Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Communication research is intimately related to politics, especially if politics is understood widely as the deliberate management of society. Research on media and other aspects of communication such as election campaigns has typically been inspired and financed by political motives (→  Election Campaign Communication ). On the other hand, research has influenced politics by producing concepts and findings about how communication really works in society. Historically, the origins of communication research are deeply rooted in politics, beginning with the rhetoric of antiquity (→  Rhetoric and Politics ; Rhetorical Studies ) and ending with studies around each new medium – the press in the seventeenth century, film in the early twentieth century, →  Radio and →  Television in the mid-twentieth century, and the →  Internet toward the new millennium (→  Media History ). Histories of the field leave no doubt that each school of thought was founded as a consequence of a more or less direct political call of the day ( Hardt 2001 ; Pietilä 2005 ; →  Communication and Media Studies, History to 1968 ). It is less obvious what has been the opposite direction of influence – whether research has had a notable impact on politics. The relationship between research and politics is an intriguing equation that has to be approached at different levels. The following three are most obvious: ... log in or subscribe to read full text