Current media research has begun to converge on a common set of issues and themes. These are shared by many qualitative and quantitative researchers. Critical cultural studies have played an important role in identifying themes and prioritizing issues. Despite the serious questions that have been raised about the value of this approach, it has proven heuristic. This has occurred even though all too often this research is densely written using arcane neomarxist terminology. Critical cultural studies theorists make bold assertions and explicitly incorporate values into their work. They provide a useful challenge to mainstream mass communication theory (Baran and Davis 339).
Marxist Theory
Marxist theory, developed by Karl Marx in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, is another version of mass society theory, which was developed by revolutionaries who wanted to impose radical changes and by monarchists who wanted to restore old political order, but with important additions and alterations. Marx identified urbanization and industrialization as problems but argued that these changes were not inherently bad. Instead, he blamed capitalists for exacerbating social problems because they maximize personal profits by exploiting workers. Although mass society theorists demanded the restoration of the old order, Marx called for the creation of an entirely new social order where all social classes would be abolished. The workers would rise against the capitalist and demand and end to exploitation. They would band together to create an egalitarian, democratic social order (Baran and Davis 11, 317-318).
Neomarxist Theory
Neomarxist theories deviate from classic Marxist theory because it focused concern on the superstructure issues of culture and ideology rather than on the base. Neomarxist theorists assume that useful change can begin with peaceful and ideological reform rather than violent revolution. Some neomarxist theorists have developed critiques of culture that call for modest reforms while others call for radically transforming the superstructure (Baran and Davis 318).
Frankfurt School
Modern cultural critical theories have two different sources, neomarxist theory and humanist approaches. In the 1930s, one of the prominent schools of neomarxist theory was developed at the University of Frankfurt and became known as the Frankfurt School. Two of the most prominent individuals associated with this school were Max Horkheimer, its long head, and Theodor Adorno, a cogent and prolific writer. Unlike other neomarxist theories, the Frankfurt School combined Marxist theory with textual analysis and literary criticism (Baran and Davis 319-321).
British Cultural Studies
Today, neomarxist theorists are divided into two most important schools: British cultural studies and political economy theory. British cultural studies combine Marxist theory with ideas and research methods from history, linguistics, anthropology, and textual analysis and literary criticism. It criticized and contrasted elite notions of culture, including high culture, with popular, everyday forms practiced by minorities. It has attempted to trace historic elite domination over culture, to criticize the social consequences of this domination, and to demonstrate how it continues to be exercised over specific minority groups or subcultures. (Baran and Davis 321).
Political Economy
Political economy, on the other hand, study elite control of economic institutions such as banks and stock markets and then try to show how this control affects many other social institutions, including the mass media. It accepted that classic Marxist theory assumption that the base dominates the superstructure. It investigates the means of production by looking at economic institution, and then they expect to find that these institutions will shape media to suit their interests and purposes (Baran and Davis 324).
Communication Science vs. Culture-Centered Paradigm
Communication science uses quantitative researches, which were viewed by culture-centered theorists as American fetish. It employs systematic but not selective methods and strategies to develop and to evaluate theories. Culture-centered paradigm uses qualitative researches, which were viewed by communication science theorists as “irrational” and “unscientific.” It employs unsystematic but selective methods and strategies to developed and to evaluate theories (Baran and Davis 14-15, 283).
In communication science, theories are developed and evaluated through empirical research methods, some microscopic and macroscopic and some based on surveys, experiments, and participant observations, which are accepted as scientific ways of dealing with social phenomena. In culture-centered paradigm, theories are developed and evaluated through debates and discussions among proponents of opposing and contrasting positions, which were dismissed as too subjective, overly speculative, and empirically unverifiable (Baran and Davis 113, 115, 283, 328, 348. 350).
In a series of seminal essays, James Carey, a leading proponent of culture-centered theories, found one essential difference between communication science and culture-centered theories. He said that communication science theories focus on the transmission of accurate information from a dominant source to passive receivers while culture-centered theories are concerned about that everyday ritual that we rely upon to structure and to interpret our experiences (Baran and Davis 284).
Carey also argued that communication science theories are tied to the transmissional perspective - the view that mass communication is a process of transmitting messages at a distance for the purpose of control, that is, persuasion, attitude change, behavior modification, uses and gratification, and socialization through transmission of influence, information, and conditioning (Baran and Davis 284).
