Practices of looking
Sturken & Cartwright
Media in everyday life
Chapter 6
The masses and mass media
The masses (in industrial society) were regarded as having influence on opinion and on social practice.
Collective sentiments and a collective conscience of the masses came to determine what constituted a
crime. We do not condemn an action because it is objectively a crime: the action is deemed a crime
because society collectively evaluates and judges the action, determining it to be a crime and
condemning it.
In media theory, the concept of the masses has generally been used with negative connotations.
Audiences characterized as undifferentiated, individuals who are passively accepting and uncritical of
media practices and messages authored by corporations with profit motives, whose messages support
dominant ideologies and ruling class and/or government interest.
The term mass media came into common use in the post-WW2 era, a period marked by the
dissemination of broadcast television throughout much of the world.
The rise of mass culture is usually characterized much like modernity: with the increased
industrialization and mechanization of modern society, populations consolidated around urban centers.
Negative aspects of changes in modernity, linked to the concept that film, TV, consumerism and cheap
amusements rose to prove some semblance of social connectedness among this exhausted and
alienated populace.
Monolithic mass culture – the period of modernity and industrialization in which national newspapers
and TV broadcast media rose and dominated the industry through periods of monopoly and corporate
growth.
1980/90/2000 – internet, web, cell phones, wireless communication devices
Their increased prevalence and the varieties of uses to which these technologies were put by consumers
demanded a rethinking of the term ‘mass’ by the end of the 20th century. -> Smaller, niche audiences
that must be addressed according to their specific tastes, interest, and language groups.
** important to note the social impact of the expansion of the mass media from forms such as print and
voice into media that combine image, color, movement, text and sound. Before radio only the educated
minority could read and write – largely in control of the exchange of information beyond word of
mouth.
Sturken & Cartwright
Media in everyday life
Chapter 6
The masses and mass media
The masses (in industrial society) were regarded as having influence on opinion and on social practice.
Collective sentiments and a collective conscience of the masses came to determine what constituted a
crime. We do not condemn an action because it is objectively a crime: the action is deemed a crime
because society collectively evaluates and judges the action, determining it to be a crime and
condemning it.
In media theory, the concept of the masses has generally been used with negative connotations.
Audiences characterized as undifferentiated, individuals who are passively accepting and uncritical of
media practices and messages authored by corporations with profit motives, whose messages support
dominant ideologies and ruling class and/or government interest.
The term mass media came into common use in the post-WW2 era, a period marked by the
dissemination of broadcast television throughout much of the world.
The rise of mass culture is usually characterized much like modernity: with the increased
industrialization and mechanization of modern society, populations consolidated around urban centers.
Negative aspects of changes in modernity, linked to the concept that film, TV, consumerism and cheap
amusements rose to prove some semblance of social connectedness among this exhausted and
alienated populace.
Monolithic mass culture – the period of modernity and industrialization in which national newspapers
and TV broadcast media rose and dominated the industry through periods of monopoly and corporate
growth.
1980/90/2000 – internet, web, cell phones, wireless communication devices
Their increased prevalence and the varieties of uses to which these technologies were put by consumers
demanded a rethinking of the term ‘mass’ by the end of the 20th century. -> Smaller, niche audiences
that must be addressed according to their specific tastes, interest, and language groups.
** important to note the social impact of the expansion of the mass media from forms such as print and
voice into media that combine image, color, movement, text and sound. Before radio only the educated
minority could read and write – largely in control of the exchange of information beyond word of
mouth.
