Walter Lippmann
Subtitle: a critical introduction to media and communication theory
By: Sue Curry Jansen
Series: A critical introduction to media and communication theory -- v. 5
Publisher: Peter Lang; Lang Publishing, Incorporated, Peter
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 169
ISBN-13: 9781433111372; 9781433111365; 9781453909041
Subjects: Communication; Philosophy; Criticism and interpretation; Mass media
Description: Walter Lippmann has been widely misrepresented in media and communication scholarship. Classified as a utilitarian and characterized as an antidemocratic adversary of philosopher John Dewey in a legendary debate in the 1920s about the role of the public in modern democracies, Lippmann has been portrayed as the bête noir of the post-1980s revival of pragmatism and humanistic studies within the field. Consequently, his formative contributions to the field have not only been under-valued, but more importantly, the richness and continuing relevance of his generative work to the challenges of the twenty-first century are largely under-appreciated. There are, however, some recent signs of the beginnings of a Lippmann renaissance. Focusing primarily on his early career when Lippmann directly addressed the challenges posed to democracy by the emergence of new communication technologies, this book is part of that renaissance. It presents a radical reconsideration of Lippmannʹs thought and legacy and offers a broad-based introduction to his theories of mass communication. Arguing that he was a political ally rather than an adversary of Dewey as well as a humanist and a democrat, influenced by William Jamesʹ pragmatism and George Santayanaʹs critical realism, Jansen contends that Lippmann developed a fully formed social constructivism decades before Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmanʹs seminal 1966 treatise, The Social Construction of Reality. She boldly concludes that Lippmann deserves to be recognized as a founder of the field of media and communication research. -- Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The scholar in a troubled world; title: Why Lippmann still matters; title: The young progressive: intellectual and biographical contexts; title: War and disillusionment: "the crusade to make the world safe for something or other"; title: Crisis of democracy; title: Rethinking democracy: the phantom public; title: Public philosopher: enduring ideas.