Mass Society

A sociological concept referring to a fragmented society composed of isolated, lonely, and powerless individuals. Proponents of the theory view modern society as characterized by the breakdown of community and by the presence of increasingly heterogeneous and individualistic trends resulting from industrialization, modernization, and urbanization. Mass-society theorists of the 19th and 20th centuries included, among others, Louis de Bonald, Joseph de Maistre, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Émile Durkheim, Gustave Le Bon, Georg Simmel, Ferdinand Tönnies, Herbert Marcuse, William Kornhauser, Karl Mannheim, and Hannah Arendt.

Mass-society theorists hypothesized that a large yet isolated population was vulnerable to manipulation by powerful institutions. The major institutions in a mass society are centralized and therefore designed and organized to address “the masses.” In the 1920s and [Page 310]1930s, as broadcast communication became available to many, the concept of mass society was intertwined with that of mass media, the latter being a prime example of such a powerful institution. Messages delivered via mass media can be presented to a large undifferentiated population simultaneously and in a context of alienation and anonymity are more likely to be perceived as authoritative than they might be in smaller, localized communities. Marx and Engels, for instance, speculated that in a mass society, those who controlled the media were easily able to control the opinions, behaviors, and culture of the masses, who then become “narcotized.” In addition, because individuals abandon personal values in favor of those of the group in a mass society, behaviors become contagious. Consequently, a conformist consumer society would result and, many argued, could even be dangerous, notably in the case of political propaganda. For further reading, see Kornhauser (1959) and Mills (1963).