mass-communication-theory

THINKING
about
THEORY
You can evaluate the criticism that accompanied the diffusion of media we now
find commonplace in the box entitled “Fearful Reactions to New Media.”
Even when individual critics are selfless, they are increasingly likely to be paid
by special interests for their work. Often their ideas or their research would go unnoticed
without promotion by special interests. For example, when television began
to compete with newspapers, the latter were filled with stories reporting the complaints
of television critics and researchers. During the 1970s, much of the research
critical of children’s television would have gone unnoticed by the general public
had it not been for the promotional work of Action for Children’s Television, a
grassroots activist organization heavily reliant on grants from the Markle, Ford,
and Carnegie Foundations.
FEARFUL REACTIONS TO NEW MEDIA
The introduction of each new mass medium of the
twentieth century was greeted with derision, skepticism,
fear, and sometimes silliness. Here is a collection
of the thinking of the times that welcomed
movies, talkies, radio, and television. Can you find
examples of mass society theory’s most obvious
characteristics—the conceit that the elite way is the
right way and condescension toward others?
Once you have read through these examples, go
online or to the library and find similar dire predictions
about the Internet and the Web. No doubt you’ve
already read or heard concerns about Internet addiction,
loss of parental authority, child pornography, online
gambling, poor writing skills and “mall speak”
from instant messenging, the loss of community, reduced
attention spans, violent and offensive online
gaming, privacy invasion, and identity theft. Can you
identify other concerns associated with the coming of
the new communication technologies?
Movies and Talkies
When you first reflect that in New York City alone,
on a Sunday, 500,000 people go to moving picture
shows, a majority of them perhaps children,
and that in the poorer quarters of town every
teacher testifies that the children now save their
pennies for picture shows instead of candy, you
cannot dismiss canned drama with a shrug of
contempt. It is a big factor in the lives of the
masses, to be reckoned with, if possible to be
made better, if used for good ends. Eighty
Chapter 3 The Rise of Media Industries and Mass Society Theory 53
percent of present day theatrical audiences in this
country are canned drama audiences. Ten million
people attended professional baseball games in
America in 1908. Four million people attend
moving pictures theaters, it is said, every day.
$50,000,000 are invested in the industry. Chicago
has over 300 theaters, New York 300, St. Louis
205, Philadelphia 186, even conservative Boston
boasts more than 30. Almost 190 miles of film are
unrolled on the screens of America’s canned
drama theaters every day in the year. Here is an
industry to be controlled, an influence to be reckoned
with.
Source: American Magazine, September, 1909, p. 498.
And if the speech recorded in the dialogue (of
talking pictures) is vulgar or ugly, its potentialities
for lowering the speech standard of the country
are almost incalculable. The fact that it is likely to
be heard by the less discriminating portion of the
public operates to increase its evil effects; for
among the regular attendants at moving picture
theaters there are to be found large groups from
among our foreign-born population, to whom it is
really vitally important that they hear only the best
speech.
Source: Commonweal, April 10, 1929, p. 653.
Radio
In general one criterion must be kept in mind:
the radio should do what the teacher cannot do;
(Continued)
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