Page 142 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Meaning of Self in Society

of a reality that foreshadows the future.The ease, for instance, with
which journalism changes into history as news accounts are turned
into book-length treatments of specific topics, such as Columbine,
Afghanistan, or 9/11, is a useful example of the merger of mass
communication and history as storytelling. But the practice is also
suggestive of a commercially driven anticipation of historically sig-
nificant events as lucrative opportunities for shaping public dis-
course. It explains the impatience of the producer, who embraces
the trend toward journalism as history, which is based on speed,
legitimated by its own success in the public sphere, and confirmed
by its own replication over time and across media.
Moreover, mass communication as history suggests the complete
collapse of the past into the present – a denial of history in its tra-
ditional role – and its replacement by speculation without histori-
cal consciousness. Mass communication destroys history, replacing it
with journalism as an explanatory apparatus that meets a public need
for instantaneous interpretation. The latter is based on the myth of
fairness and objectivity in the process of mass communication to
explicate matters and assign meanings in a detached and unbiased
manner.
History is by and large a public narrative that is rarely used (by
journalism) as a method of explaining contemporary conditions.The
lack of historical consciousness is evident in news coverage, in par-
ticular, which is void of historical insight and represents people or
events in a self-contained, ahistorical, and fragmented manner. Yet
history is also a critical method of inquiry which reveals the ideo-
logically charged conduct of mass communication and the processes
of manipulation or mystification that have marked media perfor-
mances. Such a process of demystification rests on the strength of
memory and the ability of individuals to recall the promises of
media routines in a democratic society. In fact, remembering past
performances and scrutinizing the present positions of the means of
mass communication help recast the role of the media and address
their social responsibility. Thus, questions of mass communication
and history may also be posed as questions about the power of
memory. Grounded in language, memory is also an essential element
of individual or collective identity in the course of shaping the
history of a culture.

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