Mass society
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Mass society is a description associated with society in the modern, industrial era. Descriptions of society as a "mass" took form in the 19th century, referring to the leveling tendencies in the period of the Industrial Revolution that undermined traditional and aristocratic values.
In the work of early 19th century political theorists such as Alexis de Tocqueville, the term was used in discussions of elite concerns about a shift in the body politic of the Western world pronounced since the French Revolution. Such elite concerns centered in large part on the "tyranny of the majority," or mob rule.
In the late 19th century, in the work of Émile Durkheim, the term was associated with society as a mass of undifferentiated, atomistic individuals.
In 20th century neo-Marxist accounts, such as those of the Frankfurt School, mass society was linked to a society of alienated individuals held together by a culture industry that served the interests of capitalism.
Conservative accounts in the 20th century critqued mass society from a different perspective. José Ortega y Gasset, for instance, lamented as the decline of high culture in mass society.
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[edit] Concept
Mass society as an ideology can be accounted for by attending to the term most often used as the polar opposite of mass, namely elite. A form of society theoretically identified as dominated by a small number of interconnected elites who control the conditions of life of the many, often by means of persuasion and manipulation.[1] This indicates the politics of mass society theorists- they are advocates of various kinds of cultural elite who should be privileged and promoted over the masses, claiming for themselves both exemption from and leadership of the misguided masses.[2]
Mass society theory has been active in a wide range of media studies, where it tends to produce ideal visions of what the mass media such as television and cinema are doing to the masses. Therefore, the mass media are necessary instruments for achieving and maintaining mass society.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- Biddiss, M. 1977, The Age of the Masses, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
- Hartley, J. 1982, Understanding News, Methuen, London.
- McQuail, D. 2005, McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory (fifth edition), Sage, London.
- Mills, C.W. 1956, The Power Elite, Oxford University Press, New York.
- Swingewood, A. 1977, The Myth of Mass Culture, Macmillan, London.
[edit] Further reading
- Ortega y Gasset, Jose. The Revolt of the Masses, anonymous translation (1932). The Spanish original: La Rebellion de las Masas (1930).
- Tuttle, Howard N. The Crowd is Untruth: The Existential Critique of Mass Society in the Thought of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Ortega y Gassett (1996). (American University Studies: Ser. 5, Philosophy; Vol. 176) New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-2866-3
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