of the things that filled the vacuum created
what theorists have called the “mass society.”
The mass society is a term that condenses these various changes into a single model
concept, and is a way that the historical development of advertising and public relations c
be organized summarily. The “mass society” model was originally developed by late 1
century crowd theorists like Gustav LeBon and Gabriel Tarde, and was used to explain t
new kind of society many thought was taking form out of the conditions created by t
Industrial Revolution, rapid technological change, and other related phenomena in mode
culture. Here is a definition of the “mass society” from the book Milestones in Ma
Communication by Lowery and DeFleur (pp. 3-4):
"An essential beginning point for understanding the development of frameworks for the
study of mass communication is to review the mean of the term 'mass society'. It is from
this concept that came such derived terms as 'mass' audience, 'mass' media, and ...
'mass' communication.... The underlying features that distinguish this society from other
forms (e.g., traditional society) have to do with the relationship between their members
rather than the size of their populations. The idea of mass as a form of societal
organization emerged from a century and a half of theoretical analyses by a number of
pioneer social scientists."
The mass society model reflected a view of society that we would regard today as 英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】elitist and
anti-democratic, as it assumed that the public in the democratic West was not sufficiently
intelligent to govern itself, and was (depending on one’s political views) either tragically
vulnerable to manipulation or had to be managed for the public’s own good. Advertising and
public relations appear as means to communicate with this imagined “mass,” offering
standardized messages to millions of anonymous consumers and citizens on a national
scale.
b. public relations in critical perspective
Among all media forms, the one that has made its chief concern the problem of who
receives messages and how these messages change people is that area of professional
communications called public relations. Of course, all media industries aim to capture
audiences, and use a century of research in audience psychology to do just that. But no
other media discipline—newspapers, electronic media, advertising, or film—has made it its
unique burden to talk directly and to deliberately shape the public’s views. The mass media
seek to inform and entertain, and advertising works to encourage us to buy products and
services. Public relations, as contrasted with news, entertainment, and advertising, acts to
change our views about leading issues, powerful interests, and tarnished reputations.
Public relations is difficult to think about because it normally does its work invisibly. The
essence of PR is this: take a private message like “Company
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