![]()
MAX WEBER
Weber was one of a group of influential 19th century
German sociologists and theorists that included Ferdinand
Toennies and Emile Durkheim. Among other things, he looked
at the "Protestant work ethic" and posited that the
spirit of Western capitalism--the individual desire to continue
amassing wealth and power even beyond what was necessary for personal
comfort and security--was a cultural and social by-product of Northern
European Calvinism; that was why Western capitalism only
"worked" in countries that sprung out of that tradition, such as
Britain, Protestant Germany, and the United States. He also said that
the world had lost its "magic" and "enchantment" because of
industrialization. Prople have become cynical because of the
rationalization of the capitalist world (see below). This links into
media theories on mass culture and, to an extent, with some of Freud's
work and the work of the Frankfurt
School.
According to
Weber, the modern world lacked "magic"; people have become
disenchanted with the world and out of this climate springs mass
culture, not art (so many elitists respond by retreating into
art). The emergence of mass culture, i.e., the culture
industry, is a result of a convergence of three social
changes:
i) The last
gasp of old regimes.
ii) The rise of a fragile liberal democracy
and organized working class.
iii) The rise of mass media and new
technology.
One of Weber's
important conceptions was of rationalization as a
characteristic of modern Western capitalism. Practical
rationalization, institutionalized through the market, defines the
process of economic (capitalist) activity, while cognitive
rationalization defines the process of institutionalized scientific
enquiry and development. In both cases, any advances or developments
can only be made on so-called "rational" grounds.
~~~~~~~~~~
RAYMOND WILLIAMS
Welsh Marxist
and grandfather of the British cultural studies
group.
In the debate over media
determinism, Williams, in Television: Technology and Cultural
Form, offers a general critique of technological determinism,
taking a position opposite that of Marshall
McLuhan. Instead, Williams argues that communications technologies
have always been sought and or developed to fill particular social
needs.
Williams is also helpful in
articulating the elusive and somewhat dodgy concept of
ideology. In his Marxism and Literature (1977) he
outlines three main uses of the term:
- As a system
of beliefs characteristic of a particular class or group
- As a system
of "illusory" beliefs--that is, a class of "false consciousness" or
false ideas--that can be contrasted with true or scientific
knowledge
- As the
general process of the production of meanings and ideas
(See
also John Fiske, Introduction to Communication
Studies.)
CT. Author
Index Ww