Moving forward on the left: some observations on critical communications research in the United States

Meehan, Eileen R. (author)

With the Soviet Union's demise, some academicians argued that Marxist scholarship was similarly irrelevant. Yet, critical voices are still raised in the United States and critical analyses of corporate America remain central in the political economy of mass communication. Within US communication research, 'political economist' is closely identified with the North American Critical School and thus with Marxist scholarship. While that glosses over the wide variety of positions taken by American practitioners of political economy, it is a fairly reasonable assumption within the field of communications. In the 1950s, a self-consciously critical approach emerged in the work of Dallas Smythe and Herbert I. Schiller. Although ostracized by the field's administrative 'mainstream', Smythe and Schiller published widely, found an organizational home in the International Association for Media and Communication Research, and inspired a generation of scholars. Their legacy remains vibrant as critical communications research has taken root in the academy, figured in the creation of anti-neo-conservative movements, founded and sustained professional organizations, played a major role in the critique of the mainstream, developed traditions of internal debate and critique, and been targeted for scholarly attack. While much remains to be done, the critical school is clearly moving forward.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2004
• Number of pages: Str. 19-39
• Numbering: Vol. 11, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-74334
• UDC: 3
• ISSN on article: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 23800413
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Javnost = The public
• Shortened title: Javnost
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis, European Institute for Communication and Culture
• ISSN: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40119808

Secondary language

• Language: Unknown
• Title: Napredovanje na levici: zapažanja o kritičnem raziskovanju komuniciranja v ZDA

Abstract

S koncem Sovjetske zveze so nekateri raziskovalci pokopali tudi marksizem. Vendar se kritični glasovi še slišijo v ZDA in kritične analize korporacijske Amerike ostajajo v središču politične ekonomije množičnega komuniciranja. Politična ekonomija je v ZDA tesno povezana s severnoameriško kritično šolo in marksizmom. V petdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja sta kritični pristop v svojih delih uveljavila Dallas Smythe in Herbert I. Schiller. Čeprav ju je administrativni glavni tok bojkotiral, sta Smythe in Schiller veliko objavljala, dobila organizacijsko domovanje v Mednarodnem združenju za raziskovanje medijev in komuniciranja in bila vzor za celo generacijo raziskovalcev. Njuna dediščina se ohranja z ukoreninjenjem kritičnega raziskovanja komuniciranja na univerzah, z ustanavljanjem proti-neo-konzervativnih gibanj in profesionalnih organizacij; igrala je pomembno vlogo v kritiki "mainstrimovske" tradicije in je sama postala deležna kritike.