Mass media: Intimacy at a distance

The mass media constructs authority by creating 'intimacy at a distance' (John B. Thompson) between public figures and the people. This chapter argues that, over the course of the long nineteenth century, rulers both gained new possibilities for staging their authority through the emerging mass media, and lost control over this mediated staging under specific circumstances, often turning from master of mediated intimacy into its slave. This argument rests on three points of entanglement: the liberalization of the press paradoxically reinforced rulers' ability to present their authority on the public stage; technological innovations enabled them to do so on an increasingly 'industrial' scale; and the commercialization of the press and changes in journalistic culture led to the personalization and celebritization of their authority.