MASS MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA: HABERMAS AND THE DECAY OF PUBLIC OPINION IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Authors

  • Gerry Arambala

Keywords:

Public Sphere; Public Opinion; Democratic Society; Mass Media

Abstract

Mass media, since its early development has been the sphere where the private individual meets with the political public. It has been the ground for both educating and indoctrinating public opinion. For this reason, interest groups who desire power and control over the masses aspire to take hold of this most powerful tool. In order to better understand the nature of mass media and the extent of control over public knowledge, this paper follows Jurgen Habermas' critique of modern-day mass media. and the danger of media control becoming a tool for the elite to dominate the public sphere. Such domination leads to the eventual demise of the political public and public opinion, the blood, and the life of a genuinely democratic society.

References

Chomsky, Noam. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. (Seven Stories Press, New York: 1997).

Habrmas, Jurgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Trans., Thomas Burger. (The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1991).

Livingstone, S., and Lunt, P. "The mass media, democracy and the public sphere, Talk on Television: Audience participation and public debate," 1994.

Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth. "Mass Communication Media and Public Opinion." Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Vol.36, Issue 4, December 1959.

Parenti, Micheal. The Culture Struggle. (Seven Stories Press, New York: 2005).

McQuail, Dennis. "The Rise of Mass Media." [Article online] Available from https://UK.sagepub.com, access in December 15, 2022.

Sahid Ullah, Mohammad. "Free Media, Democracy and Democratization: Experiences from Developing Countries." Journal of Global Communication. vol. 2., no.2, 2009.

UNESCO report on World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development 2017/2018.

UNESCO: Paris. 2018.

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Published

2023-07-26

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 2 (2023): July to December 2023

Section

Articles

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