The New Public

Professional Specialists Have Come To Dominate Public Communication And The Modern Public Of The Enlightenment Has Been Replaced By A New Public Subject To Mass Persuasion Through Systematic Advertising Lobbying And Other Forms Of Media Manipulation. Leon Mayhew Examines This Sociological Development In Terms Of Discourse And Social Influence Offering An Original Theory That Bridges Talcott Parsons And Jrgen Habermas. He Concludes That The Present Social Order Is Unstable Because Good-Faith Two-Way Discourse Has Been Undermined.