What is the public? What are the characteristics of the public?

In mass society theory, "mass" is a specific concept. 1The end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 20th century is a dividing point for human beings to enter the mass society. Due to the development of industrial revolution, bourgeois revolution and mass communication, the traditional social structure, social order and unified value system in the past have been broken, and social members have lost their unified behavior reference system and become a new unorganized social group that is isolated, dispersed, homogeneous and atomic, that is, the so-called "mass".

"Mass" is a concept opposite to "elite". Elite is a minority trying to control and influence the public; On the other hand, the public is the passive and affected majority, but sometimes it will produce huge "majority pressure".

The main characteristics of the public are:

(1) huge scale;

② Dispersion and heterogeneity;

③ Anonymity;

① Liquidity;

⑤ unorganized;

6 homogenization.