A New Look at Mass Media: Agents of Control and Change

At a time when critical scholars maintain that the mass media serve the dominant ideology and seek maximum profits with increasing conglomeration and consolidation, David Demers’ new book, History and Future of Mass Media: An Integrated Perspective, provides a refreshing new picture of the state of corporate media in the U.S. Using historical research and empirical data, the book takes an eclectic approach and argues that the media can work to facilitate social change in addition to preserving the status quo. Unlike most textbooks about the history of mass media that detail the development of each medium, Demers’ is a monograph that adopts the perspective of ‘‘a structural model of social change’’ (p. ix). With engaging chapter openers, the book traces the brief history of each medium, discusses media’s dual functions as agents of control and change, and explores the future of corporate global media. The Introduction lays the theoretical foundation by explaining the ‘‘seven propositions’’ of Demers’ social historical theory and calling attention to both human agency and social institutions (pp. 1 3). The book consists of three parts that focus on the print media, the electronic media, and the future of mass media. Chapter 1 describes the history of human communication from oral culture through writing culture to print culture, and discusses the significance of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press and its contributions to the development of mass media. This chapter indicates that mass production of books and written documents led to rising literacy, decentralized political power, provided new opportunities to challenge the authorities, and paved the way for such movements as the Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance. Chapters 2 5 explore the development of the newspaper industry in North America, including the first American newspapers, the Zenger trial and establishment of truth as ‘‘a defense for libel,’’ the partisan press, the penny press,