The mediatisation and anonymisation of the world in the work of Max Weber

Abstract

Weber's journalistic activity is considere in its own right and common themes are brought out from his involvement in the mass media. The role of the mass media in 'Politics as a Vocation' and in Weber's proposed sociology of the press is analysed. There is a dialectic specific to the media and modernity and its key feature is anonymisation. Capitalist newspapers tend to depoliticisation and journalists are not allowed to use their own names, leading to a failure of journalistic judgement detrimental to democratic discussion. Weber in outlining his press enquiry highlighted the interaction between the press as an objective component of culture and its influence on the subjective personality of modern man. Weber's enquiry anticipates the later sociology of the press in America.