mass-communication-theory

OVERVIEW
Chapter 11 Media and Culture Theories: Meaning-Making in the Social World 315
enhanced. Life now has a soundtrack courtesy of an iPod. Web surfing, mobile
video, and portable video games keep boredom at bay. Google holds the answers
to life’s many questions and it can deliver them in a flash. Friends are a text message
or a phone call away. Media enable constant connection with others and help
us deal with everyday situations.
In Chapter 8, we traced the rise of cultural theories of media, giving particular attention
to early schools of critical theory and cultural studies. This chapter also
looks at contemporary critical cultural studies theories as well as other theories
focusing on culture. Cultural theory has a long and, as we’ve seen, controversial
history in the field of mass communication. It predates the rise of postpositivist theories
examining media effects on individuals. From the 1950s to the 1980s, cultural
theories were marginalized by American mass communication scholars. Media theory
textbooks written in the United States during this era often omitted any mention
of them or gave them little attention. We consider George Gerbner’s
cultivation theory in this chapter. It did get attention from effects researchers in
the 1970s, but as we’ll see, much of it was critical.
In the 1980s, when cultural theories began to be taken seriously in the discipline,
a furious debate broke out between adherents and postpositivist opponents.
The field was declared to be in ferment. Advocates of media effects perspectives
said their theories were more scientific because they were based on highly structured
empirical observations and they were falsifiable—new findings could lead to
their rejection. They attacked cultural theories as speculative and based on loosely
structured qualitative research methods. These theories couldn’t be disproved because
there was no way to test their causal assertions. But since that time, cultural
theories have gained acceptance, as have the qualitative methods on which most of
them are based. There is growing respect between postpositivists and advocates for
cultural theories. Textbooks, like this one, increasingly consider the strengths and
limitations of both types of theories and the research methods on which they are
based.
We will first consider micro-level cultural theories and then move to theories
dealing with more macro-level concerns. The former examine the everyday use of
media by individuals and communities; the latter look at media’s role in the larger
social order. We use two terms to refer to the theories in this chapter. We refer to
them as culture-centered because they study culture as a primary means of understanding
the social world and the role media play in it. They provide different
perspectives on how media influence culture and what the consequences of that influence
are for individuals and society. We also refer to them as meaning-making
theories because they are focused on understanding the way media influence how
we make sense of the social world and our place in it—how we make meaning. Despite
their common focus on culture and meaning-making, these theories are quite
diverse. Some were developed by American scholars, whereas others originated in
Europe. Some are critical—they assess how media frustrate or enhance our efforts
to pursue valued objectives. Others are satisfied to provide in-depth descriptions of
what we do with media and how our lives are affected.
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