The issue: Russell Neuman presents two theories in the “communications revolution”: the mass society theory (government will control everything) and the democratic theory (individuals will control everything).
Major strength: Neuman provides solid examples for both mass society and democratic theories. For mass society, he cites the famous novel 1984 by George Orwell as the worse case scenario for what happens when a government is given full control and the general public blindly follows. Here, even when someone does question the government or those in charge, as the novel’s protagonist does, the government is able to remove the problem with relative ease. For the democratic theory, he cites Vannevar Bush, who believed that, in the future, the “control of communications and information will reside increasingly with the individual, a natural growth of technological evolution.”
Major weakness: Neuman never talks about a middle ground between the mass society and democratic theories, only working in absolutes. He also, in my opinion, focuses more on the mass society theory than the democratic theory.
Underlying assumption: Neuman seems to assume that there will be no middle ground on control of communications. Either the government will control it all or the individual will. Could there not be a situation where the government and the individual each have control?
Provocative questions: Considering this was written some time ago, how do these theories apply today? How would Neuman change his theories today? Would he? Finally, what would his thoughts on social media be?