The Ideal of Conversation in the Study of Mass Media

Abstract

Social scientists who study the mass media share a widely held "ideal of conservation" which assumes that face-to-face interpersonal communication is characterized by continuous feedback between participants, multichannel communication, spontaneous utterance, and egalitarian norms. Compared to this image of what face-to-face conversation is like, communication by mass media seems inferior. It is argued, however, that this "ideal of conversation" does not correspond closely to most actual conversations. It is argued further that the rise of the mass media is itself responsible for the development of an ideal of conversation and is responsible for making ideal conversations more often realized in practice. The contribution of the mass media to face-to-face conversation has been to make conversation, particularly between men and women and between adults and children, more egalitarian and to enlarge the possibility of spontaneous conversation. It is suggested, finally, that research on the mass media will be improved if it appraises the nature of conversation more realistically.