As far back as the ancient Greeks, western philosophy has been concerned with the relationship of individuals to society. Two of the most important of the Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, both gave a great deal of thought to the proper role of society and politics in the lives of human beings. In one of history's greatest works, the Republic, Plato (427–347BC) pictured a society in which the educated elite would rule, governing by reason and rejecting the emotional entanglements of life—such as the arts. Plato also envisioned a society in which individualism would be sublimated by an overriding obligation to serve society first.

The primary reason Plato believed so strongly that only the educated should rule was that he doubted the abilities of the hoipalloi (a Greek word referring to the uncultured mob, or the common people). He thought these people simply didn't have a clue as to the reality of life around them. In what is known as "the parable of the cave," Plato likens the existence of most human beings to that of slaves living in a darkened cave. These slaves are chained facing a large wall. Behind them, and unknown to them, a large fire is burning. Between that fire and the chained slaves are people, perpetually moving about, their shadows thrown upon the wall that the slaves must face. To the slaves, forever bound in place, these shadows and the sounds they hear coming from the moving figures are all there is of reality. It is this reality that the slaves talk and think about, since it is all they know. In order to break the bonds of this "reality," a person would have to free himself from his chains, turn around and face the fire and the people moving to and fro in front of it. However, such an experience would probably be so frightening that it would result in the slave wishing to return to his original reality. And if the slave were forced to go to the surface, outside the cave, the experience of the blinding sunlight and vast panorama of this new reality would be nearly overwhelming. Even supposing that the slave became used to the reality of the world, he would never be able to explain it to his fellow slaves if he returned to the darkness of the cave, because their frame of reference didn’t include these possibilities.

Plato believed most people were enslaved in their own bodies, not able to comprehend the reality beyond their humanity. A more modern interpretation, however, might indicate that we are still prisoners of our own illusions—illusions proffered in large part by the media. In fact, it was this very point that was the focus of much of the criticism of the media early in the twentieth century. For example, social philosopher and media critic Walter Lippmann referred to the reality painted by an opinionated media as "the pictures in people’s heads," alluding directly to Plato’s writings. Today, we have only to look at the phenomenon of the "Seinfeld Show" to recognize how readily people will incorporate fiction into their daily lives. What transpired on the Seinfeld show every Thursday night invariably became the major topic of conversation around the water cooler on Friday.

Thus, the "parable of the cave" has far-reaching implications for those of us today who base most of what we know about the world beyond our walls on what the media tell us. Plato may have been right to assume that most people will be satisfied with the shadows on the wall, given how difficult it may be to accept the "real" world. Certainly, this story carries an important moral not only for journalism, but also especially for advertising and public relations, whose primary role frequently is to cast those shadows.

A Platonic view of the place of the media in our society was held (at least for a while) by Lippmann. In some of his earlier works, he proposed that information be controlled by an intelligent elite who would then pass it along to the media to be further interpreted for the people (not unlike Plato’s concept of the perfect Republic). All information disseminated this way would be completely objective and free of opinion. Although this particular "utopia" never came to pass, Lippmann is largely responsible for the idealized view of objectivity held by the press today. Thus, a Platonic view of the media would also place objective truth above all else, and allegiance to society above individualism. In other words, social responsibility would probably be placed ahead of press freedom. In addition, we would probably find that the entertainment media would be rejected outright as not contributing positively to society, a view becoming a bit more prevalent these days.