A Review of: “Peter Simonson. Refiguring Mass Communication: A History. ...
Transcript of A Review of: “Peter Simonson. Refiguring Mass Communication: A History. ...
This article was downloaded by: [Bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal]On: 02 December 2014, At: 13:09Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
Mass Communication andSocietyPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hmcs20
A Review of: “PeterSimonson. Refiguring MassCommunication: A History.”Reviewed by Joli Jensen aa Hazel Rogers Professor of Communication ,University of TulsaPublished online: 04 Mar 2011.
To cite this article: Reviewed by Joli Jensen (2011) A Review of: “Peter Simonson.Refiguring Mass Communication: A History.”, Mass Communication and Society, 14:2,264-266, DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2010.530386
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2010.530386
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Bib
lioth
èque
s de
l'U
nive
rsité
de
Mon
tréa
l] a
t 13:
09 0
2 D
ecem
ber
2014
BOOK REVIEW
Peter Simonson. Refiguring Mass Communication: A History.Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2010, 229 pp., ISBNNo. 978-0-252-07705-0 (paperback).
Reviewed by Joli JensenHazel Rogers Professor of Communication
University of Tulsa
Peter Simonson describes his book as a ‘‘contrarian rehabilitation project’’designed to contribute to a humanist ‘‘third way’’ of communication study—an alternative to both social science and cultural-critical traditions. In sixloosely connected essays he takes the reader through a rhetorical history ofthe term ‘‘mass communication,’’ then offers serial interpretive biographiesof Paul of Tarsus, Walt Whitman, Charles Horton Cooley, and Robert K.Merton, and finally walks the reader through a Pennsylvania countyfair. He ends this unorthodox history with an endearing effort to justify thejourney.
I was happy to follow along with Simonson (currently an associateprofessor of communication at the University of Colorado–Boulder) onhis reclamation tour. His style of communication inquiry was my ownintroduction to what Hannah Arendt calls an ‘‘enlarged mentality.’’ AsSimonson notes, Arendt describes how one ‘‘trains one’s mind to govisiting’’ by taking on, and getting inside, the imaginative perspective ofothers (p. 178). So I was more than willing to ‘‘go visiting’’ with Simonson,as he walked me through his imaginative perspective on Paul, Whitman,Cooley, Merton, and a county fair.
In the opening essay on the term ‘‘mass communication,’’ Simonsontraces how, from the 1930s to the 1970s, a broadcasting paradigm keptthe term allied with advertising campaigns, psychological warfare, and coldwar concerns. Simonson then offers an intriguing alternative conceptualmap, mobilized by five kinds of mass communication—what he calls maza
Mass Communication and Society, 14:264–266, 2011Copyright # Mass Communication & Society Division
of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
ISSN: 1520-5436 print=1532-7825 online
DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2010.530386
264
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Bib
lioth
èque
s de
l'U
nive
rsité
de
Mon
tréa
l] a
t 13:
09 0
2 D
ecem
ber
2014
or barleycake communication (drawing on the metaphor of shared sancti-fied bread); liturgical communication (comparable to James W. Carey’sritual view); abundant communication (various proximities of multitudesin space and time); communication with, among, to, or from the masses;and social totality communication. I could happily have read more onwhat he means in each case, but Simonson has people to see and placesto go.
So in the next chapter we head to biblical Tarsus and hang out with Paul,exploring his First Letter to the Corinthians as a ‘‘classic, originating text inthe intellectual and social history of mass communication.’’ Simonson char-acterizes Paul as an ‘‘apostolic activist’’ who critiques public communicationin the ekklesia in Corinth, putting Christ’s body into writing. And then it’soff 19th-century Mannahatta to stroll with the young Walt Whitman andhis vision of democratic polytheism as embodied in both his biographicalexperience and ‘‘Leaves of Grass.’’ And then we’re on to Michigan to visitwith early 20th-century sociologist Charles Horton Cooley, knowing thatmidcentury academic Robert K. Merton is waiting in the wings and thatwe’ll end up, somehow, at a 1990s country fair.
The Cooley chapter was for me the most satisfying intellectual ‘‘visit’’ inthe book. Simonson argues—correctly, I believe—that Cooley (not theusually credited John Dewey or George Herbert Mead) led the way inAmerican communication study at the turn of the 20th century. This chaptersituates Cooley biographically and intellectually in ways that supportSimonson’s contention that he is historically significant and ‘‘good to thinkwith.’’ Amply footnoted, gracefully written, studded with quotes andinsights—this chapter would be an ideal introduction to Cooley but alsoto anyone interested in imagining communication as creating selves, institu-tions, communities and cultures.
As do the earlier chapters, the Merton chapter combines biography, his-tory and rhetorical analysis to ‘‘refigure mass communication,’’ this time bydrawing on primary documents, including Merton’s letters as well as anintriguing 1966 television debate between Merton and Marshall McLuhan.This is an original and useful account of an influential scholar, and it show-cases the value of Simonson’s idiosyncratic combination of intellectualbiography, rhetorical inquiry, and informal theorizing. Like the rest of thebook, it demonstrates how mass communication—in the right hands—canbe ‘‘good to think with.’’
And then finally we end up at the fair, an ‘‘embodied ritual gathering of abroad local public’’ (p. 165). The final essay is an informal participant-observation study that veers off into reflection and analysis. Enjoyable asit is, it feels tacked on, although Simonson works hard to show how the fairconnects with aspects of Paul, Whitman, Cooley, and Merton.
BOOK REVIEW 265
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Bib
lioth
èque
s de
l'U
nive
rsité
de
Mon
tréa
l] a
t 13:
09 0
2 D
ecem
ber
2014
Simonson wants to offer us an alternative to both social scientific andcultural-critical approaches to mass communication scholarship; my senseis that readers committed to either of these traditions can enjoy ‘‘going visit-ing’’ with Simonson. He is an eager, insightful host, and the figures he caresabout and the ideas he develops are interesting ones. At the very least, thisbook proves that there has always been (and still can be) much more tostudying mass communication than worrying about hegemony or figuringout effects. Refiguring Mass Communication is a valuable, idiosyncratic,and unorthodox history that readers from many fields, as well as communi-cation scholars, can use to, in Arendt’s terms, ‘‘enlarge their mentality.’’
266 BOOK REVIEW
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Bib
lioth
èque
s de
l'U
nive
rsité
de
Mon
tréa
l] a
t 13:
09 0
2 D
ecem
ber
2014