Mass Communication and American Social Thought

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. Topics include popular theater, yellow journalism, cinema, books, public relations, political and military propaganda, advertising, opinion polling, photography, the avant-garde, popular magazines, comics, the urban press, radio drama, soap opera, popular music, and television drama and news. This text is ideal for upper-level courses in mass communication and media theory, media and society, mass communication effects, and mass media history.

Auteur
John Durham Peters is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. Peter Simonson is assistant professor of communication at the University of Pittsburgh.

Contenu
Chapter 1 Introduction: Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts, 1919-1968
Part 2 Part I From Hope to Disillusionment: Mass Communication Theory Coalesces, 1919-1933
Chapter 3 1 "The Process of Social Change," from Political Science Quarterly (1897)
Chapter 4 2 "The House of Dreams," from The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (1909)
Chapter 5 3 From Winesburg, Ohio (1919)
Chapter 6 4 From Introduction to the Science of Sociology (1921)
Chapter 7 5 "Nature, Communication, and Meaning," from Experience and Nature (1925)
Chapter 8 6 "The Disenchanted Man," from The Phantom Public (1925)
Chapter 9 7 "Criteria of Negro Art," from Crisis Magazine (1926)
Chapter 10 8 "The Results of Propaganda," from Propaganda Technique in the World War (1927)
Chapter 11 9 "Manipulating Public Opinion: The Why and the How" (1928)
Chapter 12 10 From Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929)
Chapter 13 11 "Communication," from Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (1931)
Part 14 Part II The World in Turmoil: Communications Research, 1933-1949
Chapter 15 12 "Conclusion," from Movies and Conduct (1933)
Chapter 16 13 "The Integration of Communication," from Communication Agencies and Social Life (1933)
Chapter 17 14 "Toward a Critique of Negro Music," from Opportunity (1934)
Chapter 18 15 From Technics and Civilization (1934)
Chapter 19 16 "The Business Nobody Knows," from Our Master's Voice (1934)
Chapter 20 17 "The Influence of Radio upon Mental and Social Life," from The Psychology of Radio (1935)
Chapter 21 18 "Foreword," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1937)
Chapter 22 19 "Human Interest Stories and Democracy," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1937)
Chapter 23 20 From The Fine Art of Propaganda (1939)
Chapter 24 21 "A Powerful, Bold, and Unmeasurable Party?" from The Pulse of Democracy (1940)
Chapter 25 22 "Democracy in Reverse," from Public Opinion Quarterly (1940)
Chapter 26 23 "Needed Research in Communication," from the Rockefeller Archives (1940)
Chapter 27 24 "On Borrowed Experience: An Analysis of Listening to Daytime Sketches," from Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)
Chapter 28 25 "Art and Mass Culture," from Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)
Chapter 29 26 "Administrative and Critical Communications Research," from Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)
Chapter 30 27 "The Popular Music Industry," from Radio Research 1941 (1942)
Chapter 31 28 From Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944)
Chapter 32 29 "Nazi Propaganda and Violence," from German Radio Propaganda (1944)
Chapter 33 30 "Biographies in Popular Magazines," from Radio Research 1942-1943 (1944)
Chapter 34 31 "The Negro Press," from An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944)
Chapter 35 32 "A Social Critique of Radio Music," from the Kenyon Review (1945)
Chapter 36 33 "The Social and Cultural Context," from Mass Persuasion (1946)
Chapter 37 34 "The Requirements," from A Free and Responsible Press (1947)
Chapter 38 35 "Mass Media," from UNESCO: Its Philosophy and Purpose (1947)
Chapter 39 36 "The Enormous Radio," from The Enormous Radio and Other Stories (1947)
Chapter 40 37 "Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action," from The Communication of Ideas (1948)
Chapter 41 38 Table from "Communication Research and the Social Psychologist," from Current Trends in Social Psychology (1948)
Chapter 42 39 "Information, Language, and Society," from Cybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948)
Chapter 43 40 "Consensus and Mass Communication," from American Sociological Review (1948)
Chapter 44 41 "What 'Missing the Newspaper' Means," from Communications Research (1949)
Part 45 Part III The American Dream and Its Discontents: Mass Communication Theory, 1949-1968 ...