Authors: Lipset
Summary: In about 2500 words, this entry defines mass media, discusses its regulation, considers the role mass media plays in modern democracies, and explores the idea of teledemocracy.
The entry defines mass media as communication, which is the symbolic translation of meaning among individuals, through widespread broadcast messages without any face-to-face contact. Mass media devices include leaflets, posters, billboards, air raid sirens, and foghorns, in addition to the widely studied print and electronic mediums. Mass media plays a vital role in all large-scale societies, but most particularly in democratic ones, where information is a valuable resource.
Television, newspapers and radio have the top three largest democratic audiences, with magazines, books and movies lagging pretty far behind. All democracies regulate the broadcast media more strictly than the print media, which usually enjoys fairly significant freedoms. Due to the large broadcast audiences, most democracies regulate the air time available to political candidates and causes quite closely.
Most democratic theorists believe democracy requires that mass media provide truthful news reports in a constructive manner, an attitude that evolved during the 1920s. Some contemporary media critics decry reportorial objectivity as a ploy to cover up the unseemly side of politics and power. Others argue that the media bias is not political but structural, due to things like communications roles, the desire for profit, space constraints and technology.
Next the entry focuses briefly on the impact of mass media on mass publics and provides some useful examples. Finally, discussion turns to considering the possibility of bypassing or even replacing representative institutions with "teledemocracy." The entry presents a few cases studies and also introduces James Fishkin's ideas on this subject.