Page 105 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Meaning of Self in Society

ization by media institutions. For instance, with the rise of science
and technology the reproduction of society by mass communica-
tion has resulted in a mystification of the methods of liberation;
the search for individual freedom remains confined within the
process of mass communication, where the image of progress resists
surrender to the real conditions of social communication.
The limits of progress were described some time ago by Erich
Fromm, among others, in an apt portrayal of individuals in a capi-
talistic society, who see themselves engaged in an effort to define
the meaning of their own being in the world. Their private lives
repeat the monotonous pace of work, constituting the calamitous
oscillation of a modern existence. Indeed, people read the same
newspaper, listen to the same radio programs, and watch the same
movies regardless of their social standing or intelligence. The
unquestioned rhythm of their lives consists of production, con-
sumption, and enjoyment. Not much has changed since 1955, when
Fromm considered these conditions, except that television, and lately
computers and computer or video games, have been added to the
standardized media fare. The latter occupy even more time in the
daily lives of individuals, providing additional opportunities for a
lockstep existence and reinforcing the opportunities for social and
political control.
Technologies of communication, driven to perfection by the
march of science, competition, and profitability, rule definitions of
society – or the details of a social and political being – and replace
the very idea of communication with a form of participation as
consumption that relies on the desire to satisfy real or false needs.
Not knowledge but information has become the fashionable com-
modity of the time, not the littérateur but the journalist dispenses
wisdom in the public arena, it is not the public that speaks, but the
(self-styled or media-appointed) expert who advises. In fact, genres
are obscured when information is marketed as knowledge and jour-
nalism claims the role of philosophy. There are critical differences,
not only of substance, that make the acquisition of knowledge a
fundamental aspect of human existence; they grow out of curiosity,
experience, and the desire to widen and secure the boundaries of
understanding the world. Knowledge is a product of human com-
munication; it involves the exchange of ideas, a lasting commitment

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