Toplumsal Değişim Sürecinde İletişim ve Teknoloji: Erken Dönem İletişim Kuramlarının Eleştirel Bir Değerlendirmesi

Abstract

This article explores the conceptualization of communication and technology by the early communication scholars, which laid the foundation of contemporary communication studies, in their quests for explaining social change. In this respect, it aims to contribute to social scientists that frequently emphasize developments in communication processes and technologies for explaining the ever-hastening social change in the contemporary era. Similar to the contemporary literature, the early communication theories were also suffered from the swing between the two extreme positions regarding to understanding of communication and technology in the processes of social change, one that fetishizes technology and the other that condemns it. Thus, a critical appraisal of these early theories may offer an important source of awareness and self-reflexivity for today’s social scientists. In this framework, the article examines the approaches of the Chicago School, effect oriented mainstream mass media studies, development communication and the Frankfurt School.