Communication and Democracy

The Roots of Media Studies

Bibliographic Data

ID23690002
AuthorsHanno Hardt (corresponding author)
Year2012
Publication date2012-12-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781444361506.wbiems026
OpenAlexW1520292728
ISBN9781444361506
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited10

This chapter focuses on the contribution of social and economic thought to media studies in the United States. It details the migration of ideas from Germany and their creative application regarding the press to social and political conditions unique to the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. An evolving mass medium warranted theorizing its role and function in a democratic society and produced a critical literature of its performance. This chapter proposes that US media studies are partially the result of a realization in nineteenth‐ and early twentieth‐century social thought that communication is an essential, binding force in a democratic society and partially the result of a turn to communication research void of larger philosophical concerns that had characterized the Chicago School in its consideration of communication and US democracy.

Democracy · Epistemology · Function (biology) · Mass media · Media studies · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Realization (probability) · Social science · Sociology · German Social Sciences and History · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Philosophy · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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