Page 38 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Promise of Democracy

A still broader approach to advertising must consider the steady
breakdown of lines of demarcation between genres, not unlike those
between journalism and literature, when persuasion materializes in
a variety of mass communication messages, from film and broad-
casting imagery to the printed words of fact and fiction.The result
is a culturally consistent and total presence of (ideological) per-
spectives that reinforce particular visions of the world.
Thus, the process of mass communication becomes subject to
commercial and political claims on the nature and extent of social
practices that privilege those with access to the media industries,
whose own assertions of objectivity or fairness, truth, and freedom
drive the contemporary engineering of public consent.The latter is
based on the production and dissemination of social knowledge and
its control.

IV

Indeed, mass communication constitutes an appropriate and effective
process of reproducing knowledge and experience that is aided by
the popularity of the written word.With it comes the lure of inclu-
siveness for those skilled in the art of reading – one of the essential
human practices of sharing social knowledge. In fact, for St
Augustine the eye constitutes the world’s point of entry; in this he
was following Cicero, who noted that texts are better seen than heard
in order to be remembered. Hence, gathering, interpreting, and
disseminating information quickly develops from being a primary
activity of literate individuals to a collective exercise, when new
means of mass communication, such as visual imagery, offer revolu-
tionary ways of reaching into society and beyond to span the world.
People live in social formations that determine the system of
social knowledge in which they participate and through which,
ultimately, they seek to liberate themselves. Indeed, social knowl-
edge, according to Socrates, sets the individual free and has meaning
only if it contributes to improving the daily lives of people. Pro-
viding opportunities for participation in the acquisition and use of
social knowledge is the function of mass communication in its edu-
cational role. Furthermore, the desire for social knowledge leads to

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