ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the term’s history and suggests that this attitude comes from ignoring an entire intellectual tradition relating to it. It argues that academics who denigrate the relevance of mass communication are, in effect, asking researchers to ignore many key questions about the relationship between power, society, and media. The chapter shows how a revitalized conception of mass communication can help illuminate a number of key developments central to late twentieth-century life. It describes the debate about the term as a jumping point for arguing that it holds valuable implications for researchers. The critics urge that the process of mass communication be considered a fading historical stage in the development of more sophisticated technologies that mediate person-to-person communication. Far from having outlived its usefulness, the concept of mass communication ought to stand as an important signpost for a critical process in contemporary society.
