arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)
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Something to think about. by Guido Wednesday July 16, 2003 at 10:45 AM |
| pannekoekrobert@hotmail.com |
"There is, I believe, no form of social activity which the use of [mass media] has replaced. At most, by adding alternatives, [media] have allowed altered emphases in the time given to particular activities. But these alterations are obviously conditioned, not only by the techniques, but mainly by the whole circumstance of the common life...We fail to realize, in this matter, that much of what we call communication is, necessarily, no more in itself than transmission: that is to say, a one-way sending. ..." (Williams 1958, 301-302).
"The conception of persons as masses springs, not from an inability to know them, but from an interpretation of them according to a formula. Here the question of the intention of the transmission makes its decisive return. Our formula can be that of the rational being speaking our language. It can be that of the interested being sharing our common experience. Or -- and it is here that 'masses' will operate -- it can be that of the mob: gullible, fickle, herdlike, low in taste and habit. The formula, in fact, will proceed from our intention. If our purpose is art, education, the giving of information or opinion, our interpretation will be in terms of the rational and interested being. If, on the other hand, our purpose is manipulation -- the persuasion of a large number of people to act, feel, think, know, in certain ways -- the convenient formula will be that of the masses" (Williams 1958, 303).