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Information about Mass Society

Mass society is a description associated with society in the modern, industrial era. Desciptions of society as a "mass" took form in the 19th century, referring to the leveling tendencies in the period of the Industrial Revolution that undermined traditional and aristocratic values.

In the work of early 19th century political theorists such as Alexis de Tocqueville, the term was used in discussions of elite concerns about a shift in the body politic of the Western world pronounced since the French Revolution. Such elite concerns centered in large part on the "tyranny of the majority," or mob rule.

In the late 19th century, in the work of Émile Durkheim, the term was associated with society as a mass of undifferentiated, atomistic individuals.

In 20th century neo-Marxist accounts, such as those of the Frankfurt School, mass society was linked to a society of alienated individuals held together by a culture industry that served the interests of capitalism.

Conservative accounts in the 20th century critqued mass society from a different perspective. José Ortega y Gasset, for instance, lamented as the decline of high culture in mass society.

Concept

Mass society as an ideology can be accounted for by attending to the term most often used as the polar opposite of mass, namely elite. A form of society theoretically identified as dominated by a small number of interconnected elites who control the conditions of life of the many, often by means of persuasion and manipulation.[1] This indicates the politics of mass society theorists- they are advocates of various kinds of cultural elite who should be privileged and promoted over the masses, claiming for themselves both exemption from and leadership of the misguided masses.[2]

Mass society theory has been active in a wide range of media studies, where it tends to produce ideal visions of what the mass media such as television and cinema are doing to the masses. Therefore, the mass media are necessary instruments for achieving and maintaining mass society.

References

1. ^ McQuail, 2005, p. 449.
2. ^ Hartley, 1982

See also

Bibliography

  • Biddiss, M. 1977, The Age of the Masses, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
  • Hartley, J. 1982, Understanding News, Methuen, London.
  • McQuail, D. 2005, McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory (fifth edition), Sage, London.
  • Mills, C.W. 1956, The Power Elite, Oxford University Press, New York.
  • Swingewood, A. 1977, The Myth of Mass Culture, Macmillan, London.

Further reading

  • Chapter 13 of The Power Elite under a claim of fair use
  • Ortega y Gasset, Jose. The Revolt of the Masses, anonymous translation (1932). The Spanish original: La Rebellion de las Masas (1930).
  • Tuttle, Howard N. The Crowd is Untruth: The Existential Critique of Mass Society in the Thought of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Ortega y Gassett (1996). (American University Studies: Ser. 5, Philosophy; Vol. 176) New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-2866-3
society is a grouping of individuals which is characterized by common interests and may have distinctive culture and institutions. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups.
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Industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent, industrious"), is the segment of economy concerned with production of goods. Industry began in its present form during the 1800s, aided by technological advances, and it has continued to develop to this day.
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Mass may refer to:

In science

  • Mass, the amount of matter in an object to which its weight is proportional
  • Rest mass, the mass of a particle or other object while at rest in a particular reference frame

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Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation had a profound effect on socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain and subsequently spread throughout the world, a process that
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aristocracy refers to a form of government where power is held by a small number of individuals from a social elite or from noble families. The transmission of power is often hereditary.
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Alexis de Tocqueville

Born: July 29 1805(1805--)
Verneuil-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Died: March 16 1859 (aged 55)
Cannes, France
Occupation: Political Philosopher
Historian


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The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal
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The phrase tyranny of the majority, used in discussing systems of democracy and majority rule, is a criticism of the scenario in which decisions made by a majority under that system would place that majority's interests so far above a minority's interest as to be comparable in
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Ochlocracy (Greek: οχλοκρατία or ohlokratía; Latin: ochlocratia) is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of constitutional authorities.
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Émile Durkheim (IPA: [dyʁˈkɛm]; April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French sociologist whose contributions were instrumental in the formation of sociology and anthropology.
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Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist critical theory, social research, and philosophy. The grouping emerged at the Institute for Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung
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Alienation may refer to:
  • Alienation (property law), the legal transfer of title of ownership to another party
  • "Alienation", the medical term for splitting apart of the faculties of the mind

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Culture industry is a term coined by Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895-1973), who argued that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods to manipulate the masses into passivity; the easy pleasures available through consumption of
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Economic systems

Ideologies and Theories
Primitive communism
Capitalist economy
Corporate economy
Fascist economy
Laissez-faire
Mercantilism
Natural economy
Social market economy
Socialist economy
Communist economy


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José Ortega y Gasset (May 9, 1883 - October 18, 1955) was a Spanish philosopher.

Biography

José Ortega y Gasset was born May 9, 1883 in Madrid. His father was director of the newspaper "El Imparcial", which belonged to the family of his mother, Dolores Gasset.
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High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the Arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture, or denoting the culture of ruling social groups.
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Hoi polloi (Greek: ), an expression meaning "the many" in Greek is used in English to denote "the masses" or "the people", usually in a derogatory sense. For example, "I've secured a private box for the play so we don't have to watch the show with the hoi polloi.
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José Ortega y Gasset (May 9, 1883 - October 18, 1955) was a Spanish philosopher.

Biography

José Ortega y Gasset was born May 9, 1883 in Madrid. His father was director of the newspaper "El Imparcial", which belonged to the family of his mother, Dolores Gasset.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1900s  1910s  1920s  - 1930s -  1940s  1950s  1960s
1929 1930 1931 - 1932 - 1933 1934 1935

Year 1932 (MCMXXXII
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1900s  1910s  1920s  - 1930s -  1940s  1950s  1960s
1927 1928 1929 - 1930 - 1931 1932 1933

Year 1930 (MCMXXX
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1960s  1970s  1980s  - 1990s -  2000s  2010s  2020s
1993 1994 1995 - 1996 - 1997 1998 1999

Year 1996 (MCMXCVI
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