The New Public
Professional Communication and the Means of Social Influence

New theory bridging Parsons and Habermas analyses society's domination by communications industries.

Leon H. Mayhew (Author)

9780521481465, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 September 1997

348 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.6 cm, 0.651 kg

Professional specialists, using market research and promotional campaigns, have come to dominate public communication. The modern public of the Enlightenment, based on free discussion, has, in Leon Mayhew's terms, been replaced by a 'New Public,' subject to mass persuasion through systematic advertising, lobbying, and other forms of media manipulation. Mayhew examines this sociological development in terms of discourse and social influence, offering an original theory which bridges Talcott Parsons and Jurgen Habermas. Most importantly, he shows how the rhetorical techniques of the professional communicators are designed to avoid having to defend their claims, thereby precluding meaningful discussion of public issues. As a result, institutions providing forums for good-faith, two-way discourse no longer exist, community through communication cannot be achieved, and the social order is unstable.

Part I. Rhetoric and the Integration of Society: 1. Public influence in modern society
2. Rhetoric and reason
Part II. Influence: 3. Influence: capacity to persuade
4. Habermas and Parsons: critical issues regarding influence
5. Public influence: a new paradigm
6. The differentiation of rhetorical solidarity
Part III. The New Public: 7. The emergence of the New Public: advertising, market research and public relations
8. Political communication in the New Public
9. Forums for the redemption of influence
10. The rhetoric of presentation.

Subject Areas: Social theory [JHBA]