The Mana of Mass Society

The Mana of Mass Society
Author: William Mazzarella
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2017-10-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 022643639X

We often invoke the “magic” of mass media to describe seductive advertising or charismatic politicians. In The Mana of Mass Society, William Mazzarella asks what happens to social theory if we take that idea seriously. How would it change our understanding of publicity, propaganda, love, and power? Mazzarella reconsiders the concept of “mana,” which served in early anthropology as a troubled bridge between “primitive” ritual and the fascination of mass media. Thinking about mana, Mazzarella shows, means rethinking some of our most fundamental questions: What powers authority? What in us responds to it? Is the mana that animates an Aboriginal ritual the same as the mana that energizes a revolutionary crowd, a consumer public, or an art encounter? At the intersection of anthropology and critical theory, The Mana of Mass Society brings recent conversations around affect, sovereignty, and emergence into creative contact with classic debates on religion, charisma, ideology, and aesthetics.

Mass Media in a Mass Society

Mass Media in a Mass Society
Author: Richard Hoggart
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2006-10-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780826494054

Takes a number of aspects of mass society - celebrity worship, youth culture, broadcasting and a decline in the proper use of language, and considers the paradox that the ready accessibility of information of all types does not automatically lead to greater comprehension of our world.

The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society

The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society
Author: Debra L. Merskin
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 2169
Release: 2019-11-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1483375528

The reference will discuss mass media around the world in their varied forms—newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film, books, music, websites, and social media—and will describe the role of each in both mirroring and shaping society.

Media and Society

Media and Society
Author: John Ryan
Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1999
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

In this large-scale, postindustrial society, the mass media has become deeply embedded into the lifestyles of everyday citizens. People are lured by television ratings, celebrity-sponsored products, and high-profile crimes and scandals, all finding their way into living rooms across America by satellites, cable wires, and modems. This book examines the real, imagined, and potential effects of the mass media on individuals and society. The book explores the processes through which the mass media is enabled and constrained by such factors as technology, law, industry structure, and occupational careers, accounting for the vast changes that have developed in recent years. This book is divided into two parts. Part I defines mass communication and locates its role in social life. Part II considers the factors which influence media content, providing insight into how the industry operates. Sociologists, Communication and Mass Media specialists, film, music, and pop culture critics, and enthusiasts of these fields.

Culture, Society and the Media

Culture, Society and the Media
Author: Tony Bennett
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2005-07-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134972121

This book discusses two related themes concerning the role and processes of mass communication in society. The first deals with questions regarding the power of the media: how should it be defined? how is it wielded and by whom? are previous approaches and answers to such questions adequate? The second theme revolves around the divisions between the liberal pluralist and Marxist approaches to the analysis of the nature of the media. These divisions have, in recent years, been fundamental to the debate concerning the understanding of the role of mass communication, and the examination of them in this book will challenge the reader to look more closely at a number of assumptions that have long been taken for granted.

Social Media and Society

Social Media and Society
Author: Regina Luttrell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2024-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1538186004

Exploring social media's integration with modern society, this text empowers students as social media consumers and creators. The thoroughly updated second edition includes a new chapter on AI technologies. Features include full color visuals; glossary; chapter questions and activities; and theory, ethics, and diversity and inclusion boxes.

Mass Media in Modern Society

Mass Media in Modern Society
Author: Norman Jacobs
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2022-10-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000678024

In this lively and yet scholarly book, creative artists, people who direct channels of communications, and social scientists present their numerous positions and deeply felt disagreements.

Media and Society

Media and Society
Author: Arthur Asa Berger
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2012-08-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1442217812

Media and Society: A Critical Perspective offers an accessible introduction to the role that the mass media play in our lives, our society, and American culture. Berger explores the relationship between consumers and media with an emphasis on the shaping influence that both have on each other. This lively text, illustrated with original sketches by the author, equips students with the tools necessary to analyze the media that permeates their lives. The third edition features a discussion of the impact of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media on youth culture, an expanded discussion of media ethics, including the Murdoch phone-tapping scandal, an analysis of how media has affected our political landscape, and updated examples and material on media theories and ideology.

Mass Communication and American Social Thought

Mass Communication and American Social Thought
Author: John Durham Peters
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2004
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780742528390

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.