First, it is important to understand the basic social theories of mass media. There are three main theories: the Elite-Conservative Mass Society Theory, the Critical Mass Society, and the Functionalist Theory of Mass Media. Supporters of the Elite-Conservative theory believe that a nation needs a clearly defined homogeneous national culture; people need to have good morals and good aesthetics. To them, mass media created a vulgarization of culture. Mass media gave people superficiality and sensationalism, not intellec

The introduction of the telegraph revolutionized the speed at which information traveled. Until its introduction, information only traveled as fast as the person carried it. But once telegraph lines were introduced in 1844, a new era began. Information could suddenly be transmitted almost instantaneously. People in New York would know about things that had happened in Virginia the day they happened. Previously it would have taken at least a week for the news to make it there. Most telegraph wires were built along railroad tracks, since clearing additional interstate pathways would have been a huge undertaking. This meant that most telegraphs were located in railroad stations. Western Union eventually became the first media monopoly, controlling all the telegraph lines. By forging a working relationship with Western Union, the Associated Press was able to dominate newspapers. With a strong chokehold on all national news, the AP became the most potent news organization!

to be stupid and dangerous, easily convinced by the charismatic. The South, on the other hand, was made up of a large amount of farms and plantations. Plantations were owned by the wealthy and run by slave labor. These wealthy plantation owners were exactly the kind of people who were considered to be cultured by Elite-Conservative theorists. These people enjoyed the finer things in life like Shakespeare and Beethoven. Slaves were necessary; they did all the work so that the owners had more time to read intellectual novels. Then all of sudden, the press starts stirring up trouble about how slavery is wrong and evil. The rabble up in the North gets angry and starts calling for change and soon the United States is headed for a civil war. Functionalists on the other hand, would take the approach that because of the national press, problems were able to be brought to the attention of a national audience and then dealt with on a national level. It helped bring about underst!

anding and integration, though nowhere near as quickly as it should have been.

never need to leave their homes. The people may not even realize they are alienated because the internet creates a sense of pseudo-individualism. People on the internet feel powerful because they have lots of information right at their fingertips, but they are cut off from the real world and consequently, reality. Functionalists will argue that the web has created a global community wh

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Approximate Word count = 1642
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)