Enhancing the hybrid media system model : the role of critical theory in media and communication research

Smrdelj, Rok (author), Pajnik, Mojca (author)

In this article, we propose a theoretical reconceptualization of the hybrid media system model by introducing structural and material conditions of contemporary media sphere with reference to critical theory. Our main thesis is based on the principle of historicization and the concept of social relations. Using this framework, we demonstrate that those who wield dominant power within the neoliberal capitalist economy also have influence over the logic of the hybrid media system. Following the premise that the “agency” is constrained by hierarchical social relations, we enhance the hybrid media system model to explicate not only cases where digital media have enabled successful civic activism leading to social change but also cases where newer digital technologies reinforce pre-existing social relations of power and subordination. The main contribution of the article is to show that critical theory strengthens the explanatory power of the current eclectic-empirical media models without fundamentally undermining their foundations.

• Language: English
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences; FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 55-69
• Numbering: Vol. 40, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-174655
• UDC: 316.77
• ISSN on article: 0267-3231
• DOI: 10.1177/02673231241306249
• COBISS.SI-ID: 222916611
• Publication date in RUL: 08.10.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European journal of communication
• Shortened title: Eur. j. commun.
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• ISSN: 0267-3231
• COBISS.SI-ID: 25428224

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: hibridni medijski sistemi, kritična teorija, historični materializem, medijska logika, moč