The History of Mass Communications Research

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The field of mass communications is relatively new and is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in nature. It is therefore not surprising that the approach to mass communications research will be mixed. This essay attempts to look at the issues which gave rise to research theories and distinguish between the terms 'administrative' or 'conventional' and 'critical' research. It will discuss and contrast the similarities of both types of research while evaluating the usefulness and relevance of both approaches and what it meant for the development of the media. Finally, it will look at the different traditions of media research and explain how they manifest either 'conventional' or 'critical' characteristics. The history of mass communications research is a short one. In the 1940s, when communication and media studies came about in the United States of America (USA), research focused on the needs of an expanding society, including the positioning of 'political and economic interests which was based on the critical pragmatism and sociology of the Chicago School' (Hardt, 1992, p. 9). However, Wilbur Schramm suggested that communications research was 'quantitative, rather than speculative' and argued that its practitioners such as Lazarsfeld, Lewin, Laswell and Hovland (who were identified as the founding fathers of communications research in the USA) were deeply interested in theory, but in the theory they can test. His view ignored the history of concerns about communication and culture that had characterized the Chicago School. Schramm insisted that they were 'behavioural researchers' and as such interests in the wider social and cultural aspects of media and communication were left unaddressed. His interest was journalist rather than scientific and communications research is the USA served the system at the time instead of challenging it because of the

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