Mass communication popular taste and organized social action.

Abstract

This is perhaps the most sophisticated statement of the point of view that the chief social effect of the mass media is no change--to enforce the status quo and keep change from happening. This famous paper is full of ideas and concepts that have been discussed ever since it was published--the status-conferral power of the media their narcotizing dysfunction (the ability to inform their audiences and absorb their time with emerging them) their ability to canalize behavior (if a person is already convinced about the usefulness of a toothbrush it is not difficult to direct him to 1 toothbrush rather than another) and so on. It will repay thoughtful reading. But the central thesis is that the mass communication system integrated as it is into the business establishment has its chief social effect in enforcing existing norms and values. Mass propaganda can be effective it is said only when it has monopoly control when it is supplemented in an important way by personal communication or when it is satisfied with canalizing some already existing viewpoints of behaviors. Drs. Lazarsfeld and Merton are professors of sociology at Columbia University and Dr. Lazarsfeld was for many years the director of the Bureau of Applied Social Research. This paper was published in The Communication of Ideas edited by Lyman Bryson by the Institute for Religious and Social Studies in New York in 1948. It is reprinted by permission of the authors and the holder of the copyright. (authors modified)

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