leading to quantitative data gathered by probabilistic sampling methods. - blackwell-synergy.com

The Rise of Mini-Comm - Gary Gumpert
The Journal of Communication, Volume 20 Issue 3 Page 280 - September 1970
Abstract: "Mass communication" describes a relationship between a large, heterogeneous, and anonymous audience and the means used to communicate to that audience. The mass media serve this purpose. "Mass Communication" does not, however, adequately describe the more recent trend toward communication via the mass media to specific audiences tied together by some common bond. The bond might be the result of geographic proximity or intellectual mutuality. The concept of "mini-comm" describes this newer development and is offered as a supplement to the more generic concept of "mass-comm." - blackwell-synergy.com

Fifteen Pages that Shook the Field: Personal Influence, Edward Shils, and the Remembered History of Mass Communication Research
Jefferson Pooley, Muhlenberg College
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 608, No. 1, 130-156 (2006) © 2006 American Academy of Political & Social Science
Personal Influence's fifteen-page account of the development of mass communication research has had more influence on the field's historical self-understanding than anything published before or since. According to Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld's well-written, two-stage narrative, a loose and undisciplined body of prewar thought had concluded naively that media are powerful—a myth punctured by the rigorous studies of Lazarsfeld and others, which showed time and again that media impact is in fact limited. This "powerful-tolimited-effects" story line remains textbook boilerplate and literature review dogma fifty years later. This article traces the emergence of the Personal Influence synopsis, with special attention to (1) Lazarsfeld's audience-dependent framing of key media research findings and (2) the surprisingly prominent role of Edward Shils in supplying key elements of the narrative. - ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/608/1/130

The One-Step Flow of Communication
W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington
Jarol B. Manheim, George Washington University
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 608, No. 1, 213-232 (2006) © 2006 American Academy of Political & Social Science
This analysis explores the transformation of public communication in the United States from a two-step flow of messages passing from mass media through a social mediation process, to a one-step flow involving the refined targeting of messages directly to individuals. This one-step flow reflects both a transformation in communication technologies and fundamental changes in the relations between individuals and society. Opinion leaders who played a pivotal role in the two step paradigm are increasingly less likely to "lead" because they are more likely to reinforce latent opinions than to reframe them. And because the mass media in the one-step flow are increasingly fragmented and differentiated, they contribute to the individualizing process through shrinking audiences, demographically driven programming, and transmitting targeted political advertising and news spin. - ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/608/1/213

The New Revisionism in Mass Communication Research: A Reappraisal
James Curran
European Journal of Communication, Vol. 5, No. 2, 135-164 (1990) © 1990 SAGE Publications
The major developments of mass communication research, particularly in Britain, during the last fifteen years are reviewed critically. A new revisionist movement has emerged that challenges the dominant radical paradigms of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This has taken the form of contesting the underlying models of society, the characterization of media organizations, the representations of media content, the conception of the audience and the aesthetic judgements that underpinned much `critical' research. The author argues that this revisionism is in part a reversion to certain discredited conventional wisdoms of the past, a revivalism masquerading as new and innovatory thought. However, part of the new critique can be seen as a reformulation that could potentially strengthen the radical tradition of communications research. - ejc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/5/2/135

Adaptation of Traditional Society To Modern Mass Society
Burra Venkatappiah - Diogenes, Vol. 9, No. 33, 1-27 (1961) © 1961 International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies
This paper is confined to Indian, more specifically Hindu, society. It tries to assess the process of change going on in this society from the point of view of new needs and old values. In doing so, it draws on an unscholarly but inside acquaintance with the situation and makes no claim to completeness either of analysis or treatment. - dio.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/33/1

Primary and Secondary Thinking in Social Theory - The Case of Mass Society
Robert Cooper, Keele University, mna13@keele.ac.uk
Journal of Classical Sociology, Vol. 3, No. 2, 145-172 (2003) © 2003 SAGE Publications
The development of social theory is introduced as a dialectic between primary and secondary thinking. Secondary thinking views the social and cultural world in determinate, positive, rational terms; primary thinking recognizes the indeterminate, negative and irrational as forever immanent in human action. Max Weber's work illustrates the dynamic interaction between the two forms of thinking, which are further developed with ideas from religion, the philosophy of pragmatism and the psychoanalysis of artistic imagination. The primary-secondary dialectic is then applied to a reanalysis of early sociological studies of mass society, which is reinterpreted as social mass. The primary nature of mass is revealed as an ever-present absence, which, like Weber's idea of `meaningless infinity', resists all secondary attempts to express it in clear, determinate, positive forms. The primary-secondary interaction is further illustrated through the technologies of the modern mass media and the `consumption' of space and time implied by globalization. - jcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/2/145

Oligarchy and Adaptation to Mass Society in an All-Volunteer Organization: Implications for Understanding Leadership, Participation, and Change
Kenneth B. Perkins, Darryl G. Poole, Longwood College
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, 73-88 (1996) DOI: 10.1177/0899764096251006 © 1996 ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH ON NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AND VOLUNTARY ACTION
Using a case study of an all-volunteer fire department, internal structural changes and adaptation to external forces in a small, voluntary, democratic organization are examined. The article seeks to make two points from this examination. First, forces of mass society that were moving the organization away from its traditional community focus were mediated by an oligarchy of professionalized leaders. Second, the concept of oligarchy is useful in understanding leadership, membership participation, and change in all-volunteer organizations. - nvs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/1/73

The demon of technology, mass society, and atomic physics in West Germany, 1945-1957
Author: Beyler R.
Source: History and Technology, Volume 19, Number 3, September 2003, pp. 227-239(13)
Abstract: In the cultural-political literature of post-1945 West Germany, atomic energy often functioned as the most potent image of a "demon of technology" fraught with both enormous potential and enormous danger. These critiques of techno-science also represented a traditional critique of "mass society," whose erstwhile anti-western sentiments now had to be sublimated. As the Cold War developed, discussion shifted to ambivalence about Germany's place in the struggle between superpowers, and the "demon of technology" sentiment shifted away from the conservative end of the spectrum. The controversy over the "Göttingen Eighteen" anti-armaments manifesto of nuclear physicists is indicative of these shifts. - ingentaconnect.com

Multilevel Analysis in Mass Communication Research
ZHONGDANG PAN, JACK M. McLEOD
Communication Research, Vol. 18, No. 2, 140-173 (1991) © 1991 SAGE Publications
This article presents an epistemological view of levels of analysis. According to this view, four types of relationships need to be differentiated: macro-macro, macro-micro, micro-micro, and micro-macro. The two within-level relationships are linked by the two cross-level relationships that, in turn, are explicated by various theories of organizational, institutional, and social processes. Mass communication is thus conceived of as a process from production to consumption that occurs at both micro-individual and macro-social levels. The contributions of this multilevel view of mass communications to theoretical development in the field is illustrated by analyzing three prominent theories in our field: the knowledge gap, cultivation, and the spiral of silence. Finally, the article discusses the available research techniques and strategies for dealing with multilevel research questions. - crx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/2/140

Mass Communication as Participation: Web-Radio in Germany: Legal Hazards and its Contribution to an Alternative Way of Mass Communication
Hans-Ullrich Muhlenfeld, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
European Journal of Communication, Vol. 17, No. 1, 103-113 (2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications
Web-radio in Germany is becoming rather popular and gives numerous people the opportunity of spreading their own radio programmes to millions of potential listeners. However, web-radio in Germany faces several hurdles, political and economic ones. This article gives an overview of the problems and attempts to depict the position of today's German web-radios within the general broadcasting system. It also looks at other forms of alternative broadcasting, such as the open channel, and compares their respective historical backgrounds. - ejc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/1/103

Science Mass Communication - Its Conceptual History
ROBERT A. LOGAN, University of Missouri-Columbia
Science Communication, Vol. 23, No. 2, 135-163 (2001) © 2001 SAGE Publications
This article provides a conceptual history of science mass communication, which is seen as divided into the scientific literacy and interactive science traditions. The origins of the ideas that underlie the scientific literacy and interactive science traditions, as well as some of the issues researchers have raised, are introduced. The author argues the two traditions are not mutually exclusive, although the interactive tradition is a response to the applied problems within the scientific literacy model. It is argued that the pace of research might be accelerated if there were a more comprehensive collaboration among science communication, health communication, and risk communication scholarship. - scx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/2/135

Communicating Science - A Review of the Literature
MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, University of Florida
Science Communication, Vol. 23, No. 2, 164-193 (2001) © 2001 SAGE Publications
This article provides an overview of science communication, which is a vital area of mass communication scholarship. The review is organized around the key players, including news organizations, reporters, science information professionals, scientists, and audiences. Also reviewed is the problem of science communication, which may be partly responsible for widespread science illiteracy. Ways of improving the practice of science communication and an agenda for future research are offered. - scx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/2/164

Comparing Nations in Mass Communication Research, 1970-97
A Critical Assessment of How We Know What We Know
Tsan-Kuo Chang, Pat Pat Berg, Anthony Ying-Him Fung, Kent D. Kedl, Catherine A. Luther, Janet Szuba
International Communication Gazette, Vol. 63, No. 5, 415-434 (2001) © 2001 SAGE Publications
The purpose of this article is to assess critically, within the framework of the sociology of knowledge, how we come to know what we know in comparative international communication research. The point of departure is the collective output of comparative international communication enterprise - the published articles in six major communication journals through which theories, methods and findings have been diffused and the cumulated knowledge made possible during the past three decades. A major concern is the general pattern of methodological approaches and epistemological positions as manifested in the existing comparative international communication studies. The common patterns in comparative international communication research include lack of theoretical framework, non-equivalence of concepts and indicators, incomparability of units of analysis and unawareness of Galton's problem. - gaz.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/63/5/415

The Politics of Mass Communication in Israel
GIDEON DORON
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 555, No. 1, 163-179 (1998) © 1998 American Academy of Political & Social Science
Since Israel's independence in 1948, three changes have occurred in the relationship between the Israeli state and its citizens. These changes are reflected in the country's communication map. During the first phase of nation building, the nonliberal state had a monopoly over the means and content of mass communication. In the 1980s and early and middle 1990s, privatized means of communication were formed, permitting the market to affect public preferences. As we approach the end of the 1990s, the map may be altered again by a proposal for a new multicultural model. The article traces conceptually and historically the multifaceted nature of the interactions that have taken place between politics and communication in Israel. - ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/555/1/163

Collective Action in the Age of the Internet: Mass Communication and Online Mobilization
Tom Postmes, University of Exeter and University of Amsterdam
Suzanne Brunsting, University of Amsterdam
Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, 290-301 (2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications
This article examines how the Internet transforms collective action. Current practices on the web bearwitness to thriving collective action ranging from persuasive to confrontational, individual to collective,undertakings. Even more influential than direct calls for action is the indirect mobilizing influenceof the Internet's powers of mass communication, which is boosted by an antiauthoritarian ideology onthe web. Theoretically, collective action through the otherwise socially isolating computer is possiblebecause people rely on internalized group memberships and social identities to achieve social involvement.Empirical evidence from an online survey among environmental activists and nonactivists confirmsthat online action is considered an equivalent alternative to offline action by activists andnonactivists alike. However, the Internet may slightly alter the motives underlying collective action andthereby alter the nature of collective action and social movements. Perhaps more fundamental is thereverse influence that successful collective action will have on the nature and function of the Internet. - ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/3/290

The Dilemma of Mass Communication: An Existential Point of View
Hanno Hardt
Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 2, No. 2, 3-12 (1977) © 1977 SAGE Publications
Man is what he is in communication; his existence is defined by his ability to remain in communication, not only with others as a prerequisite to any participation in the social process, but also with himself as a source of genuine feel ings and appreciations of his environment. - jci.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/2/3?ck=nck

Technology, Mass Communication, and Law
Hanno Hardt
Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 2, No. 1, 15-21 (1976) © 1976 SAGE Publications
... freedom of expression and freedom of the press mean... a guarantee for a social system that tolerates creative minds and encourages critical opinions by providing ways of involving the many and varying talents of individuals in the discussion about society and about the future of the social system. - jci.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/1/15

Media Reputation as a Strategic Resource: An Integration of Mass Communication and Resource-Based Theories - David L. Deephouse, Louisiana State University
Journal of Management, Vol. 26, No. 6, 1091-1112 (2000) © 2000 Southern Management Association
The resource-based view proposes that reputation is a resource leading to competitive advantage. Past research tested this by using Fortune ratings to measure reputation, but these ratings are theoretically weak. This paper integrates mass communication theory into past research to develop a concept called media reputation, defined as the overall evaluation of a firm presented in the media. Theoretical and empirical analyses indicate that media reputation is a resource that increases the performance of commercial banks. - jom.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/6/1091

Mass Communication and Modern Culture: Contribution to a Critical Theory of Ideology
John B. Thompson
Sociology, Vol. 22, No. 3, 359-383 (1988) © 1988 BSA Publications Ltd.
This paper argues that the analysis of culture and mass communication should be regarded as central concerns of sociology and social theory. It develops a framework for the analysis of culture and shows how this framework can be applied to the study of mass communication. Focusing on the medium of television, the paper highlights some of the distinctive characteristics of mass communication and examines some of the factors involved in the production, construction and reception of media messages. It is argued that this approach enables the analyst to pose questions concerning the ideological character of mass communication in a new and more fruitful way. - soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/3/359

The Impact of the Second World War on the Development of a Mass Society: This 12 page paper considers the influence of the impact of the Second World War on the development of the mass society. This paper asserts that for countries like England, France and Germany, the events that occurred following the end of World War II determined the shift in recent years towards a mass culture. Bibliography lists 12 sources. - paperstore.net/sahr/166-000.html

The Structure of Self in Mass Society: Against Zurcher
Abstract: The development of the self system is a social psychological process which is based on concrete and specific interaction. In mass society, typically the structure of interaction is bureaucratically organized. The need for instrumental control of behavior to purposes divorced from the life process in capitalist society has lead to the bureaucracy as the major instrument of social control. Interaction in bureaucracy and other formal organizations is so brief, impersonal, and narrowly focussed that the development of a self-system is difficult. In as much as rules, orders, and job descriptions mediate behavior in
bureaucratically organized societies, the self system is superfluous. Suggestions such as that of Zurcher that the solution to the problem of self is a "mutable self" capable of functioning in such societies are excellently well suited to a society in which interaction is of short duration, episodic, purely instrumental and life is comprised of brief fragments of depersonalized encounters at work, school, church, clinic, and at the sports arena. Zurcher's model of self as a solution to the problem of alienation is rejected. TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893. Email: tr@tryoung.com

Small Town in Mass Society

Folk Material Culture And Mass Society In America

Media and Society in Twentieth Century

Media and Power

Mass Society Pluralism and Bureaucracy

Media Effects and Society

Race Media and the Crisis

Age of Electronic Media

Mass Media and Social Control

Mass Media In A Mass Society

Media Influence, Media Organizations and Mass Communication.

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