mass-communication-theory

Chapter 12 Afterword: The Future of Media Theory and Research 359
Politically, the end of the Cold War did not bring to a close political, religious,
and ethnic conflict. Despite fear of nuclear attack during the Cold War, and although
the United States and the USSR sponsored small-scale wars in the Middle
East, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Americans had little to fear from domestic
terrorism. Now the United States finds itself struggling to understand and decide
how to deal with foreign conflicts threatening it at home. Hope for a New World
Order that would minimize armed conflict has faded. Technologies like the Internet
and cell phones, seemingly beneficial to us all, are used effectively by terrorist
groups to organize their opposition to the United States both inside and outside its
borders. As terrorism expert David Kilcullen explains, “If bin Laden didn’t have
access to global media, satellite communications, and the Internet, he’d just be a
cranky guy in a cave” (in Packer, 2006a, p. 61).
Throughout this text we have considered how societal upheaval was related to
the development of differing theories about the role of media. Rapid industrialization
was linked to the development of mass society theory; the rise of totalitarian
political systems occasioned the development of propaganda theories; World War
II concerns for harnessing the power of mass communication for democracy while
minimizing harmful media impact led to the development of the limited-effects perspective;
the social unrest of the 1960s spurred renewed interest in theories like cultivation,
the spiral of silence, and agenda-setting that could explain how media
play important roles for individuals and for society. At each turn in mass communication
theory, the introduction of new technologies, interest in and efforts at controlling
them, and a concern that their use not conflict with democratic and
pluralistic ideals have initiated and shaped emerging ideas about the role of media
in the lives of individuals and in the cultures and societies they occupy. Contemporary
media theory must evolve—and is evolving—to accommodate these rapidly
moving and powerful alterations in the relationship between people and media.
Although it is possible to outline the many forces at work in the world today,
it is difficult to say which will shape future media theory. Will the escalating conflict
between the United States and Islamic fundamentalists be influential? Though
conceptualization of the role of the Internet seems central to future theory, what
this theory might look like is as unclear as the technology it tries to define and understand.
Multinational corporations rely heavily on older media theories as they
seek out new markets for their products and services. Will new theories allow
greater perspective on the global role of these corporations and their consequences
for nation-states and ethnic cultures? What about the trends toward greater cultural
and ethnic diversity, toward the resurgence of long-suppressed minorities? It
is becoming increasingly important to understand how media can support rather
than subvert cultural identity.
Earlier in this book we argued that one key to understanding the future of media
theory is to look at the way scholarly researchers define themselves and their
research. We differentiated four types of theory:
1. postpositivism (traditional social science inquiry)
2. interpretive theory (hermeneutics)
3. critical cultural theory
4. normative theory
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