Page 234 - Culture Society and the Media

224 COMMUNICATIONS, POWER AND SOCIAL ORDER
eternal salvation to ‘the meek (who) shall inherit the earth’; the media similarly
give prominence to showbusiness personalities and football stars who, as ‘a
powerless élite’, afford easily identifiable symbols for vicarious fulfilment
(Alberoni, 1972).
There is, of course, some differentiation in the output of the modern media
just as there was in the teaching of the medieval Church. Conflicts have
developed between the media and other power centres in contemporary society
just as there were conflicts between the papacy, episcopacy and the monarchies
of the middle ages. But these conflicts are rarely fundamental and are generally
contained within the moral framework that legitimizes the social and political
structure. The new priesthood of the modern media has supplanted the old as the
principal ideological agents building consent for the social system.

NOTES

1 I would like to express my thanks to Professor Walter Ullmann for his very detailed
and helpful comments on the section of this essay dealing with the medieval papacy.
2 By the central middle ages, the Catholic Church was established in a monopoly
position throughout most of Europe, extending from Estonia to northern Spain on an
east-west axis, and from Iceland to Sicily on a north-south axis. Regular church
attendance was maintained not only through the pull of religious belief, but also
sometimes by penalties imposed for non-attendance. For evidence about the level of
newspaper readership in different European countries, see JICNARS (1979), Hoyer,
Hadenius and Weibull (1975) and Smith (1977).
3 General questions about the cultural impact of new media have been largely ignored.
For a brief review, see Curran (1977). For an admirable examination of the cultural
impact of print see, in particular, Eisenstein (1968, 1969 and 1979), whose analysis
is very much more interesting than the better known commentary of McLuhan (1962).
4 This is not intended to imply agreement with the still fashionable denigration of
survey-based research methodology. On the contrary, the application of survey
methods is now essential for a more adequate development of Marxist perspectives
within mass communications research.
5 For a particularly illuminating interpretation of the rise of the papacy, upon which
this essay draws heavily, see Ullmann (1969, 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1978).
6 For instance, Pope Innocent I claimed in the early fifth century that St Peter or his
pupils were the founders of all the bishoprics in Italy, Spain, Gaul, Africa and Sicily.
There is, of course, not a shred of truth in this.
7 Much of the following information is derived from Thomas (1973) whose research,
although mainly concerned with the early modern period, also sheds light on popular
religious devotion in the middle ages.
8 A simple summary of these developments is provided in Curran (1977).
9 Calculated from the Royal Commission on the Press (1949) appendices 3 and 4, and
readership per copy estimates derived from the Institute of Incorporated Practitioners
in Advertising (1939).
10 The ecclesiastic reconstruction of kingship in the middle ages had disruptive long-
term as well as short-term consequences. The feudal reaction in England kept alive