Journal of Communication ISSN 0021–9916
Book Review
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqab020/6355320 by guest on 20 August 2021
The Rise and Fall of Mass Communication Generous with internal previews and
Wm. L. Benoit & Andrew C. Billings summaries, the structure of the book is
Peter Lang Inc., International Academic also readily inferred: an introduction sets
Publishers, 2020, $40.95 pbk., ISBN 978- out a clear thesis that a mass audience for
1433164224, 172 pp.
shared cultural experiences has, for better
and worse, fragmented in recent years;
Chapters 1–3 (in effect, Part 1) survey the
Texas A&M University—Texarkana, USA; historical development of a mass audi-
e-mail:
ence in the West, the disintegration of an
audience for a uniform national news
Our field’s persistent tendency to conflate broadcast into smaller and often antago-
the concepts of mass communication and nistic audiences, and the disaggregation
mass media, and to define each in terms of entertainment sources into multiple
of the other while requiring the concept channels directed though numerous new
technologies of mediated communication;
of mass audience remain salient, have led
and “part 2,” Chapters 4–6, the richest in
more than a few textbook authors into
new information and analysis, surveys
unwieldy definitions by example or clas-
more recent channels of mediated com-
sifier’s judgment, sometimes taking up
munication, focusing on how users can
pages with cases and counter-cases of
customize media content sources to their
what “counts” as mass communication.
own locations and schedules, the illusion
The authors of The Rise and Fall of
of media effects through social media
Mass Communication, Wm. L. Benoit
content (whose highest hit counts corre-
and Andrew C. Billings, navigate a sim- late with audience counts for the lowest-
ilar conceptual marsh in proposing rated cable broadcasts), and what is lost
a new theory to account for a half- in the way of widespread shared commu-
century-long accelerating fragmenta- nal experiences in the fragmented media
tion of media sources, and thereby environment of the 2020s.
media content audiences, since the The book’s style is professional yet
1970s. Whether their media balkaniza- conversational, lapsing neither into jar-
tion theory (it’s all in the name), inspires gon nor chattiness. Students new to the
new research or not, three-fourths of the field will survey several generations of
text’s 160 pages provides a detailed his- media history without distraction by
torical and cross-sectional survey of the dated references, and even seasoned
development and disintegration of the instructors should discover unfamiliar
American mass audience that should illuminating examples of recent positive
prove useful to several academic audien- and worrisome trends in social media.
ces, especially in the classroom. The authors consistently support
Journal of Communication 00 (2021) E1–E3 V C The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of E1
International Communication Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email:
Book Review
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqab020/6355320 by guest on 20 August 2021
The Rise and Fall of Mass Communication Generous with internal previews and
Wm. L. Benoit & Andrew C. Billings summaries, the structure of the book is
Peter Lang Inc., International Academic also readily inferred: an introduction sets
Publishers, 2020, $40.95 pbk., ISBN 978- out a clear thesis that a mass audience for
1433164224, 172 pp.
shared cultural experiences has, for better
and worse, fragmented in recent years;
Chapters 1–3 (in effect, Part 1) survey the
Texas A&M University—Texarkana, USA; historical development of a mass audi-
e-mail:
ence in the West, the disintegration of an
audience for a uniform national news
Our field’s persistent tendency to conflate broadcast into smaller and often antago-
the concepts of mass communication and nistic audiences, and the disaggregation
mass media, and to define each in terms of entertainment sources into multiple
of the other while requiring the concept channels directed though numerous new
technologies of mediated communication;
of mass audience remain salient, have led
and “part 2,” Chapters 4–6, the richest in
more than a few textbook authors into
new information and analysis, surveys
unwieldy definitions by example or clas-
more recent channels of mediated com-
sifier’s judgment, sometimes taking up
munication, focusing on how users can
pages with cases and counter-cases of
customize media content sources to their
what “counts” as mass communication.
own locations and schedules, the illusion
The authors of The Rise and Fall of
of media effects through social media
Mass Communication, Wm. L. Benoit
content (whose highest hit counts corre-
and Andrew C. Billings, navigate a sim- late with audience counts for the lowest-
ilar conceptual marsh in proposing rated cable broadcasts), and what is lost
a new theory to account for a half- in the way of widespread shared commu-
century-long accelerating fragmenta- nal experiences in the fragmented media
tion of media sources, and thereby environment of the 2020s.
media content audiences, since the The book’s style is professional yet
1970s. Whether their media balkaniza- conversational, lapsing neither into jar-
tion theory (it’s all in the name), inspires gon nor chattiness. Students new to the
new research or not, three-fourths of the field will survey several generations of
text’s 160 pages provides a detailed his- media history without distraction by
torical and cross-sectional survey of the dated references, and even seasoned
development and disintegration of the instructors should discover unfamiliar
American mass audience that should illuminating examples of recent positive
prove useful to several academic audien- and worrisome trends in social media.
ces, especially in the classroom. The authors consistently support
Journal of Communication 00 (2021) E1–E3 V C The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of E1
International Communication Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email:
