mass-communication-theory

xviii Preface
Many if not all of the reasons that sent us to combat, unexamined and unchallenged
by much of the media we count on to help us govern ourselves, proved to
be false. Where was the Fourth Estate “when it might have made a difference?”
(Massing, 2004, p. 1). Growing awareness of the media industries’ powers and
responsibilities led to significant criticism of their performance in the run-up to war
and its coverage, and more surprising, an unprecedented public outcry against media
concentration. The American people, writes media critic Todd Gitlin, “rub their eyes
and marvel that a nation possessed of such an enormous industry ostensibly specializing
in the gathering and distribution of facts could yet remain so befogged”
(2004a, p. 58). But befogged we remained, as the media, our political leaders, and
those in the financial industries failed to heed—or even notice—the coming economic
crash that would damage so badly our lives, homes, savings, and jobs.
As authors, we now face a serious challenge as we produce this, the sixth edition.
When it comes to media theories, what is still relevant and what is unimportant?
How can and should we understand the role media now play in the world
that has been so radically altered? What has happened to trust in media? In our
system of self-governance and our ability to know ourselves, our neighbors, and
our world? In previous editions we argued, “The price to be paid for our failure
to understand the role of media is dear.” We pointed to controversies over the effects
of media violence and the banning of rap music lyrics. We worried about
growing dissatisfaction with modern election campaigns and the role in our democracy
of a press increasingly focused on the “bottom line.” These questions remain
important and will doubtlessly arise again on the media research agenda. But
for a time these questions have been overshadowed by more pressing issues: an obvious
one, the war in the Middle East. Where were democratic debate and public
discourse in the run-up to this costly conflict? Where were the media when it
counted, or in the words of Michael Massing in the New York Review of Books,
“Now they tell us.” But consider that five years after the start of what was supposed
to be a “cake walk” and three years after President Bush himself told the
public that there was no link between Iraq and September 11, “as many as four
in 10 Americans [41 percent] continued to believe that Saddam Hussein’s regime
was directly involved in financing, planning, or carrying out the terrorist attacks
on that horrible day” (Braiker, 2007). “Where were and are the media?” is an important
question for those interested in mass communication theory, but so is
“Where were and are the people?”
This textbook takes a historical approach to presenting media theory. In previous
editions, we argued that the value of this framework resides in its ability to reveal
how social theory generally—and media theory specifically—develops as an
ongoing effort to address pressing technological, social, and political problems. Often
the most important eras for media theory development have been those of crisis
and social turmoil. These are the times when the most important questions
about media are asked and the search for their answers is most desperate. For
half a century after the 1940s, we relied on media theories forged in the cauldron
of economic depression and worldwide warfare. But by the 1990s, the concerns of
earlier eras had faded. In our first two editions, we asked whether an era of dramatic
technological change might give rise to new media theories for a world
whose problems were different from those of the 1940s. Did we need new media
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.