There are four main eras of media theory: 1) the Era of Mass Society and Mass Culture which viewed media as influential but negative and feared it could ruin society; 2) the Era of Scientific Perspective on Mass Media which emphasized scientific research showing media was not as powerful as previously believed; 3) the Era of Limited Effects where limited effects theory became widely accepted; and 4) the Era of Cultural Criticism characterized by the rise of cultural studies examining how media promotes hegemonic cultures that serve elite interests.
2. Eras Of Media Theory
There are four main eras of media theory.
The four eras are :-
Era Of Mass Society and Mass Culture
Era Of Scientific Perspective on Mass Media
Era Of Limited Effects
Era Of Cultural Criticism
3. Era Of Mass Society and Mass Culture
This era of theory was started in the latter part 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, the power to influence mediocre 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.
4. Era Of Scientific Perspective on Mass
Media
This era existed in around 1940-1950.
The era emphasized the use of scientific research and experiments that were
carefully conducted.
The experiments were conducted to prove that media was not as powerful as
thought in the previous eras.
This era emphasized that people can resist media’s influence in multiple ways.
Theories that came under this era are the limited-effects theory, two-step theory
and Lasswell’s Model.
5. Era of Limited Effects
The limited effects era existed in 1950-60s.
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.
6. Era Of Cultural Criticism
This era came in about 1960’s and lasted till 1980’s.
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.
Theories of culture intended to provide explanation on how the media changes culture
and the consequences that result.
7. 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.