Page 141 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Meaning of Self in Society

class biography, however, when the narrative turns into a mass-
mediated discourse mainly of those preoccupied with securing their
own place in history. Privileged historical narratives cater to bour-
geois demands for conservation of the bourgeois image in the realm
of mass communication. By controlling media (and media content),
the dominant class fixes its own historical position and reinforces
the presence of the corporate world in the public sphere. In other
words, mass communication serves the interests of a specific class,
whose image survives in media practices, while those whose inter-
ests are missing from the societal dialogue – and the content of the
media – are also marginalized in the historical record.
For instance, it has taken much longer for biographies of the eco-
nomically and politically exploited to emerge – as in the work of
Howard Zinn, for instance, and other social historians since the
1960s. A public narrative of history, like the Vietnam war memor-
ial in Washington, DC, remains a celebrated exception to the rule
of corporate sponsorship.The fate of ordinary people is more often
represented – and immortalized – in fictional accounts, including
songs and poetry. Indeed, fiction, and the aesthetic dimension in
general, constitutes an alternative source of historical insight that has
rarely been used for understanding society’s own definitions and uses
of mass communication.Yet cultural practice, including the arts, con-
tributes steadily to the discourse of society by redefining and repro-
ducing the tendencies of the time, including the reconceptualization
of the media and the process of mass communication.
More often than not, however, history is constructed in an estab-
lished, top-down fashion with an ideologically informed depiction
of a past that has been authenticated and preserved in the process
of mass communication. The resulting one-dimensional narrative
typically features institutional power and celebrates charismatic lead-
ership while misrepresenting or neglecting the material or ideational
contributions of ordinary people as citizens, neighbors, or col-
leagues. However, when the oppressed or forgotten realize the
power of their own historical narrative and its inherent threat to
the status quo, their interest in history – to use the words of Günter
Anders – may well confirm an appetite for rebellion.
The idea of mass communication as history, on the other hand,
suggests a more aggressive use of media power in the construction

129