Mass media in a mass society : myth and reality / Richard Hoggart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hoggart, Richard, 1918-2014.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media--Social aspects.

Mass media.

Physical Description:

ix, 214 pages ; 18 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, 2004.

Summary:

Hoggart takes a number of aspects of mass society today -- celebrity worship, youth culture, broadcasting, and a decline in the proper use of language -- and considers the paradox that the ready accessibility of information does not automatically lead to greater comprehension of our world. Information itself is inert and only leads to knowledge if it has been ordered and assessed.

He considers the slow but uninterrupted dissolution of old beliefs, the erosion of traditional pillars of authority throughout a century and a half of sustained intellectual criticism and the resulting corruption of language.

The central focus of the book is an examination of broadcasting as the prime disseminator of mass information. Hoggart makes an impassioned argument for Public Service Broadcasting in its truest form, and sees the Public Service ideal as coming increasingly under attack from today's BBC broadcasters who seem to believe that the overwhelming function of television today is to entertain.

Contents:

1 Mass Society: An Outline 1

2 The View from Above: and a Parade of Persuaders, Defenders and Apologists 24

3 From Consumption, Concentration, Classless Compartments to Relativism 47

4 Celebrities, Sponsors, Youth 82

5 Broadcasting Yesterday and Today, Chiefly by the BBC 108

6 Language and Meanings 140

7 Gains and Losses 158

8 Baggage for the Road 177.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0826472850

OCLC:

55606800