| If we are living in the age of mass communication it is also the age of the image. Almost every form of contemporary mass communication utilizes images or icons. Because images are so entwined with our day-to-day lives it is important to examine what they are saying and who is sending them. Is there a dynamic between those who send them and those who receive them? How truly do the images all around us represent real issues and our everyday social and cultural truth? Beyond what is obviously intended, what messages are they sending? Finally, because these issues encompass so vast a field how does one begin to analyze them and attempt to answer these questions. By going back to the beginning of American mass communication and examining one of the most important and well-regarded magazines, Harper's Weekly (of December 26, 1874), some of these questions will be answered. |
