The remarkable development of the media of mass communication in modern society has ushered in an abundance of information to the society at large. On the other hand, it has brought about a communication condition in which information that is really necessary for the daily lives of each individual is lacking. Modern man and woman can make full use of a wide variety of mechanical and technical innovations in the way of receptors, however transmission devices are still extremely limited. This imbalance between transmittors and receptors has arisen a situation in which so-called “anonymous communication” dominates - the general type of communication provided by mass media.
In this situation, modern man senses an enormous lack of cognitive clarity when he wants to know what he needs to know. It has generally been thought that the lack of cognitive clarity occurs when the information source ceases to function in some way or another, creating a situation conductive to the circulation of rumors. Although our age abounds in information provided by official news sourses, information generated, for the most part, serves only to define situations partially, and this tends to prevent modern man from acquiring cognitive clarity based on that information. People lacking cognitive clarity due to the anonymous communication provided by mass media, constitute a diffuse crowd. They are drawn together temporarily by a common interest which provided by mass media and they come to be involved in circular reaction through the world of anonymous communication that is similar to the situation of compact crowd. It is worthy of note that in our modern society, the process of rumor formation, which is believed to occur under the condition of a compact crowd, is observed in the world of anonymous communication.
In this situation, we need to reconsider the function of mass media by clarifying the process and mechanism comprise stereotyped definition of the situation made up collectively. For this purpose, attention must be paid the fact that anonymous communication provided by mass media fulfils the function of self-fulfillment prophecy advanced by R.K. Merton. It must be pointed out that generalized beliefs provided by anonymous communication cause modern man to be excessively sensitive to social incidents. This suggests there exists a strong possibility of producing, albeit temporarily, an irrational situation in modern society, in spite of highly developed mass media. Consideration upon the situation where by mass hysteria is produced, and the process and mechanism of mass delusion, are pressing theme of the sociology of mass communication in Japan. This, in itself, would show how submissive we are in the understanding of “news”. To study the function of mass media in this way would also mean a disclosure of a image world which we believe to know through the information provided by mass media.
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