Abstract
Media is closely related to class. Issues like “What impact does media have on class?” “How do different social classes use media?” “What role has the media played in the pursuit of equality and democracy?” are related to the role of the media in modern society. In media studies, the Critical School, developed with Europe as the center, is associated with Marxism, according to which the bourgeoisie exercised ideological control over the working class by dominating the media as the superstructure. This has been criticized. However, the multiple relations and internal mechanism between media and social class have not been elaborated. Thus, the Critical School developed based on this line of Marxist thought and develop it. Although the discussion on social class is not its central argument of the Critical School, this study extracted the perspectives of media and social class scattered in representative scholars’ theories in the two main schools of Frankfurt and Cultural Studies. Such scholars include Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Lowenthal, Jürgen Habermas, Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, Edward Palmer Thompson, Stuart Hall, Paul Willis, Dick Hebdige, Phil Cohen, and John Fiske. After reviewing their theories, this study found and summarized four research perspectives within Critical School, namely domination, resistance, negotiation, and construction. This study also expounded the applicability and significance of those perspectives and suggested that reconsidering such classical theories can provide research directions for analyzing contemporary social class issues in media studies.
Presenters
Abigail Qian ZhouAssociate Professor, Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Frankfurt School, Cultural Studies, Media and social class, Research perspective
