Page 107 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Meaning of Self in Society

welcomed. Mass communication serves to solidify people – or as
Harold Lasswell suggests more specifically, propaganda is “this new
hammer and anvil of social solidarity.”
Suspicions about the effectiveness of mass communication have
systematically increased with every introduction of new media,
especially during the twentieth century, when new forms of mass
communication dramatically changed the landscape of societal
communication. For instance, the arrival of the movies provoked
public reactions against the explicit treatment of topics ranging from
adultery or homosexuality to narcotics; comic books experienced
hostile reaction to portrayals of violence; television programming
reinvigorated these debates with concerns over the effects on chil-
dren; and the internet is now raising questions regarding universal
access to hate messages or pornographic websites. Often politically
or socially motivated, these reactions are based on moral claims and
supported by social scientific research that is frequently much more
cautious in its conclusions than the rhetoric of specific publics –
including religious organizations, conservative civic groups, or cam-
paigning politicians.
More generally, the public significance of mass communication
research is primarily a function of media interest in (dependable)
self-knowledge and has coincided with a greater reliance on adver-
tising revenues with the change of basic media economics. Read-
ership studies, in particular, became the early providers of reliable
facts and figures about audiences, followed by the desire of the
media industry to test the effectiveness of advertisements. Joseph
Klapper’s summary of effects studies in the United States in the late
1950s made it quite clear that there were conditions under which
mass communication may be powerful – a reminder of earlier fears
of propaganda. Although it became more politically convenient
perhaps, for media representatives (and some academics) to suggest,
with Klapper, and, thus to alleviate suspicions regarding media prac-
tices in society, that mass communication does not ordinarily serve
as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects.
Beyond surveys, social scientific research has applied content
analysis and conducted laboratory experiments to probe mass com-
munication effects, while remaining atheoretical and ahistorical
throughout its development into a major source of public insight

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