What is Mass Society Theory?

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What is Mass Society Theory and What are its Strengths and Weaknesses? During the late 1980’s, early 1900’s was when the rise of the mass media began to burst onto the scene. This was a time where most individuals were similar, undifferentiated and equal showing to others no individuality. Work was found to be routine and alienating, neither did they have any deeply held or important moral values. This is when mass media saw its time to arrive. In 1986 in the UK was when the first daily paper arrived for the public; The Daily Mail. This was media’s first step into the UK and still to this day it is one of the leading tabloids and keeps its readers up to date with any media coverage. Also in 1986 the first successful film was shown in a cinema, during the next 15 years after this the cinema became the most popular form of entertainment in the world. From 1890 – 1920’s the birth of the next successful form of media arrived in the radio. The radio quickly spread across the UK and USA. Mass gramophone recordings also came popular and spread with the radio. While media was going from strength to strength in the UK and USA, scholars such as F.R.Leavis were slamming the mass media for the rise of fascism saying “ the modern labourer, the modern clerk, the modern factory – hand live only for their leisure when they get it.” However despite these scholars views of the media effect and what it was doing to the masses, a lot more was to come. It was the word ‘Masses’ that got to sociologist C. Wright Mills the most as he made a distinction between the Masses and Public. He described the Public as virtually as many people express opinions as receive them, and described the masses as far fewer people expressing opinions tan receive them. He continued to then say “For the community of publics becomes an abstract collection of individuals who receive impressions
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