Mass Communication and American Social Thought Key Texts, 1919-1968

by Peters, John Durham; Simonson, Peter; Addams, Jane; Adorno, Theodor; Allport, Gordon; Anderson, Sherwood; Bauer, Raymond; Bell, Daniel; Berelson, Bernard; Bernays, Edward; Blumer, Herbert; Breed, Warren; Burgess, Ernest W.; Cantril, Hadley; Cheever, John;

• ISBN13: 9780742528383
• ISBN10: 0742528383
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-20
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

This anthology of hard-to-find primary documents provides a solid overview of the foundations of American media studies. Focusing on mass communication and society and how this research fits into larger patterns of social thought, this valuable collection features key texts covering the media studies traditions of the Chicago school, the effects tradition, the critical theory of the Frankfurt school, and mass society theory. Where possible, articles are reproduced in their entirety to preserve the historical flavor and texture of the original works. This text is ideal for upper-level courses in mass communication and media theory, media and society, mass communication effects, and mass media history. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Table of Contents

Introduction: Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts, 1919-1968	1	(12)
Part I: From Hope to Disillusionment: Mass Communication Theory Coalesces, 1919-1933
Introduction	13	(45)
1 "The Process of Social Change," from Political Science Quarterly (1897)	21	(4)
Charles Horton Cooley
2 "The House of Dreams," from The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (1909)	25	(5)
Jane Addams
3 From Winesburg, Ohio (1919)	30	(1)
Sherwood Anderson
4 From the Introduction to the Science of Sociology (1921)	31	(4)
Robert Ezra Park and Ernest W. Burgess
5 "Nature, Communication, and Meaning," from Experience and Nature (1925)	35	(1)
John Dewey
6 "The Disenchanted Man," from The Phantom Public (1925)	36	(6)
Walter Lippmann
7 "Criteria of Negro Art," from Crisis Magazine (1926)	42	(5)
W.E.B. Du Bois
8 "The Results of Propaganda," from Propaganda Technique in the World War (1927)	47	(4)
Harold Dwight Lasswell
9 "Manipulating Public Opinion: The Why and the How" (1928)	51	(7)
Edward L. Bernays
10 From Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929)	58	(16)
Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd
11 "Communication," from Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (1931)	74	(5)
Edward Sapir
Part II: The World in Turmoil: Communications Research, 1933-1949
Introduction	79	(12)
12 "Conclusion," from Movies and Conduct (1933)	91	(4)
Herbert Blumer
13 "The Integration of Communication," from Communication Agencies and Social Life (1933)	95	(3)
Malcolm M. Willey and Stuart A. Rice
14 "Toward a Critique of Negro Music," from Opportunity (1934)	98	(4)
Alain Locke
15 From Technics and Civilization (1934)	102	(4)
Lewis Mumford
16 "The Business Nobody Knows," from Our Master's Voice (1934)	106	(4)
James Rorty
17 "The Influence of Radio upon Mental and Social Life," from The Psychology of Radio (1935)	110	(6)
Hadley Cantril and Gordon W. Allport
18 "Foreword," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1937)	116	(2)
Editors, Public Opinion Quarterly
19 "Human Interest Stories and Democracy," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1937)	118	(6)
Helen MacGill Hughes
20 From The Fine Art of Propaganda (1939)	124	(4)
Alfred McClung Lee and Elizabeth Briant Lee
21 "A Powerful, Bold, and Unmeasurable Party?" from The Pulse of Democracy (1940)	128	(6)
George Gallup and Saul Rae
22 "Democracy in Reverse," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1940)	134	(2)
Robert S. Lynd
23 "Needed Research in Communication," from the Rockefeller Archives (1940)	136	(3)
Lyman Bryson, Lloyd A. Free, Geoffrey Gorer, Harold D. Lasswell, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Robert S. Lynd, John Marshall, Charles A. Siepmann, Donald Slesinger, and Douglas Waples
24 "On Borrowed Experience: An Analysis of Listening to Daytime Sketches," from Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)	139	(18)
Herta Herzog
25 "Art and Mass Culture," from Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)	157	(9)
Max Horkheimer
26 "Administrative and Critical Communications Research," from Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)	166	(8)
Paul F. Lazarsfeld
27 "The Popular Music Industry," from Radio Research 1941 (1942)	174	(6)
Duncan MacDougald Jr.
28 From Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944)	180	(2)
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno
29 "Nazi Propaganda and Violence," from German Radio Propaganda (1944)	182	(6)
Ernst Kris and Hans Speier
30 "Biographies in Popular Magazines," from Radio Research 1942-1943 (1944)	188	(18)
Leo Lowenthal
31 "The Negro Press," from An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944)	206	(4)
Gunnar Myrdal
32 "A Social Critique of Radio Music," from the Kenyon Review (1945)	210	(5)
Theodor W. Adorno
33 "The Social and Cultural Context," from Mass Persuasion (1946)	215	(3)
Robert K. Merton
34 "The Requirements," from A Free and Responsible Press (1947)	218	(4)
Hutchins Commission
35 "Mass Media," from UNESCO: Its Philosophy and Purpose (1947)	222	(2)
Julian Sorrell Huxley
36 "The Enormous Radio," from The Enormous Radio and Other Stories (1947)	224	(6)
John Cheever
37 "Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action," from The Communication of Ideas (1948)	230	(12)
Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton
38 Table from "Communication Research and the Social Psychologist," from Current Trends in Social Psychology (1948)	242	(1)
Paul F. Lazarsfeld
39 "Information, Language, and Society," from Cybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948)	243	(6)
Norbert Wiener
40 "Consensus and Mass Communication," from American Sociological Review (1948)	249	(5)
Louis Wirth
41 "What 'Missing the Newspaper' Means," from Communications Research (1949)	254	(9)
Bernard Berelson
Part III: The American Dream and Its Discontents: Mass Communication Theory, 1949-1968
Introduction	263	(12)
42 "Industrialism and Cultural Values," from The Bias of Communication (1950)	275	(5)
Harold A. Innis
43 "Emerging from Magic," from Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1950)	280	(13)
Hortense Powdermaker
44 "Storytellers as Tutors in Technique," from The Lonely Crowd (1950)	293	(16)
David Riesman, with Reuel Denney and Nathan Glazer
45 "Our Next Frontier . . . Transoceanic TV," from Look (1950)	309	(1)
David Sarnoff
46 "Communication in the Sovietized State, as Demonstrated in Korea," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1951)	310	(8)
Wilbur Schramm and John W. Riley Jr.
47 "The Consumer's Stake in Radio and Television," from Quarterly of Film, Radio and Television (1951)	318	(10)
Dallas Smythe
48 "The Unique Perspective of Television and Its Effect: A Pilot Study," from American Sociological Review (1952)	328	(10)
Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang
49 "Technology and Political Change," from International Journal (1952)	338	(5)
Marshall McLuhan
50 "A Theory of Mass Culture," from Diogenes (1953)	343	(10)
Dwight Macdonald
51 "Sight, Sound, and Fury," from Commonweal (1954)	353	(5)
Marshall McLuhan
52 "Between Media and Mass," from Personal Influence (1955)	358	(6)
Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld
53 "The Theory of Mass Society: A Critique," from Commentary (1956)	364	(9)
Daniel Bell
54 "Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance," from Psychiatry (1956)	373	(14)
Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl
55 "The Mass Society," from The Power Elite (1956)	387	(14)
C. Wright Mills
56 "FDR and the White House Mail," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1956)	401	(8)
Leila A. Sussmann
57 "Notes on a Natural History of Fads," from American Journal of Sociology (1957)	409	(8)
Rolf Meyersohn and Elihu Katz
58 "Mass Communication and Socio-cultural Integration," from Social Forces (1958)	417	(9)
Warren Breed
59 "Modernizing Styles of Life: A Theory," from The Passing of Traditional Society (1958)	426	(8)
Daniel Lerner
60 "The Social-Anatomy of the Romance-Confession Cover Girl," from Journalism Quarterly (1959)	434	(6)
George Gerbner
61 "The State of Communication Research," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1959)	440	(6)
Bernard Berelson
62 "The State of Communication Research: Comments," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1959)	446	(8)
Wilbur Schramm, David Riesman, and Raymond Bauer
63 "What Is Mass Communication?" from Mass Communication: A Sociological Perspective (1959)	454	(3)
Charles R. Wright
64 "Social Theory and Mass Media," from Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science (1961)	457	(8)
Thelma McCormack
65 "Television and the Public Interest" (1961)	465	(7)
Newton Minow
66 "The Kennedy Assassination and the Nature of Political Commitment," from The Kennedy Assassination and the American Public (1965)	472	(8)
Sidney Verba
67 "TV Overseas: The U.S. Hard Sell," from The Nation (1966)	480	(5)
Herbert Schiller
68 "Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Societies," from Negations (1968)	485	(10)
Herbert Marcuse
Afterword and Acknowledgments	495	(4)
Other Readers and Historical Collections in American Mass Communication Study and Related Subjects	499	(2)
Suggested Films	501	(4)
Select Supplementary Reading List	505	(4)
The Intellectual History of North American Media Studies, 1919-1968: A Selected Bibliography (Including Works Cited in Interpretive Essays)	509	(10)
Credits	519	(6)
Index	525	(6)
About the Editors	531