Page 40 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Promise of Democracy

The desire for practical knowledge, on the other hand, relates to
the intersubjectivity of mutual understandings regarding the role and
function of mass communication in social intercourse. It is secured
by the mutual obligations of a trusting relationship that is directed
towards enlightenment and, ultimately, towards emancipation.
Practical knowledge also refers to understanding the cultural and
historical conditions of mass communication, the economic con-
sequences of commercial practices, the material circumstances of
mass communication as a social process, and their impact on the
ideological framework of society. It is a knowledge that thrives on
contributions of individual thought, or on intellectual freedom
generally, beyond the indoctrinating power of mass communication
in an environment free from domination by a universe of societal
expectations that reinforce and perpetuate the dominant ideology.
Still, mass communication is determined by the ruling ideas of
political and economic forces, and is, therefore, focused on the pro-
duction of consent and compliance rather than on the autonomy
of the individual. Since its production of social knowledge advances
the cause of a dominant order, mass communication is the carrier
of technical knowledge to help organize and control society through
standardization and mass production in a lasting process of assimi-
lation that is of considerable historical significance in its duration
and resolution.
In other words, recognizing the importance of media and the
process of mass communication in the social and political develop-
ment of society is as old as the earliest media – for instance, from
newsletters produced by the House of Fugger in Germany (itself
an expression of the capitalism of the age) or newsbooks in Britain,
to the spread of literature across Europe. The latter reproduced
ideas, provided a forum for private thought, and familiarized feudal
societies with the world.Yet printing also reinforced a split between
a literate, cultured class and the illiterate masses still chained to the
world of sound – including the voices of storytellers and their
contributions to a growing popular literature – until the eighteenth
century, when educational reforms swept through the Western
world.
Accompanied by an uprooting of tastes and a revolt against the
prerogatives of a cultured class, mass communication finally con-

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