Arts and Manners

Mass Culture Criticized en Masse

Mass Culture (The Free Press, $6.50)—a selection made by Bernard Rosenberg and David Manning White—is a complete and urbane record of the pap, or poison, fed us by the mechanical mammae of TV, movies, and the press. Most of the views expressed are easily predicted (it is surprising how little the experts can add to the criticism any literate man can level against the mass media). Even if we did not ¡know what to expect on this subject, the contrasting introductions of the two editors give us the main schools of thought—the Isaiah school, which sees a new dawn glowing through the TV screen, and, more numerous, the Jeremiahs, who find the mass media irredeemable. A third class of essay appears, the strict sociological survey, which shows by means of lengthy questioning and tabulation that quite a lot of people listen to the Hit Parade. All three approaches are sterile; none points to any solution.

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Garry Wills

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Mass Culture Criticized en Masse

Mass Culture (The Free Press, $6.50)—a selection made by Bernard Rosenberg and David Manning White—is a complete and urbane record of the pap, or poison, fed us by the mechanical mammae of TV, movies, and the press. Most of the views expressed are easily predicted (it is surprising how little the experts can add to the criticism any literate man can level against the mass media). Even if we did not ¡know what to expect on this subject, the contrasting introductions of the two editors give us the main schools of thought—the Isaiah school, which sees a new dawn glowing through the TV screen, and, more numerous, the Jeremiahs, who find the mass media irredeemable. A third class of essay appears, the strict sociological survey, which shows by means of lengthy questioning and tabulation that quite a lot of people listen to the Hit Parade. All three approaches are sterile; none points to any solution.