Communication Theory Media, Technology and Society

Communication theory cannot confine itself to the study of the inter-

action between media producers and media audiences, between message

producers and message receivers. Understanding the nature of communi-

cation mediums requires an understanding of communicative integration–

the phenomenon explored in the following chapter. Even when we are not

interacting with others ‘through’ these mediums, the mediums themselves

still frame our lives.

Notes

1 Similarly, the significance of vaudeville as an entertainment form which developed a

very large pre-electronic mass should be noted here, particularly for the formation of

highly visible national stars (see Snyder, 1994).

2 Which typically point to a marked decline in face-to-face networks (see Guest and

Wierzbiki, 1999).

The Interrelation between Broadcast and Network Communication 119

Content theor y

Transmission views

(Interaction)

Medium theor y

Ritual views

(Integration)

Broadcast

(media studies)

Information theor y 1

(user, content, control,

effects tradition)

Shannon, Gerbner,

Lasswell, Katz

Audience studies 1

Mass–elite frameworks

Frankfurt School –

culture industr y 1

Orthodox Marxist

theories of ideology 1

Semiotic accounts of

communication

Frankfurt School –

culture industr y 2

Neo-Marxist theories of

ideology 2

Society of the spectacle

The theor y of simulacra

‘Medium’ theor y 1

Post-Saussurian

perspectives

The mediumization of

audience studies –

‘soap communities’

Broadcast also facilitates

a ‘virtual community’

Network (cyberstudies)

CMC perspectives

(communicative

efficiency, CMC and

‘per fect knowledge’)

Cues-filtered-out

approaches

Information theor y

Virtuals community

perspectives

Virtual space

perspectives

CMC as cyberspace

Medium theor y 2

Sociality with objects

Table 4.2 Medium theor y as applied to network and

(retrospectively) to broadcast communication

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