Social Theories of the Press

Constituents of Communication Research, 1840s to 1920s

By (author) Hanno Hardt Foreword by James W. Carey

Not available to order

Publication date:

11 October 2001

Length of book:

232 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781461642442

Hanno Hardt has thoroughly revised and expanded his 'pre-history' of communication research in the United States. With the notable addition of Karl Marx's journalism-focused writings and a new foreword by James W. Carey, this edition covers intellectual contributions from several German theorists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as first-generation U.S. sociologists who were influenced by this scholarship. A new concluding chapter explores the continuing influence of German social thought and the contemporary shift of paradigms in U.S. communication research, including approaches such as critical (Marxist) and cultural studies.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Mass Communication Research and Society: An Introduction
Chapter 3 Communication and Change in Society: Karl Marx on Freedom of the Press
Chapter 4 The Nerves of Society: Albert Schäffle on Symbolic Communication
Chapter 5 The News of Society: Karl Knies on Communication and Transportation
Chapter 6 The Linkages of Society: Karl Bücher on Commerce and the Press
Chapter 7 The Mirrors of Society: Ferdinand Tönnies on the Press and Public Opinion
Chapter 8 The Conscience of Society: Max Weber on Journalism and Responsibility
Chapter 9 The "American Science" of Society: Small, Ross, and Sumner on Communication and the Press
Chapter 10 Communication and Social Thought: Decentering the Discourse of Mass Communication Research

For well over three decades Hanno Hardt has been an advocate, sometimes a lonely one, for deepened historical consciousness in communication studies. . . .This book should make it impossible to ever again consider mass communication research without its European shadow or to speak of the roots of modern social theory without acknowledging the central place of communication in its preoccupations. Hardt opens a treasure trove of insights and ideas most of us never knew existed.