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NMNRGENCE OF CRITICAL AIID CT]LTTJRAL TIIEORIES OF

MASS COMMUMCATION

During the 1950s and 1960s, interest in cultural theories of mass communication began to
develop and take hold - frmt in Europe, the Canada" and finally in United States. Limited
!ffects theory has some serious assumptions and as well as limitationp. The theory
focuses on whether media content can have an immediate and direct effect on specific
thoughts and actions of individuals. Researchers typically seek evidence for these effects
in experiments and surveys. But it is possible to approach the study of mass media by
focusing on changes in culture.

Culture is the learned behavior of members of a given social group. Meaia affect society
because they affect how culhre is created, shared, learned, and applied. Cultural theories
offer a broad ftmge of interesting ideas about how media can affect culture and provide
InanJ different views concerning the long-terur consequences of the culhrral changes
affected by media.

Media have become a primary means by which many of us experience or learn about
many aspects of the world around us. Even when we don't learn about t}ose things
directly from medi4 we learn aobut them from other people those who get their ideas of
the world from media. With the advent of Mass mediq many forms of folk culture fell
into sharp decline. Everyday communication was fundanrentaily altered. Storytelling and
music ceased to be important for extended faurilies, instead nuclSar families eathered in
front of an eothralling. electronic s0oryteller. lnformed social groups dedicated to cultural
enrictrment disapoeared - along with vaudeville and band concerts. It is no coincidence
fugfcubrre-gresfuect fcr clds r€tlrle snC the $fudc;n ihey hold has falleil iii *le age
sfmedia.

Critical theory suggests that it isn't sage to do so quite yet. As Hanno Hardt explained,
the paradigm shift away &om limited effects and toward theories postulating important
media influence was "the result of complex sgcial political. qnd cultural-developments
that (.enablqil ideas to rise and take hold of the imagination of individuals in theitown
strueele against a dominant professional ideologv."

TM CULTTJRE TT}RN IN MEDIA RESEARCH

.3. CulhUal studies: Focus on use of media to create fomrs of culture that stmcture
everyday life
.f. Hegemonic culture: Culture imposed from above or outside that serves the
. interests of those in dominant social positions
{' Political Economy theories: Focus on social elites' use of economic power to
exploit media institutions
MACROSCOPIC VERSUS ]\{ICROSCOPIC TIMORIES

o Cul studies theories are less conceined with the long-term consequences of
media for the social order affect
normal theories thai we have seen are cal
bedause they deemphasize larger issues about the social order in favour of
questions involving everyday life of average people.
P.otiticA e"onomv m C$tural which
are less concemed with developing detailed explanations ;m"* individuals are
how order as a
affected.

CRITICAL
- TIIEORY
o Some of the culhral sfudies and political economy theories are refered to as
critical theories because axiology openly espouses specific values and uses them
to evaluate and criticize the status quo. Those who develop critical theories seek
social change that will implement their values. Political economy theories are
inherently critical, but some cultural theories are not. A critical theory raises
questions and provides alternate ways of interpreting the social role of mass
media.
o Critical theory often analyzes specific social institutions, probing for extent to
which valued objectives are sought and achieved. Mass Vedia *d
-ass culture
they promote have become a focus for critical theory. Mass nlctlia and mass
culture have been linked to a variety of social problerns. Even s,hen mass rneciia
are not seen as the source of specific problems, they are criticized fro aggravating
or preventing problems from being identified or addressed and solved.
. Strensths: 1. It is politically base4 action-oriented 2. Uses theory and research to
plan change in the real world. 3. asks big important questions about media control
and ownership
o Weaknesses: L is too political; call to action is too subjective 2. Typically lacks
scientific verifications: based on subjective observation 3. When luU3ectea to
scientific verification often employs innovative but controversial research
methods.
e Critical research applies qualitative. research methods. Not surprisingly,
researchers who adop u -oti traditiodil social science perspective frna
theories hard to accept. "Ututat
i

MARXIST TIIEORY
Definition: Theory argulng ttrat the hierarchical class system is at the root of all
social problems and must be ended by arevolution ofthe proletariat.
This theory is based on the writings of Karl Mam. Mamist ideas formed a
foundation or touchstone for much post-world war II European social theory. Karl
Marx developed his theory in the latter part of the l9s century during one of the
most volatile periods of social change in Europe. The assumption is that the
workers would rise against capitalists and demand an end to exploitation. They
would band together to create an egalitarian democratic social ordir.
Base of societv: Mam argued that the hierarchical class system was at the root
of
all problems and must be ended by a revolution of the workers, or
-social
proletariat. He believed that elites dominated society primarily through iheir
direct control over the meaqs of production (that is ialor, factorieg un'A t*ay
which he referred to as the base of the society.
r Superstructure: Society's culture - Elites maintained themselves in power through
their culture or the superstructure of society. Karl Mam saw culture as somethiig

act against their own interests. He used the tenn ideolosy to refer to ttt"r" formt
of culture.
o Ideoloqy: Mam believed an ideology operated much like a drug. Those who are
under its influence fail to see how they are being exploited. tn ttre worst cases,
they are so deceived that they actually underrnine their own interests and do
things that increase the power of elites while making their own lives even worse.

Mam concluded that the only hope for social change was a revolution in which the
masses seized conhol of the base - the means if production. Control over the
superstructure - over ideology - would natunlly follow. He saw no possibility that
reforms in the superstructure would lead to social revolution.

CULTURAL STUDEIS TIIEORY

Sfensths: i. Prolides frrcus on iiow individuais duveiop their undersianding of


the social world 2. Asks big important questions about the role of media 3.
Respects content consumption abilities of audience members.
Weaknesses: l. Has little explanatory power at the macroscopic level. 2. Focuses
too narrowly on individual compared with societal effects. 3. Typically lacks
scientific verification: based on subjective observation 4. When subjected to
scientific verification, often employs non-traditional (controversial) research
methods.

IIEO.MARXISM

r The theories
thenrir that deviate from classic Marxist theor.v in at least one important

rather than the base. The importance that neo-marxists auach to the superstructure
has created a firndamental division withio Mamism.
British Cultural Studies: Studies that trace historic domination over culture,
criticize that domination, and demonstrate how it continues.
High-culture: Set of cultural artifacts including music, art, literature, and poetry
that humanists judged to have the highest vale.
TIM FRANKFURT SCHOOL

Group of Neo-Marxist scholars who worked together in the 1930s aL the


tlniversiw of Frankfint was called Frankfurt School
Horkheimer and Adomo were skeptical that high culture could or should be
communicatd through mass media Adorno argued that radio broadcasts or
records couldn't begrn to adequately re.produce the sound of a live symphony
orchestra. He ridiculed the reproduction of great art in magazines or the reprinting
of great novels in condensed serialized form. He claimed that mass media
reproductions of high culture were inferior and diverted people from seeking out
the real thing. @o we help the artists if we copy their discs or cassettes? Don't the
artists lose money?)
The Frankfurt school has been criticized along with other forms of traditional
humanism for being too elitist and paternalistic.
The Frankftrt school eventually had a direct impact on American social research
because the rise of the Nazis forced its Jewish members into exile. Horkheimer
took up residency at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
They said that Nazism was grounded on a phony, artificially constructed folk
culture that had been cynically created and manipulated by Hitler and his
propagandists. Nazism did appeal to people humiliated by war and deeply
troubled by a devastating economic depression.
Pluralistic Public Fonrm: In critical theory, the idea that media may provide a
place where the power of dominant elites can be challenged.

THE DEBATE BETWEEN CT'LTURAL STUDIES AI\{D POLITICAL


ECONGhfff- THEORI$TS

Cultural studies theorists and plilical qgonomy theorists are the two major
schools of cultural theorists. Cultural studies theorists tend to ignore the larger
social and political context in uihich media operate. These theorists focus instead
on how popular culture content is consumed by individuals and group-s. Their
rasearch has led them to beome increasingly skeptical about the power of elites
to promote hegemonic forms ofculture.
Political economy theorists accuse some cultural studies researchers -of
abando-nine the historical mission of critical theory in favor of an uncritical
celebration of popular culttue. Political tronomy theorists have remained
centrally with the larger social order and elites' ownership of media These
theories have criticized the growing privatization of European media, tbe decline
of public service mdia institutions in Europe, and the increasing centralization of
media ownership around the world. These theoriss forrred social movements and
serve as leaders within other movemenus.l

CULTURAL STT]DIES: TRANSMISSIONAL VS RITUAL PERSPECTTVES

o Transmissional perspective: View of mass communication as merely the process


of transmitting messages from a distance for the pu{pose of control
r Ritual Perspectrye: View of mass communication as the representation of shared
belief where reality is prodqfjed, maintaine4 repaired, and transformed.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OI' REALITY (Theory that assumes an ongoing


com€spondence of meaning because people share a common sense about its reality)

r It implies an active audience. Audience members don't just passively take in and
store bits of information in mental filing cabinets; they actively process this
information, reshape, and store only what serves culfirally defrned needs.
o Active audience members use the media's symbols to define their environments
and the things in it, but those definitions have little unless others shme them. For
example, how a Rolls-Royce is different from MaruthiS00 and also the treatment
of their drivers when they go for a function (Status the car symbolizes)
r Phenomenology: Theory developd by European philosophers focusing on
individual experience of the physical and social world.
r One of the most important forrrs of knowledge that we process is Urrifications.
Typications enable w to quickly classif objects and actions that we observe and
then strucfure our own actions in response. But typications operate to some extent
like stereotypes - though they make it easy to interpret our experiences, they also
distort and bias these experiences.
o The concept of typifications is similar to Mead's conception of symbols and the
notions of schemes in information-pmcessing theory, It differs ftom these by
reminding us of the aegative consequences of typifications. When we rely on
typications to routinely stnrcturp our experience, we risk making serious mistakes.
'oox eniitie<i
You can test tbe power of tlpitications tbr yourself when rea<iing the
"Typifications Shaping Reality? Not mine!
r In social construction of reality, a syrnbol is an object (in these instances, a
collection of letters or drawings on paper) that represents some other object -
wbat we commonly refer to as knife. (read the discussion on this onPg252)
r Berger and Luckmann recognized that there is another kind of meaning that we
attactt to the 'hings in our environments, ore that is subjective rather than
objective. They call these signs, objcts explicitly desigped "io serve as an index
olsubjective of symbols.' Thig is analogues to symbolic int€raction's concept of
symbols. !.'
r Social construction of rea$b defines signs and symbols opposite to symbolic
interactionism. The small proble,m aside, how do people use these signs and
symbols to constnrct a reality that allows a culture to function?

POPTJLAR CIILTTIRE

r Some of the most popular cuttrne research has been provided by Horace
Newcomb in TV, the most populn afiQnq.
o A second insight well articulated by Newmmb is that audience interpretations
of content are likely to be quite diverse. Some people make interpretations at
one level of meaning whereas other make their interpretations at other levels.
Some interpretations will be highly idiosyncratic, and some will be very
conventional.
. Sometimes groups of fans will develop a common interpretation, and
sometimes individuals are content to find their own meaning without sharing
it.
The serious study of popular culture poses a direct challenge to mass society
theory, the limited effects paradigm, and notions of high culture for several
reasons. In asserting the power of audiences to make meaning, researchers of
popular culture grant a respect to average people that is absent from mass
society and limited-effects thinking.
In treating popular culture as culttually important and worthy of study,
theorists challenge high cultue's berJrock assumption of the inherent quality
of high culture artifacts like sympbodies and opera.
In short, in arguing the crucial cultural role played by the interaction of people
and media texts, researchers studying popular culture lend zupport to all the
cultural theories.

ACTTVE AI]DIENCES: USES AND GRATIf,.ICAITONS THEORY

The first revival of interest in the uses and gratifications approach can be traced to
three developments - one methodological and two theoretical.
l. New survey research methods and data analysis techniques allowed the
development of important new strategies for studying and interpreting audience
uses and gratifications
2. D'umrg the 1970s some media researchers developed increasing asraleness that
people's active use of media might be an important mediating factor that made
effects more or less likely-
J. Some researchers began expressing growing concern that effects re,search was
focusing too much on unintended negative effects of media while intended
positive uses of media were being ignored-
The second revival is the product of the relatively recent development and
diffirsion of the internet and World Wide Web (WWW)
t. Interactivity *significantly strengthens the core (Uses and Gratifications) notion
of active ussr" because interactivity in mass cornnunication'has long been
considered "the degree to which participants in the communication process have
control over, and can change roles in their mutual discourse."
2- Demassification is '1he ability of tbe media user to select from a wide menu
Unlike traditional mass mdi4 new media like the intenret provide selectivity
characteristics that allow individuals to tailor message to their needs.
3. Asynchroniety means that mediated messages *may be staggered in time. Senders
and receivers of electronic messages can rcad mail ar ditrerent times and still
interact at their convenience. It also n€ans the ability of an individual to send,
receive, save, or rehieve messages at her or his convenience. In the case of
television, Asynchroniety meant the ability of VCR users to record a program for
later viewing.

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