America, 'Mass Society' and Mass Media.

This article discusses the relationship of the mass media of communication to American society. A key event in the evolution of mass society was the development of printing. Once it was possible to disseminate printed material to large numbers of persons at low cost, the intellectual and artistic level of printed material was watered down to suit the popular culture. With successive technological advances, such as motion pictures, radio, and television, the economics of mass communications demanded that a broader audience be reached. On the one hand, the public became the patron of the arts. On the other hand, the broad mass of people also became victims of mass communications.