Cities and towns; Social psychology; Sociology; Sociology, Urban
The first and the most important of these is the press, that is, the
daily newspaper and other forms of current literature, including books
classed as current.[18]
After the newspaper, the bureaus of research which are now springing up
in all the large cities are the most interesting and the most promising
devices for using publicity as a means of control.
The fruits of these investigations do not reach the public directly, but
are disseminated through the medium of the press, the pulpit, and other
sources of popular enlightenment.
In addition to these there are the educational campaigns in the interest
of better health conditions, the child-welfare exhibits, and the
numerous “social advertising” devices which are now employed, sometimes
upon the initiative of private societies, sometimes upon that of popular
magazines or newspapers, in order to educate the public and enlist the
masses of the people in the movement for the improvement of conditions
of community life.
The newspaper is the great medium of communication within the city, and
it is on the basis of the information which it supplies that public
opinion rests. The first function which a newspaper supplies is that
which formerly was performed by the village gossip.
In spite, however, of the industry with which newspapers pursue facts of
personal intelligence and human interest, they cannot compete with the
village gossips as a means of social control. For one thing, the
newspaper maintains some reservations not recognized by gossip, in the
matters of personal intelligence. For example, until they run for office
or commit some other overt act that brings them before the public
conspicuously, the private life of individual men or women is a subject
that is, for the newspaper, taboo. It is not so with gossip, partly
because in a small community no individual is so obscure that his
private affairs escape observation and discussion; partly because the
field is smaller. In small communities there is a perfectly amazing
amount of personal information afloat among the individuals who compose
them.
The absence of this in the city is what, in large part, makes the city
what it is.
Some of the questions that arise in regard to the nature and function
of the newspaper and of publicity generally are:
What is news?
What are the methods and motives of the newspaper man? Are they those
of an artist? a historian? or merely those of a merchant?
To what extent does the newspaper control and to what extent is it
controlled by public sentiment?
What is a “fake” and why?
What is yellow journalism and why is it yellow?
What would be the effect of making the newspaper a municipal monopoly?
What is the difference between advertising and news?
IV. TEMPERAMENT AND THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
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