Page 10 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Preface

This two-part essay is a reminder of the importance of historically
grounded debates about language, theories of knowledge, and com-
munication that have occupied European thinkers since the Sophists
began to teach the art of persuasion by eloquent speech and Plato
observed that communication between individuals is only possible
when a common ground exists for meanings or ideas. The follow-
ing discussion is informed by a critical intellectual tradition in
Western thought that identifies the idea of mass communication
with power relations and hegemonic struggles, but also with col-
lective cultural practices and individual empowerment over time.
Recent considerations of mass communication and culture or society
are only the latest extension of sentiments regarding meaning,
power, and effect. They are embedded in social and political skep-
ticism, and a mistrust of the possibility of absolute knowledge. The
latter characterized Sophist attitudes and informs contemporary
thought: from doubts about a universal truth – spread by Friedrich
Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, for instance, and responded to by
Jacques Lacan, beyond the tradition of rationality, objectivity, and
truth redefined in the early works of John Dewey, as well as by the
more recent contributions of Michel Foucault – to an experience
of reality through language and writing that relies on notions of
human agency and self-determination.
The idea of mass communication is significantly affected by these
theoretical considerations, from its incorporation into the realm of