The Worker and the Media

Abstract

The mass media have aroused concern and discussion by social scientists—both as media of political persuasion and as conveyors of mass culture. The first aspect—the media as means of political persuasion—arose as a direct result of the spectacular use of mass propaganda by the Fascists. It has since become a component of the continuing discussion about the means of modernization of underdeveloped societies. The second aspect—the media as conveyors of mass culture—goes back at least to the nineteenth century discussion about the impact of the first “mass medium”, cheap print, such as the “penny dreadfuls” and the “railway literature”.