• James Rorty’s Voice: Introduction to the mediastudies.press edition

    Author(s):
    Jefferson Pooley (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    Cultural Studies, Digital Books, Open Access Books Network
    Subject(s):
    Advertising, Public relations, Mass media--Study and teaching, Social sciences, History
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    publicity, Great Depression, capitalism, Media studies, History of social science
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/v85w-7h74
    Abstract:
    An introduction to a new edition of James Rorty's classic 1934 book Our Master's Voice. The book presents a coherent and original theory of advertising. Its main tenet holds that the ad business can only be understood within the totality of the country’s economy and culture. The alternative—to treat the business of publicity as a “carbuncular excrescence”—misses its centrality, its foundational place in American life. Rorty thus insisted on a holistic approach—in conscious contrast to the bounded inquiries of his analytic rivals in the university system. Rorty believed that the ad-man and his persuasive copy propped up American society—its capitalist economy, its culture of competitive emulation. The introduction argues that Rorty makes his argument at two levels. The first is economic: All the billboards and radio spots, according to Rorty, provide the fuel that keeps people buying—the coal powering the country’s merchandising juggernaut. American business would collapse without the ad-man’s ventilation. The book’s second, complementary point is that the system—an exploitative one, in Rorty’s view—relies on advertising for its ideological warrant. This claim emerges with greater subtlety, or at least erected around a series of sub-arguments, in the book’s first few chapters. But the key takeaway suggests that advertising serves to ratify the prevailing American regime of class-stratified consumption. Rorty’s former coworkers are, as it were, the master’s voice.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.32376/3f8575cb.76247d1f
    Publisher:
    mediastudies.press
    Pub. Date:
    10/15/2020
    Book Title:
    Our Master’s Voice: Advertising
    Author/Editor:
    James Rorty
    Chapter:
    James Rorty’s Voice: Introduction to the mediastudies.press edition
    Page Range:
    xiv - xxxii
    ISBN:
    978-1-951399-01-6
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial

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