Refiguring Mass Communication: A History. Peter Simonson (2010). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. pp. 261.
Journalism teachers are naturally intrigued by the relationship between periods in history, which logically follows the evolution of economics, technology, and sociological developments. What author Peter Simonson does in his Refiguring Mass Communication: A History suggests that not only do these relationships transcend those traditional avenues, but he also reclaims the strength, potential, and promise of both the practical and aesthetic purposes of mass communication.
And he does it by telling great stories and showing connections between them.
He tells the stories of four men, who used the media of their day in significant and lasting ways, to illustrate how mass communication was used: as a sense of place, as an interpretation of their public, and as something democratic. They were “grand interpreter[s]” (p. 81) of the media available to them. They found new ways to use these media to affect their current publics and ones they could not yet imagine.
Simonson chooses the stories of the Apostle Paul and Walt Whitman as historiography, in representing social practices, cultures, geography, faith, and institutions. Their work, in their times and with lasting impact, was created from a vision for the way communication of the time could be shared. Paul’s letters, originating from transcribed speeches that were sent and read aloud, became public performances that brought “commonality among discord” (p. 48). They became messages of the ritual of the blessing of bread and wine as the blood and body of Christ and had a tremendous impact, especially on commoners—the masses. His call to them for a sacrament visualized a communitarian ritual and used the media of the day to share that vision.
Whitman, too, interpreted common experiences (including New York in the first half of the 1800s, slavery, the Civil War, Lincoln’s death, and the expanding country) through his poetry, manipulating the products through painstaking editing, changes, and promotion of each edition of his work. His work conceptualizes, through the orator and the poet, the urban crowd, spirituality, and observation.
And Simonson tells their stories gracefully, bringing readers vividly into their worlds. We meet their influences as they become adults, helping their fellow citizens understand rituals, celebrations, and social events. The robust, noisy scenes Simonson creates of the New York City of Whitman’s youth, those “public spaces” (p. 60), are shown from different vantage points, for example from the driver’s seat of the horse-drawn omnibus high above the crowds (p. 64).
Both Paul’s and Whitman’s media were textually available to their publics—Whitman’s, of course, produced during a period of communication revolution in the United States—and have been made available to a common public over time through evolving mass communication.
In today’s climate of negative media criticism, Simonson goes back to the origin of the term “mass communication.” He explains David Sarnoff’s use of the term to define the development of his RCA radio network in the 1920s and to demonstrate its potential use in terms of public relations, for example, bringing propaganda and advertising directly into people’s homes. Sarnoff also noted the possibility for the reverse: for the public’s voices to be heard on those same airwaves. Simonson writes that Sarnoff used “the nation’s democratic core mythos to frame his broadcast system as a service to the many” (p. 14). It is a hopeful philosophy, based on serving and representing a public interest, and showcased, in different media and different eras, of course, by the Apostle Paul preaching about Jesus and Whitman about slavery, for example.
Their stories also provide a fine introduction for readers to media history and media theory, showing how men have used the communication of their day to reach their masses; they had vision and saw potential. Readers can make their own connections between the work of these men and others who have imagined the possibilities of such access to the masses.
Simonson reminds readers in the book’s second half of the strong connection between sociology and journalism, and reclaims the respect mass communication deserves as a discipline. He recounts the lives, works, and worlds of Charles Cooley, one of the fathers of American sociology, and Robert K. Merton, whose theories of media use and effects on society have been a staple in the communication lexicon and a platform for other scholarly work. In Simonson’s hands, their work has new dimension. Simonson reveres these men. His graceful writing helps readers understand them, their complications, their influences, and their imprint on the field. His asides to the reader indicate that he likes Cooley and feels for Merton. While he provides big bites of their works, new students of mass communication study will want to stop to read the complete, original texts.
Refiguring Mass Communication demonstrates that mass communication is something democratic with a kind of cosmic force that transcends the actual product. In the final chapter, Simonson applies this idea told through the stories of the Apostle Paul and Whitman to his local county agricultural fair, again noting the communication call to the population groupings through music, social practices, faith, and geography. In his quest to reinvest in mass communication and understand its meanings, he again asks readers to observe ritual and the use of communication and make their own connections between the crowds of commoners at his county fair and those in their own communities.
This book is perfect both for new graduate students learning about the first academic theories of media and their applications, as well as for veteran scholars interested in thinking about their field in new ways. Simonson is a good storyteller, and because he is, one should not feel uncomfortable teaching about the Apostle Paul in a class of students of multiple faiths. The Apostle Paul’s story is used to illustrate a point about the possibilities of media usage as opposed to judging a particular belief. Religion is addressed as a social movement, even for Whitman and the county fair. In addition, Simonson’s endnotes are as entertaining as they are informative, and his bibliography is extensive. A teacher will find this book lends itself to good discussion. Simonson makes you want to read more. He helps readers imagine the “evolving social psychology of public address” (p. 67) and the sense of responsibility these men felt in their work. And he challenges readers to think about the world around them and the use of media the way these men did. What a good book.
SALLY RENAUD
Eastern Illinois University