Critical Theories of Mass Media

The rise of mass media from print to social media was accompanied by critical discourses that emphasized both euphoric acclamation for the new media and emphatic warnings about the dangers. We will discuss how these critiques are conceptualized in terms of culture, media and of mass in three blocks, each based on the emergence of a specific medium and its technology. The main focus is the reconstruction of basic notions in the critique of mass media and the analysis of specific works by Adorno, Benjamin, Kracauer, Dewey, Lippman and others.