Mass Media Functions, Knowledge and Social Control

,The importance of knowledge as a basis for social power has been noted by a number of scholars,' but less well appreciated is the fact that control of knowledge is central to development and maintenance of power. The knowledge industry, of which mass communication is part, currently accounts for more than a fourth of the gross national product and attests to the social importance of the demand for knowledge production and distribution.2 In present-day society, large scale organizations in both public and private sectors are structured to carefully control both the assimilation and dissemination of information.3 The rapidly growing data-processing agencies represent overt recognition of the role of information and its control in modem social organization.4 Professional specialists in modern corporate structures are integrated into a configuration of organized intelligence which is often beyond the comprehension or concern of any one of them as individuals.5 It is still important to study the microprocesses of mass communication, but given the growing importance of infor-