This anthology of hard-to-find primary documents provides a solid overview of the foundations of American media studies. Focusing on mass communication and society and how this research fits into larger patterns of social thought, this valuable collection features key texts covering the media studies traditions of the Chicago school, the effects tradition, the critical theory of the Frankfurt school, and mass society theory. Where possible, articles are reproduced in their entirety to preserve the historical flavor and texture of the original works. Topics include popular theater, yellow journalism, cinema, books, public relations, political and military propaganda, advertising, opinion polling, photography, the avant-garde, popular magazines, comics, the urban press, radio drama, soap opera, popular music, and television drama and news. This text is ideal for upper-level courses in mass communication and media theory, media and society, mass communication effects, and mass media history.

John Durham Peters is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.Peter Simonson is assistant professor of communication at the University of Pittsburgh.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts, 1919-1968Part 2 Part I From Hope to Disillusionment: Mass Communication Theory Coalesces, 1919-1933Chapter 3 1 "The Process of Social Change," fromPolitical Science Quarterly (1897)Chapter 4 2 "The House of Dreams," fromThe Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (1909)Chapter 5 3 FromWinesburg, Ohio (1919)Chapter 6 4 FromIntroduction to the Science of Sociology (1921)Chapter 7 5 "Nature, Communication, and Meaning," fromExperience and Nature (1925)Chapter 8 6 "The Disenchanted Man," fromThe Phantom Public (1925)Chapter 9 7 "Criteria of Negro Art," fromCrisis Magazine (1926)Chapter 10 8 "The Results of Propaganda," fromPropaganda Technique in the World War (1927)Chapter 11 9 "Manipulating Public Opinion: The Why and the How" (1928)Chapter 12 10 FromMiddletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929)Chapter 13 11 "Communication," fromEncyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (1931)Part 14 Part II The World in Turmoil: Communications Research, 1933-1949Chapter 15 12 "Conclusion," fromMovies and Conduct (1933)Chapter 16 13 "The Integration of Communication," fromCommunication Agencies and Social Life (1933)Chapter 17 14 "Toward a Critique of Negro Music," fromOpportunity (1934)Chapter 18 15 FromTechnics and Civilization (1934)Chapter 19 16 "The Business Nobody Knows," fromOur Master's Voice (1934)Chapter 20 17 "The Influence of Radio upon Mental and Social Life," fromThe Psychology of Radio (1935)Chapter 21 18 "Foreword," fromPublic Opinion Quarterly (1937)Chapter 22 19 "Human Interest Stories and Democracy," fromPublic Opinion Quarterly (1937)Chapter 23 20 FromThe Fine Art of Propaganda (1939)Chapter 24 21 "A Powerful, Bold, and Unmeasurable Party?" fromThe Pulse of Democracy (1940)Chapter 25 22 "Democracy in Reverse," fromPublic Opinion Quarterly (1940)Chapter 26 23 "Needed Research in Communication," from theRockefeller Archives (1940)Chapter 27 24 "On Borrowed Experience: An Analysis of Listening to Daytime Sketches," fromStudies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)Chapter 28 25 "Art and Mass Culture," fromStudies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)Chapter 29 26 "Administrative and Critical Communications Research," fromStudies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)Chapter 30 27 "The Popular Music Industry," fromRadio Research 1941 (1942)Chapter 31 28 FromDialectic of Enlightenment (1944)Chapter 32 29 "Nazi Propaganda and Violence," fromGerman Radio Propaganda (1944)Chapter 33 30 "Biographies in Popular Magazines," fromRadio Research 1942-1943 (1944)Chapter 34 31 "The Negro Press," fromAn American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944)Chapter 35 32 "A Social Critique of Radio Music," from theKenyon Review (1945)Chapter 36 33 "The Social and Cultural Context," fromMass Persuasion (1946)Chapter 37 34 "The Requirements," fromA Free and Responsible Press (1947)Chapter 38 35 "Mass Media," fromUNESCO: Its Philosophy and Purpose (1947)Chapter 39 36 "The Enormous Radio," fromThe Enormous Radio and Other Stories (1947)Chapter 40 37 "Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action," fromThe Communication of Ideas (1948)Chapter 41 38 Table from "Communication Research and the Social Psychologist," fromCurrent Trends in Social Psychology (1948)Chapter 42 39 "Information, Language, and Society," fromCybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948)Chapter 43 40 "Consensus and Mass Communication," fromAmerican Sociological Review (1948)Chapter 44 41 "What 'Missing the Newspaper' Means," fromCommunications Research (1949)Part 45 Part III The American Dream and Its Discontents: Mass Communication Theory, 1949-1968Chapter 46 42 "Industrialism and Cultural Values," fromThe Bias of Communication (1950)Chapter 47 43 "Emerging from Magic," fromHollywood: The Dream Factory (1950)Chapter 48 44 "Storytellers as Tutors in technique," fromThe Lonely Crowd (1950)Chapter 49 45 "Our Next Frontier. . .Transoceanic TV," fromLook (1950)Chapter 50 46 "Communication in the Sovietized State, as Demonstrated in Korea," fromPublic Opinion Quarterly (1951)Chapter 51 47 "The Consumer's Stake in Radio and Television," fromQuarterly of Film, Radio and Television (1951)Chapter 52 48 "The Unique Perspective of Television and Its Effect," fromAmerican Sociological Review (1952)Chapter 53 49 "Technology and Political Change," fromInternational Journal (1952)Chapter 54 50 "A Theory of Mass Culture," fromDiogenes (1953)Chapter 55 51 "Sight, Sound, and Fury," fromCommonweal (1954)Chapter 56 52 "Between Media and Mass," fromPersonal Influence (1955)Chapter 57 53 "The Theory of Mass Society: A Critique," fromCommentary (1956)Chapter 58 54 "Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance," fromPsychiatry (1956)Chapter 59 55 "The Mass Society," fromThe Power Elite (1956)Chapter 60 56 "FDR and the White House Mail,"Public Opinion Quarterly (1956)Chapter 61 57 "Notes on a Natural History of Fads," fromAmerican Journal of Sociology (1957)Chapter 62 58 "Mass Communication and Socio-cultural Integration," fromSocial Forces (1958)Chapter 63 59 "Modernizing Styles of Life: A Theory," fromThe Passing of Traditional Society (1958)Chapter 64 60 "The Social-Anatomy of the Romance-Confession Cover Girl," fromJournalism Quarterly (1959)Chapter 65 61 "The State of Communication Research," fromPublic Opinion Quarterly (1959)Chapter 66 62 "The State of Communication Research: Comments," fromPublic Opinion Quarterly (1959)Chapter 67 63 "What is Mass Communication?" fromMass Communication: A Sociological Perspective (1959)Chapter 68 64 "Social Theory and Mass Media," fromCanadian Journal of Economics and Political Science (1961)Chapter 69 65 "Television and Public Interest" (1961)Chapter 70 66 "The Kennedy Assassination and the Nature of Political Commitment," fromThe Kennedy Assassination and the American Public (1965)Chapter 71 67 "TV Overseas:The U.S. Hard Sell," fromThe Nation (1966)Chapter 72 68 "Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Societies," fromNegations (1968)Chapter 73 Afterword and AcknowledgementsChapter 74 Other Readers and Historical Collections in American Mass Communication Study and Related SubjectsChapter 75 Suggested FilmsChapter 76 Select Supplementary Reading ListChapter 77 The Intellectual History of North American Media Studies, 1919-1968: A Selected Bibliography