Myths for the Masses An Essay on Mass Communication

With a lively and engaging style, Myths for the Masses provides a critical, interdisciplinary, and historically informed statement about the rise of mass communication in Western societies, and its impact on contemporary life. Written by one of the worldrs"s leading authorities on the subject, this book ponders the dominant and the detrimental effects of the mass-produced message in a contemporary age over-run by telecommunications and consumerism. The author convincingly argues that the active presence of media organizations rather than the collective will of the people, forms and re-forms the social, cultural, economic and political landscapes of society. The book exposes mass communication to a close examination of many of its real or assumed functions in a modern world, and re-evaluates its traditional role as a bastion of democracy and a celebrant of mass society.

Hanno Hardt is Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa. He is the author of many scholarly journal articles and of books such as Social Theories of the Press: Early German and American Perspectives (1979, second edition 2001), Critical Communication Studies: Communication, History & Theory in America, (1992), and Interactions: Critical Studies in Communication, Media, and Journalism (l998).