NMNRGENCE OF CRITICAL AIID CT]LTTJRAL TIIEORIES OFMASS COMMUMCATION

During the 1950s and 1960s, interest in cultural theories of mass communication began todevelop 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 theoryfocuses on whether media content can have an immediate and direct effect on specificthoughts and actions of individuals. Researchers typically seek evidence for these effectsin experiments and surveys. But it is possible to approach the study of mass media byfocusing on changes in culture.

Culture is the learned behavior of members of a given social group. Meaia affect societybecause they affect how culhre is created, shared, learned, and applied. Cultural theoriesoffer a broad ftmge of interesting ideas about how media can affect culture and provideInanJ different views concerning the long-terur consequences of the culhrral changesaffected by media.

Media have become a primary means by which many of us experience or learn aboutmany aspects of the world around us. Even when we don't learn about t}ose thingsdirectly from medi4 we learn aobut them from other people those who get their ideas ofthe world from media. With the advent of Mass mediq many forms of folk culture fellinto sharp decline. Everyday communication was fundanrentaily altered. Storytelling andmusic ceased to be important for extended faurilies, instead nuclSar families eathered infront of an eothralling. electronic s0oryteller. lnformed social groups dedicated to culturalenrictrment disapoeared - along with vaudeville and band concerts. It is no coincidencefugfcubrre-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 importantmedia influence was "the result of complex sgcial political. qnd cultural-developmentsthat (.enablqil ideas to rise and take hold of the imagination of individuals in theitownstrueele 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 stmctureeveryday 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 ofmedia for the social order affect

normal theories thai we have seen are calbedause they deemphasize larger issues about the social order in favour ofquestions involving everyday life of average people.P.otiticA e"onomv m C$turalare less concemed with developing detailed explanations ;m"*

whichindividuals are

how order as aaffected.

-CRITICAL TIIEORY

o Some of the culhral sfudies and political economy theories are refered to ascritical theories because axiology openly espouses specific values and uses themto evaluate and criticize the status quo. Those who develop critical theories seeksocial change that will implement their values. Political economy theories areinherently critical, but some cultural theories are not. A critical theory raisesquestions and provides alternate ways of interpreting the social role of massmedia.

o Critical theory often analyzes specific social institutions, probing for extent towhich valued objectives are sought and achieved. Mass Vedia *d -ass culturethey promote have become a focus for critical theory. Mass nlctlia and massculture have been linked to a variety of social problerns. Even s,hen mass rneciiaare not seen as the source of specific problems, they are criticized fro aggravatingor preventing problems from being identified or addressed and solved.

. Strensths: 1. It is politically base4 action-oriented 2. Uses theory and research toplan change in the real world. 3. asks big important questions about media controland ownership

o Weaknesses: L is too political; call to action is too subjective 2. Typically lacksscientific verifications: based on subjective observation 3. When luU3ectea toscientific verification often employs innovative but controversial researchmethods.

e Critical research applies qualitative. research methods. Not surprisingly,researchers who adop u -oti traditiodil social science perspective frna

"Ututattheories hard to accept.

MARXIST TIIEORY i

Definition: Theory argulng ttrat the hierarchical class system is at the root of allsocial problems and must be ended by arevolution ofthe proletariat.This theory is based on the writings of Karl Mam. Mamist ideas formed afoundation or touchstone for much post-world war II European social theory. KarlMarx developed his theory in the latter part of the l9s century during one of themost volatile periods of social change in Europe. The assumption is that the

workers would rise against capitalists and demand an end to exploitation. Theywould band together to create an egalitarian democratic social ordir.Base of societv: Mam argued that the hierarchical class system was at the root ofall

-social problems and must be ended by a revolution of the workers, or

proletariat. He believed that elites dominated society primarily through iheirdirect control over the meaqs of production (that is ialor, factorieg un'A t*aywhich he referred to as the base of the society.

r Superstructure: Society's culture - Elites maintained themselves in power throughtheir 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" formtof culture.

o Ideoloqy: Mam believed an ideology operated much like a drug. Those who areunder 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 dothings 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 themasses seized conhol of the base - the means if production. Control over thesuperstructure - over ideology - would natunlly follow. He saw no possibility thatreforms in the superstructure would lead to social revolution.

CULTURAL STUDEIS TIIEORY

Sfensths: i. Prolides frrcus on iiow individuais duveiop their undersianding ofthe 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. Focusestoo narrowly on individual compared with societal effects. 3. Typically lacksscientific verification: based on subjective observation 4. When subjected toscientific verification, often employs non-traditional (controversial) researchmethods.

IIEO.MARXISM

r The thenrir

rather than the base. The importance that neo-marxists auach to the superstructurehas 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 poetrythat humanists judged to have the highest vale.

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

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 orrecords 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 reprintingof great novels in condensed serialized form. He claimed that mass mediareproductions of high culture were inferior and diverted people from seeking outthe 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 traditionalhumanism 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. Horkheimertook up residency at the New School for Social Research in New York City.They said that Nazism was grounded on a phony, artificially constructed folkculture that had been cynically created and manipulated by Hitler and hispropagandists. 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 POLITICALECONGhfff- THEORI$TS

Cultural studies theorists and plilical qgonomy theorists are the two majorschools of cultural theorists. Cultural studies theorists tend to ignore the largersocial and political context in uihich media operate. These theorists focus instead

on how popular culture content is consumed by individuals and group-s. Theirrasearch 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 -ofabando-nine the historical mission of critical theory in favor of an uncriticalcelebration of popular culttue. Political tronomy theorists have remainedcentrally with the larger social order and elites' ownership of media These

theories have criticized the growing privatization of European media, tbe declineof public service mdia institutions in Europe, and the increasing centralization ofmedia 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 ongoingcom€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 environmentsand the things in it, but those definitions have little unless others shme them. Forexample, 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 byreminding us of the aegative consequences of typifications. When we rely on

typications to routinely stnrcturp our experience, we risk making serious mistakes.

You can test tbe power of tlpitications tbr yourself when rea<iing the 'oox eniitie<i

"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 ofsymbols. !.'

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 veryconventional.

. Sometimes groups of fans will develop a common interpretation, andsometimes individuals are content to find their own meaning without sharingit.The serious study of popular culture poses a direct challenge to mass societytheory, the limited effects paradigm, and notions of high culture for severalreasons. In asserting the power of audiences to make meaning, researchers ofpopular culture grant a respect to average people that is absent from masssociety 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 qualityof high culture artifacts like sympbodies and opera.In short, in arguing the crucial cultural role played by the interaction of peopleand media texts, researchers studying popular culture lend zupport to all thecultural theories.

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

l.

The first revival of interest in the uses and gratifications approach can be traced tothree developments - one methodological and two theoretical.New survey research methods and data analysis techniques allowed thedevelopment of important new strategies for studying and interpreting audienceuses and gratificationsD'umrg the 1970s some media researchers developed increasing asraleness thatpeople's active use of media might be an important mediating factor that madeeffects more or less likely-Some researchers began expressing growing concern that effects re,search wasfocusing too much on unintended negative effects of media while intendedpositive uses of media were being ignored-The second revival is the product of the relatively recent development anddiffirsion of the internet and World Wide Web (WWW)Interactivity *significantly strengthens the core (Uses and Gratifications) notionof active ussr" because interactivity in mass cornnunication'has long beenconsidered "the degree to which participants in the communication process havecontrol over, and can change roles in their mutual discourse."Demassification is '1he ability of tbe media user to select from a wide menuUnlike traditional mass mdi4 new media like the intenret provide selectivitycharacteristics that allow individuals to tailor message to their needs.Asynchroniety means that mediated messages *may be staggered in time. Sendersand receivers of electronic messages can rcad mail ar ditrerent times and stillinteract 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 oftelevision, Asynchroniety meant the ability of VCR users to record a program forlater viewing.

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