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empiricism the American tradition in brief first decade of 20th century – 1940s, United States -trend: the construction of social sciences on an empirical foundation -idea: social sciences could play a role in solving great social problems -focus: micro-sociological approach to the modes of communication at issue whether American democracy could survive in the crowded slums of rapidly growing cities … tremendous growth in the United States after the Civil War … massive migration to the United States from Europe (end of 19th , beginning of 20th century) • The Chicago School - pragmatic: seeking to improve the world by studying its social problems - concern with the study of the city; fast growing cities – problems of immigration, crime, and social problems - committed to direct fieldwork and empirical study, employing qualitative methods too (social surveys, community-based statistical research, participant observation, case-study methods) the figures Robert Ezra Park & Ernest Burgess: ‘Introduction to the Science of Sociology’ (1921) – the basic process underlying social relationships was competition George Herbert Mead: ‘Mind, Self and Society’ (1934) – theory of social behaviorism: analysis of experience; importance of language, symbols and communication in human group life the theory ‘human ecology’ - ecology: the science of the relationship between the organism and the environment, understood as the sum total of the conditions of existence Park systematically attempted to apply the theoretical framework of plant/animal ecology to the study of human communities the parameter community: - a population territorially organized - whose individual units live in a relationship of mutual interdependence that is symbiotic rather than societal in this ‘biological economics’ relationships between individuals are governed by the ‘struggle for space’ … organizing principle competition competition and the division of labor result in forms of unplanned competitive cooperation that make up the symbiotic relations of human organization the ‘organic community’ can be observed in various phases – ex. the cycle of ethic relations (competition, conflict, adaptation, assimilation) in immigrant communities the model of human ecology any change affecting the existing division of labour or the relations of the population to the land is conceived in terms of: equilibrium-crisis-return to equilibrium investigates: the processes by which balance is maintained once it is achieved, and the processes by which transition is made (when balance is disturbed) from one relatively stable order to another criticism - tending to biological determinism - seeing the adaptive mechanisms by which equilibrium is maintained as an inevitable basis for social existence, discounting the more radical possibilities for social change occurring through human agency still a significant tradition microsociology: - investigation (ethnographic methodology, participant observation, life-story analysis) of social interaction, based on the subjective experience of actors in society - ethnographic description of the symbolic interaction of actors the field - the city as a ‘social laboratory’ with its symptoms of disorganization and marginality; or the city as the locus of mobility - 1915–1945: contributions on how immigrants became integrated into US society - interest: in ethnic communities, the assimilating function of newspapers (foreign language), the nature of information, the profession of journalism (and what distinguishes it from social propaganda and municipal advertising) and the media Park identified (1916) the newspaper as the great medium of communication, since it was on the basis of the information which it supplied that a public opinion rests his work suggested the media of communication as active sites of competition and conflict, paying attention to ‘cultural struggles’ rather than ‘communication effects’ shift of the focus Chicago school shifted the focus of communication research with the aim of understanding the cultural contexts in which individuals produced, used and made sense of media … cultural studies Workshop I passages from: Park (1967) ‘The Natural history of the newspaper’ • ‘Mass communication research’ another current: from cultural/historical interpretation of communication… … to social-scientific explanation (functionalist analysis relying on quantitative methods) the figure Harold D. Lasswell political scientist teaching at the university of Chicago, deeply interested in questions of propaganda, public opinion, public affairs and elections - the Lasswell formula - hypodermic needle hypothesis (see week 5 – media effects) the first element ‘Propaganda, Techniques in World War’ (1927); Lasswell’s interest reflected the era in which he grew up - innovations in propaganda by the British in World War I (1914-1918) - claims by the advertising and public relations industries in the 1920s about their ability to ‘engineer consent’ - use of propaganda by fascists in Europe and communists in the Soviet Union during the 1930s the instrument how and under what conditions propagandists could be successful methods of dissemination appeared to be indispensable instruments for ‘governmental management of opinion’ propaganda was the only way to generate the support of the masses; moreover it was more economical than violence, corruption or other comparable techniques of government it was a mere instrument; it could be used for good or for ill - functionalism and the media Lasswell provided a conceptual framework for the functionalist sociology of the media – the communication process fulfils three main functions in society: - surveillance: provide information about the environment - correlation: explain and interpret events, and, in doing so, provide a means of connecting the different elements of society - transmission: socializing and educating; disseminating cultural heritage from one generation to the next the model Lasswell: ‘The structure and function of communication in society’(1948) a convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer the following questions: - who? - says what? - in which channel? - to whom? - with what effect? the parameters - who? – communicator - says what? – message - in which channel? – medium - to whom? – receiver - with what effect? – effect privileged techniques - content analysis, which provided scholars with elements for orientating their approach to the public aim: to achieve an objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communications attention: to the constant evolution of knowledge, behavior attitudes, emotions, opinions and actions extending the model … the model provided a formula for many researchers: ex. Braddock (1958) added two more facets of the communicative act: - who? - says what? - in which channel? - to whom? - under what circumstances? - for what purposes? - with what effect? the context - practical objectives all these studies were required to yield results calculating the effectiveness of: - army propaganda efforts - governmental information campaigns - corporate advertising campaigns overall Lasswell’s model shows a typical trait of early communication models it more or less takes for granted that: - the communicators has some intention of influencing the receiver - communication is as a persuasive process missing … Lasswell has been criticized for having omitted the element of feedback this criticism, however, should not obscure that fact that it is even today a convenient and comprehensive way of introducing people to the study of the communication process Workshop II passages from: Lasswell (1948) ‘The structure and function of communication in society’ # - Barlow, D. & Mills, B. (2009) Reading Media Theory:Thinkers, Approaches, Contexts. London: Pearson - Lasswell, H. (1927/1971) Propaganda Technique in theWorldWar. Cambridge: MIT Press - Mattelart, A. & Mattelart, M. (1998) Theories of Communication: a Short Introduction. London: Sage - McQuail, D. & Windahl, S. (1993) Communication Models: for the Study of Mass Communications, 2nd edition. London: Pearson - Rogers, M. E. (1994) A History of Communication Study. NY: Free Press coming next week … Information Theory: - systems approach - cybernetics reading text: - Rogers, M. E. (1994) A History of Communication Study. NY: Free Press (chapters: 10, 11) thank you for your attention