Herbert Irving Schiller (November 5, 1919 – January 29, 2000) was an American media critic,
sociologist, author, and scholar. He earned his
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in 1960 from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.
Schiller warned of two major trends in his prolific writings and speeches: the private takeover of public space and public institutions at home, and U.S. corporate domination of cultural life abroad, especially in the developing nations. His eight books and hundreds of articles in both scholarly and popular journals made him a key figure both in communication research and in the public debate over the role of the media in modern society. He was widely known for the term “packaged consciousness,” that argues American
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
is controlled by a few corporations that “create, process, refine and preside over the circulation of images and information which determines our beliefs, attitudes and ultimately our behavior.” Schiller used
Time Warner Inc. as an example of packaged consciousness, stating that it “basically dominates publishing, cable television, recordings, tapes and filmmaking.”
He was married to
librarian
A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...
and
scholar
A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...
Anita Schiller, and their children include sons Zach and Dan.
Zach Schiller is a public policy analyst in
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
, and
Dan Schiller is a
telecommunications
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...
.
Writings
* ''Mass Communications and American Empire'' (1969)
* ''Mind Managers'' (1973)
* ''The Ideology of International Communications'' (Monograph Series / Institute for Media Analysis, Inc, No. 4)
* ''Mass Communications and American Empire'' (Critical Studies in Communication and in the Cultural Industries)
* ''Super-state; readings in the military-industrial complex''
* ''
Communication and Cultural Domination'' (1976)
* ''Living in the Number One Country : Reflections from a Critic of American Empire'',
Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press is an independent American publishing company. Based in New York City, the company was founded by Dan Simon in 1995, after establishing Four Walls Eight Windows in 1984 as an imprint at Writers and Readers, and then incorpor ...
, New York 2000
* ''
Who Knows : Information in the Age of the Fortune 500'' (1981)
* ''Information and the Crisis Economy'', Oxford University Press (1984), Oxford University Press, Reprint 1986,
* ''
Culture, Inc.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Expression'', Oxford University Press, 1989, ; Reprint 1996,
* ''
Information Inequality: The Deepening Social Crisis in America'', Routledge 1995,
Secondary literature
*Richard Maxwell: ''Herbert Schiller'' (Critical Media Studies), Rowman & Littlefield, 2003,
External links
UCSD Department of CommunicationBiography of Herbert Schiller*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20030828055832/http://www.libr.org/pl/16_Hudson.html Understanding Information Media in the Age of Neoliberalism: The Contributions of Herbert SchillerNoted UC San Diego Communication Scholar, Media Critic Herb Schiller DiesPublic Information as a Function of Private Profit ''The Open Mind'' (1991)Freedom of the Press or Cultural Imperialism ''The Open Mind'' (1979)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schiller, Herbert
1919 births
2000 deaths
American media critics
Communication theorists
20th-century American non-fiction writers