"Toward a New Community? Modern Communication in the Social Thought of Charles Horton Cooley, John Dewey, and Robert E. Park" -- Daniel J. Czitrom

Czitrom's chapter covers the life history and evolution of Cooley, Dewey and Park. The chapter notes that the three men "construed modern communication as an agent for restoring a broad moral and political consensus to America" (p. 92) This consensus was needed because of the "wrenching disruptions" caused by urbanization, industrialization and immigration. They hoped that "broadly based public opinion, rooted in the wide diffusion of organized intelligence, could counteract the modern gesellschaft, but feared that the expressive side of the new media would reinforce it." So, if everyone could get educated, and the public would be informed, then they could make intelligent decisions. But, if "express" media like films continued to gain in popularity, then the public sphere would continue its decline. Cooley saw communication as a key to helping people relate to the world -- in an almost metaphysical, we're-all-connected sense. Cooley (p.99) "envisioned a society in which the individual is self-concious and devoted to his work, yet he feels himself and that work, as part of a larger and joyous whole" (a.k.a "organicism.") Dewey enjoyed a grand unified theory as well, hence his attraction to Hegelian philosophy. Dewey: "Hegel's synthesis of subject and object, matter and spirit, the divine and the human, was, however, no mere intellectual formula; it operated as a immense release, a liberation" (p. 103). He hoped that a "Great Community" (of interconnectedness) could be achieved through "free and full communication" (p. 111). After unsuccessful attempts at actually implementing changes into communication system (e.g., "Thought News"), Dewey retreated to a more comfortable identity: "a philosopher of communication, absorbed in the metaphysical complexities of the communicative process" (p. 112). Park also saw communication as a way to create a collective thought. Park argued "that the press must go beyond merely orienting the public to issues, it must "bring into existence a collective will and a political power which, as it mobilizes the community to act, tends to terminate discussion" (p. 118). He saw the press as a mechanism for "controlling collective attention" (p. 115). So, all three men saw these new communication tools as a elements that could "promote unity and a democratically achieved consensus in American public life" (p. 119). But, they all also worred about "expressive" media (e.g., pop culture, like movies and periodicals) which could prove to be the public sphere's undoing. "The darker side of modern communication's potential was in the cultural sphere" (p. 120). What would they say if they watched "America's Got Talent"?