MACS 110 | Introduction to Mass Communication Theory translate
Week 3: Four Eras of Mass Communication Theory -back to MACS 110 Home-
How are the mass media basically perceived in relation to each of these theories ? Bear in mind the historical context of the different perspectives.
Mass Society Theory | Limited Effects Perspective | Critical and Cultural Studies | Meaning Making Perspectives
Some Key Thinkers
- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer's circulation wars.
- Paul Lazersfeld a social scientist applied the scientific method to measuring media effects and concluded they were limited and no two audiences were alike. In contrast to the hypodermic syringe model, there are a number of limited effects theories. These theories argue that mass media rarely have powerful direct effects and most messages are either quickly forgotten or ignored. Indeed, there'll always be some people who are more vulnerable to propaganda and other types of persuasive messages than others. Consider the War of the Worlds in 1938. Not everyone who heard the broadcast went running down the street like a maniac.
- Laswell believed the vast majority of people were weak-minded and malleable. He called for elite control of the media.
- Walter Lipmann thought along the same lines as Laswell and believed technocrats should handle decision making regarding media messages. What would Dewey and Laswell make of our mass mediated culture and the role of propaganda today ?
- John Dewey believed that given the right education, people would be able to tell for themselves what is true and what is not through their reasoning abilities. Do you believe Dewey was romantic is this belief ?
Some Key Concepts:
- agenda setting It's not that we're told what to think, as much as it's we're told what to think about - priming.
- ideological state apparatus (Althusser - critical theory)
- cultural hegemony (Gramsci - critical theory)
"Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) in the 1920s argued that the reason the proletarian revolution had not advanced in Europe as fast as many Marxists had expected it would was due to cultural hegemony. The theory of cultural hegemony states that a diverse culture can be dominated by one class because of that class's monopoly over the mass media and popular culture. Gramsci therefore argued for a culture war in which anti-capitalist elements seek to gain a dominant voice in mass media, education, and other mass organizations." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war
"Fonte documents how Gramsci distinguished two ways the dominant group exercises control, whereas Marx had only written of one. First, there is direct domination through coercion or force – political might in service of the economic interests of the bourgeoisie. Second, there is what Gramsci calls hegemony, which means the pervasive and mostly tacit use of a system of values that supports and reinforces the interests of the dominant groups. The repressed groups may not even know they are repressed, in Gramsci’s view, because they have internalized the system of values that justifies their repression. They have internalized a "false consciousness" and become unwitting participants in their own domination." Source http://www.lewrockwell.com/yates/yates24.html
- consciousness industry (Enzensberger - critical theory)
- culture industry (Frankfurt School - critical theory)
- ideology: Which ideologies are most dependent on propaganda ? Why ?