1. C. Wright Mills Mass Society Theory A Guide

2. Initial Questions Initially, one would ask question like:- What is Mass Society Theory? How is it related to the media? When did this theory emerge? Who developed it, and directly associated with it?

3. Case Study In 1938, a spoof radio broadcast in the U.S. reported that Martians were invading earth. ‘It led to a panic of national proportions’ (Cantril et al. 1940, cited in Williams 2003: 42-3). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeLy8rqN3iQ&feature=related Broadcast in a docudrama style from L.A., the programme resulted in hordes of people fleeing the city, believing it was under attack (McCullagh 2002: 152). This evidence provided study of media power over people, or Mass Society Theory.

4. Lineage and the idea of Mass Society Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59). A French sociologist who travelled the U.S. in the 1830’s, providing the basis for posited debates about mass society. Democracy in America (1835-40) – warning against ‘the “tyranny of the majority”, by which “every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd”’ (cited in Marshall 1998: 669). Tocqueville, warned of ‘social disintegration’ (Williams 2003: 24).

5. Other contributions ‘ Social disintegration’ were echoed in the work of three others in the 19 th century. Durkheim (1858-1917) proposed the idea of ‘anomie’ in the new era. Weber (1864-1920) introduced the notion of bureaucracy. Tonnies (1855-1936) noted distinctions between the relationships in small-scale and large-scale societies, characterised as Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (association).

6. Common elements Each of these writers responded to profound changes occurring in Western societies from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. ‘Essentially, these transformations were attributed to industrialisation, urbanisation, advances in science, colonialism, the emergence of mass democracy and mass education, and developing systems of public communication (McQuail 2005: 51; Williams 2003: 23).

7. Common elements continued… These developments illustrate a paradigm shift from traditional locally and socially strengthened communities, to a more vulnerable ‘Mass Society’. The ‘mass society’ as it was to be known, were more susceptible to manipulation or persuasion by emerging mass political and media organisations (McCullagh 2002: 152).

8. Oppositional debate The ‘Mass Society’ theory was deemed ‘elitist nostalgia’ (Marshall 1998: 399). The rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism in Europe and the Soviet Union between 1930-1960 brought about a reappraisal, which concreted the term.

9. Notions of ‘Mass’ The word ‘mass’ occurred between WWI (1914-18) and WWII (1939-45). The term coincided with the expansion of radio, television, telephone, newspapers, novels and records. These terms of media were prevalently consumed by society. Terms were used, such as:- Mass Communication, Mass Media, Mass production, Mass Entertainment, Mass Markets, Mass Politics and Mass Culture. Mass in this way was (and is) perceived as negative – i.e. ‘The masses being the urban, industrial working classes’ (Scannel 2003: 74).

10. Propaganda as pro-genesis Co-optation of the media for ideological gain lent academic weight to mass society theorists. WWI – Europe and the U.S. used propaganda to secure votes, for conscription and for other ‘mass’ manipulation. WWII – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the Allies used the news and the entertainment media.

11. What does mass society theory suggest about audience? The simple answer is:- Listeners, viewers and readers are constructed as dopes, dupes or, in recent parlance, couch potatoes.

12. Critical reflection Television article (1953) – ‘Television audiences are being atomised and made vulnerable – the essence of mass society’ (Katz and Dayan 2003: 132) Radio article (1941) – ‘Female listeners are coming across as being alienated, isolated, helpless victims of mass society, of the patriarchal system, and of mass media, which operate as an effective tool in service of both society and the system’ (Liebes 2003: 40)

13. References to mass society The Frankfurt school addresses it as ‘a withering critique on mass popular culture’. F.R. Leavis addresses it as ‘American cultural goods and the emergence of mass culture is driven by a profit motive’

14. C. Wright Mills He was a key representative of mass society theory, arguing that a ‘power elite’ is able to manipulate the masses, despite the apparent existence of democracy (Boyd-Barrett 1995b: 68). He also iterates that, ‘mass society theory is not a theory of the media, only that the media are implicated as the foundation stones of the mass society’ (McQuail 2005: 94-5). Thus, mass society theory gave a ‘primacy to the media as a casual factor’ (McQuail 2005: 94-5)

15. The reading The Power Elite (1956) Chapter 13, ‘The mass society’ Written by [C]harles Wright Mills It focuses on American society only Other chapters include; ‘The very rich’, ‘The Chief Executives’, ‘The Corporate Rich’, ‘The Warlords’, ‘The Military Ascendancy’, ‘The Political Directorate’ and ‘The Celebrities’ (a timeless relevancy). Mills was a professor of sociology at the Columbia school. Other works include; White Collar: the American middle classes (1957), The Sociological Imagination (1959), Sociology and Pragmatism: higher learning in America (1967) He was known fondly as the ‘Public Intellectual’.