Authors: Kuper & Kuper
Summary: The entry defines the term, traces the history of the mass media as it is linked to social, political, and economic changes, and presents competing perspectives on the nature and influence of the contemporary media. The mass media comprise a new and distinctively modern social institution, one that is concerned with the production and distribution of knowledge in the widest sense of the word. The media have a number of salient characteristics, including the use of advanced technology for the large-scale production and dissemination of messages.
It is usual to date the beginnings of the modern mass media from the first recognizably modern newspaper, which appeared in the early seventeenth century. The development and growth of the newspaper is often linked to the growing power of the bourgeoisie. The audiovisual media, which arose in the first part of the twentieth century, have caused older (print) media to adapt, and have enlarged the total reach of the media, as well as extending the breadth of their social functions. But the rise of newer media, especially film, radio and television, would not greatly alter the relationship between mass media and the bourgeoisie.
The entry notes both pessimists and optimists on the question of the social influence of the mass media. The pessimistic view stems partly from the pejorative connotations of the term "mass," which connotes immense scale, anonymity, impersonality, uniformity, lack of regulation and mindlessness. Such a perspective views the media as instruments of manipulation, and a threat to existing cultural and spiritual values and democracy. By contrast, optimists see the mass media as a powerful means of disseminating information, education, and culture to the previously excluded classes and of making feasible a genuinely participatory democracy.