Page 56 - Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

Mass Communication and the Promise of Democracy

Redfield developed a folk–urban dichotomy, and Howard Becker
constructed sacred and secular societies to suggest the changing fea-
tures of Western societies.The modern version is an urban life that
features commercial instead of communal relations and a separation
along lines of mass communication.
Mass communication grew with these developments; it became
an urban phenomenon – with a debilitated and marginalized rural
tradition in its wake. It continues to change under rapidly develop-
ing technological and industrial influences to serve an urban pop-
ulation, while achieving symbolic significance as a representation of
communal aspirations by reproducing a sense of familiarity.
Mobility – another synonym for the process of mass communi-
cation – produced change and shaped modernization. Fueled by
migration and expanding in many directions, societal movement
materialized upwards in skyscrapers and airplanes and horizontally
in roads and urban sprawl, while absorbing and redirecting the no-
tion of community. Along this path, commercial interests employed
mass communication to successfully respond to the communal long-
ings of a mobile society by simulating common features that implied
the realization of a democratic life.
In other words, the media seized upon the enduring need for a
sense of community and acknowledged the desire for belonging by
operationalizing the idea of sharing or partaking in creative ways
that would also enhance the idea of democratic practice, but which
actually promoted consumption as a routinized form of participa-
tion in the (commercial) life of society.The success of participation
relies on cultural standardization – resulting in the widespread
sharing of values, beliefs, and tastes among diverse social groups; it
is aided by mass literacy and popular education and most effectively
operationalized and sustained by mass communication.
Beyond the impact of mass communication on traditional ideas
of community, including the community of journalists, however,
there is the rise of social criticism, which accompanies mass com-
munication on the path of industrialization and media capitalism.

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