Refiguring Mass Communication: A History (The History of Media and Communication) - Softcover

Simonson, Peter

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9780252077050: Refiguring Mass Communication: A History (The History of Media and Communication)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0252077059 ISBN 13: 9780252077050
Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2010

Synopsis

This unique inquiry into the history and ongoing moral significance of mass communication also represents a defense, extension, and overhaul of the idea and social form of the discipline. Organized around narrative accounts of individuals and their communicative worlds, Refiguring Mass Communication illuminates significant but overlooked rhetorical episodes in history to enable modern-day readers to rehabilitate and reinvigorate their own engagements with mass communication.

Coined in the 1920s as a way to describe radio, motion pictures, wide-circulation magazines, and the press, the term "mass communication" frequently is misused in the era of cable TV, niche marketing, and the Internet. In Refiguring Mass Communication, Peter Simonson compares his own vision of mass communication with distinct views articulated throughout history by Paul of Tarsus, Walt Whitman, Charles Horton Cooley, David Sarnoff, and Robert K. Merton, utilizing a collection of texts and tenets from a variety of time periods and perspectives. Drawing on textual and archival research as well as access to Merton's personal papers, Simonson broadly reconceives a sense of communication theory and what social processes might be considered species of mass communication. Simonson reveals the geographical and social contexts from which these visions have emerged and the religious and moral horizons against which they have taken shape. In a unique perspective, he considers the American county fair as an example of a live gathering and crucial site that is overlooked in contemporary forms of mass communication, urging a reconsideration of how individuals participate in and shape similar forms.

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About the Author

Peter Simonson is an associate professor of communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the coeditor of Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts, 1920-1968.

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Publisher
University of Illinois Press
Publication date
2010
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0252077059
ISBN 13 
9780252077050
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
280
Rating
  • 2.67 out of 5 stars
    6 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780252035173: Refiguring Mass Communication: A History (The History of Media and Communication)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0252035178 ISBN 13:  9780252035173
Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2010
Hardcover