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‘Mass society’ and the belief in powerful media

‘Mass society’ and the belief in powerful media. Development of mass media. The first major mass medium was the printing press Helped to usher in the Renaissance First texts were religious, including a large number of Bibles Moved on to classic books Then came pamphlets, including propaganda

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‘Mass society’ and the belief in powerful media

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  1. ‘Mass society’ and the belief in powerful media

  2. Development of mass media • The first major mass medium was the printing press Helped to usher in the Renaissance • First texts were religious, including a large number of Bibles • Moved on to classic books • Then came pamphlets, including propaganda • Censorship

  3. Effects of the printing press • Increased literacy • Broadened worldview • Challenge to religious authority • Protestant Reformation • Loss of memory

  4. Photography

  5. Industrial revolution • The most rapid and wrenching social revolution in history • Began in England in the latter part of the 18th century and spread to the Continent and the United States

  6. Development of manufacturing • Manufacturing went from a secondary economic practice to dominance of the economy • The scale of production rose till vast factories employed huge numbers of workers • Child labor • New social classes developed • Proletariat and bourgeoisie • Industrial conflict and violence

  7. Printing technology advances • New presses eventually led to vastly reduced prices for newspapers, periodicals, etc. • Huge circulations • ‘lower classes’ could afford printed materials • Production of materials appealing to less refined tastes and concerns

  8. Print media • Books • Newsletters • Newspapers • Penny press • Magazines/journals • Many religious journals in mid-1800s • Mass market magazines • Ladies’ Home Journal tops 1 million circulation

  9. Urbanization • America went from being a rural nation to a highly concentrated urban nation • Concentration of the population within a short distance of factories • Factories in cities • Immigrants to US concentrated in cities in the North and Midwest • Ghettos • Social problems endemic to cities • Drugs, prostitution, crime, alcoholism, gambling

  10. 1820 Pop. 15 Chicago’s growth 1854 pop. 55,000 1898 pop. 1,698,575

  11. Social class • Emergence of an entrepreneurial (bourgeois) class • Attainment of massive wealth • Nouveau riche • Conflict with aristocracy (especially in Europe)

  12. Immigration • Growing tide in latter 19th century to peak in early 20th • Immigration flow to the eastern U.S. gradually changed from Britain to northern Europe to eastern and southern • West coast Chinese immigrants, then Japanese

  13. Transportation • Steamships • Railroads • Promontory Point • End of the “frontier” • Development of automobiles • Airplanes

  14. Development of the nation state Germany, Italy Large-scale and regular warfare

  15. Early formulation of social theory • Development of political economy and sociology in the 18th &19th centuries • Adam Smith • Karl Marx • August Comte • Gustave LeBon • Emile Durkheim • Charles Peirce • William Graham Sumner

  16. Various social theories called upon to explain problems and to provide solutions Nature versus nurture a crucial determinant

  17. Adam Smith Karl Marx

  18. August Comte: Society as organism

  19. Darwin’s theory of evolution was a powerful influence over social theory at the time

  20. Herbert Spencer and Francis Galton: “Social Darwinism”

  21. John Locke—Tabula rasa

  22. Community:Ferdinand Tonnies and Emile Durkheim

  23. Ferdinand Tonnies • Gemeinschaft (translated “community”) and Gesellschaft (translated “society”) • Gemeinschaft is a form of association where affective relations rule, where consensus and shared belief are the norm and where life is ordered, a person’s place is largely given, and the person knows and accepts the rules. (family, community, friendship)

  24. Ferdinand Tonnies • Gesellschaft is a form of association where rational self-interest rules, where the individual has multiple and conflicting roles and where affect is limited. (business, political relations, instrumental associations) • Modern society had seen a shift from gemeinschaft toward gesellschaft

  25. Emile Durkheim • Mechanical v. Organic solidarity • Mechanical solidarity a feature of traditional community--overarching consensus on norms, mores, ideology bind individuals to there place in society and generate conformity that makes society workable

  26. Emile Durkheim • Organic solidarity--society held together by interactions among individuals and groups that act according to their own interests, rationally • bonds are weak and conflict part of the expected set of consequences, but society adaptable and individual experiences greater freedom

  27. Mass society theory • The combination of these factors led to the development of ‘mass society’ • Breakdown of traditional communal life and movement into cities where people of vastly different backgrounds are thrown together

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