Baughman's `The Republic of Mass Culture' - Investigating the Mass Media Industry

Baughman's `The Republic of Mass Culture' - Investigating the Mass Media Industry

While many, whether through their own experience, studies or readings, are familiar with the history of the mass media since 1941, James L. Baughman's The Republic of Mass Culture, provides readers with a unique insight into the evolutions which have occurred within this field over the past five decades. Tracing the history of the mass media since 1941 to the present, Baughman explains the extent to which television induced changes in journalism, radio and film and, more importantly, how mass media was transformed into an industry. In the following book review, Baughman's main themes shall be identified and critiqued, with the purpose being an assessment of the work's contribution to our understanding of the mass media industry and its operation.

Proceeding with an outline of the extent to which television impacted the operational parameters of both radio and print journalism, Baughman explains how and why this led to cooperation, rather than competition. As radio, film and print journalism found themselves confronted by television, a communications and entertainment medium which was drawing audiences away from them, they realized their inherent limitations for successful and effective competition. Quite simply stated, they could not compete with television. They, therefore, relied on a survival strategy which they had used in the past when faced with similar challenges: cooperation and imitation as opposed to competition. In brief, when newspapers were confronted with the challenged posed by radio, not only did they proceed to make significant changes to their content but they gave greater space to entertainment and pictures. Certainly, the gap between radio and newspaper remained but it gradually narrowed down in such a way as to allow the survival of the latter in face of the competition posed by the former. As Baughman explains through an in-depth historical analysis, this strategy was used vis--vis each new mass medium.

The television, however, proved a different and more difficult competitor altogether. Content was multidimensional and varied, and transmission was in multimedia. There is no doubt, as Baughman emphasizes, that print journalism, television and radio content were influenced by television and, indeed, their content was gradually shaped by it. As a survival strategy, however, this was simply not sufficient. Print journalism and radio could hardly compete with television but what they did do was define the mass media market itself and proceed to identify the different segments and sub-segments wherein, following which the engaged in the identification of their target audience and the design of content to meet the tastes of the target segments. The mass media evolved into an industry which relied on market studies and marketing in order, not just to survive but, to prosper and grow.

The mass media industry began to borrow and implement the tools and strategies traditionally associated with other industries. Hence, marketing and PR departments evolved. Even as regards newspapers whose primary purpose is to report the news, irrespective of whether the public will find it `enjoyable' and interesting, or not, content was influenced by marketing research. As Baughman argues, "market forces, or, more accurately, a perception of the market"[1] shaped the content of mass media and influenced the evolution of novel trends therein.

As he explains the extent to which the mass media made the transition from an information communications medium, whose content was primarily determined by developing news and events, to an almost wholly entertainment based channel of popular communication, whose content is determined by market studies, Baughman presents a controversial thesis. We are not, as seems to be the popular opinion, living in the Information Age but in an age where, despite the abundance of media channels and types, information is superficial and geared towards entertainment. The public, the market, is dictating the information to be conveyed and, within the context of the stated, much information is lost.

Undoubtedly, Baughman's work provides readers with an invaluable understanding of the media and a comprehensive account of developments in the industry over the span of five decades. His work is extremely well-researched and provides readers with an extensive annotated bibliography which can invaluably aid them in their own researches. Nevertheless, there is one weakness to his argument. Specifically stated, the claim that we are not living in the Information Age is weak. Certainly, the market shapes the content and programming of the various media channels and there is little doubt that superficiality prevails. None of this, however, negates one simply reality: all types of information are currently available through the media's countless channels, both profound and superficial, but it is up to the audience to define what they want and subsequently search for the channel which fulfills their needs.

Bibliography

Baughman, James L. The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Film-making and Broadcasting in America Since 1941. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

[1] James L. Baughman, The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Film-making and Broadcasting in America Since 1941 (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 220.

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