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Era's of Media Theory
Era's of Media Theory
There are four main eras of media theory. The four eras are mass society and mass culture,
scientific perspective, limited effects and cultural criticism. Theories are constructed within
media technology eras. These theories came about due to changes in society and politics.
Era of Mass Society and Mass Culture:
This era of theory started in the latter half of the 19th century. Media was seen as influential but
negative. This era is characterized as a time in which people were worried about the power that
media had to influence average people. People feared that media would ruin the value of society.
Theories that came about during this time are the propaganda theory and magic bullet theory.
Era of Scientific Perspective:
This era of theory is characterized by Paul Lazarfield escaping Germany to go to the United
States during the time of Nazism and Hitler. The era emphasized the use of scientific research
and experiments that are carefully conducted in order to prove that media was not as powerful as
thought in the previous eras. This era emphasized that people can resist media influence in
multiple ways. The limited-effects theory was born in the era of scientific perspective.
Starting in 1940s, especially by Paul Lazarsfeld who fled from Nazi Germany to the US. The use
of scientific approach, carefully designed field experiment and measurement, to observe media
influence on society. “Media were not as powerful as previously imagined” Thus, the effect of
media towards the audience is limited. “People had numerous ways of resisting media influence
and were influenced by many competing factors”. “Media seemed to reinforce existing social
trends and strenghthen rather that threaten the status quo”. We will discuss the studies by
Lazarsfeld, Hovland, etc.
Era of Limited Effects Theory:
By the mid-1960, the debate between mass society and limited effects was over, in which the
latter gained more support. The empirical research findings confirmed the latter view. Since no
“big problem” in media, Berelson (1959) declared the field communication research to be dead.
During the 1960s and into the 1970s, the limited effects paradigm dominated American mass
communication research. We will discuss: information flow theory, diffusion theory,
phenomenistic theory, etc.
The limited effects era came about in the 1960s. Limited effects theory was widely supported
over mass society theory. At this point, researchers thought there was nothing more to research.
Some considered the mass communications field to be dead. However, the communications
discipline grew because students started attending journalism schools in numbers never seen
before. Elite pluralism and social cognitive theory are notable theories from this era.
Era of Cultural Criticism:
The era of cultural criticism is characterized by the creation of cultural studies in Britain. British
cultural studies focused on how mass media promote hegemonic cultures. Hegemonic cultures
are cultures that are forced from the outside onto people and it only serves people in elite
positions. It looked at how powerful elites retain power. Culture is the behavior that members of
a group learn. Social scientists became increasingly interested in culture theories during the
1950s and 1960s. Theories of culture intended to provide explanation on how the media changes
culture and the consequences that result. An example of a cultural theory is the political
economy theory. The political economy theory is a macroscopic theory of culture because it is
concerned about society as a whole and not just individuals. Microscopic theories focus their
attention on individuals and not society. The political economy theory studies the powers that
power elites have over the institutions that run countries. A bank is an example of such
institution Exercises.
Mass society notions continued to flourish in Europe. Both left-wing and right-wing concerns
about the power of media, learning from the trauma of the WW II. During the 1960s, neomarxist
in Britain developed a school of social theory widely referred to as British cultural studies.
Neomarxist: Social theorists asserting that media enable dominant social elites to maintain
power. In North America, there was an attempt to create an “American culture studies” (Innis
and McLuhan, for example).
The Emergence of Moderate Effects:
The limited effects paradigm have undergone a transformation, due to the pressure of cultural
studies and new communication technology. The idea of active audience that uses media content
to create meaningful experience. Acknowledges that media effects can occur over longer period
of time (while limited effect was unable to understand the media role in cultural changes).