Page 28 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Promise of Democracy

concrete historical moment and with a definite presence among real
power relations in society. Indeed, these characteristics are well
described by Robert Merton’s distinction between a (European)
sociology of knowledge and an (American) sociology of mass com-
munications. The latter concentrates on mass phenomena, such as
popular culture and opinion-making, and develops analytical tools
to examine information rather than knowledge in society’s pursuit
of immediate results.
More recently, the term mass communication has been revised by
a cultural analysis of contemporary society, initially under the influ-
ence of Raymond Williams, who argues that there are only ways of
seeing people as masses. Consequently, the idea of mass communi-
cation is an expression of this conception and a commentary on its
function, which inspires talk of massification, breeds disharmony or
animosity, and poses a danger to democracy. Williams liberates the
individual from the ideological trap of a “mass” society and restores
the values of a common, participatory culture with a more work-
able concept, like communication.
Beyond Williams, the field of cultural studies has incorporated
the notions of communication into a much broader, interdiscipli-
nary consideration of culture and cultural production by theorizing
beyond the level of message construction and circulation and by
contextualizing the idea of communication historically and ideo-
logically. Also, cultural studies is less interested in broad, institutional
perspectives – such as relations between mass communication and
democracy, for instance – but more in basic, emancipatory practices
of individuals related to issues of meaning-making, social or politi-
cal power, and human agency in the process of communication.
In a more general sense, the idea of mass communication trans-
lates into a reification of communication in all of its physical and
ideological manifestations – aural and visual, free and controlled –
through a process of industrialization and within a system of mater-
ial and intellectual cultures that is fully developed in industrial
societies.The result is a commodity form that satisfies some human
wants and has the power of exchangeability. Since mass communi-
cation streams relentlessly into the consciousness of individuals to
dominate representations of the modern world, its constant presence

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