The Role of Photography and Cinema in the Rise of Mass Consumer Culture in the Early Twentieth Century

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Communications - Media History, grade: High Distinction, James Cook University (James Cook University), course: History of Communication, language: English, abstract: The Industrial Revolution was characterized by two intrinsically linked social phenomena. Firstly, a social shift in the transformation of a traditionally agricultural society into an industrial and increasingly urban mass society; secondly, a technological shift resulting in the virtual explosion of the mass production of consumer goods. Towards the end of the nineteenth century these two events, large-scale changes in social structure and mass production, became the basis for the rise of consumer capitalism.

This newly generated consumer market was made possible by a steady increase in mass production, characterized by large numbers of diversified goods, often with a built-in obsolescence, which stimulated the process of ongoing consumption. The need for a frequent replacement of commodities, in combination with the striving of urbanised individuals to fill the gaping void within his or her existence that resulted from the demotion of labour productivity in the framework of modern society, gave rise to consumer culture.