Table of Contents
Issue #3 as well as supplement added at the end.
Communication Research Trends:
Television's Influence on Cultures
vol. 2 no. 3 1981
Research Trends in Religious Communication:
The Electronic Church
vol. 2 no. 3 1981
Abstract
It is widely assumed by the public, broadcasters and some communication researchers that television has caused major shifts in contemporary world view and values. McLuhan introduced the notion that the form of the medium itself- the simultaneous sound and vision - has brought about a new intuitive, holistic pattern of thinking. For McLuhan, the generation gap is the product of a television generation. Gerbner sees television as the central cultural arm of American society. Like a religion, it is the chief source of repetitive and ritualised symbol systems cultivating the consciousness of mass publics.
Others think that the process is more complex. For them television picks up images and themes from popular culture and reflects these back to an agreeing public.
Does television cause cultural trends or simply mirror them? Disagreements on how television influences culture and how to determine this influence have produced some of the most fiery debates among communication researchers of the last two decades.
This issue outlines four approaches to explaining the role of television in national culture and some of the major points of disagreement among them.
Recommended Citation
(1981)
"Television's Influence on Cultures,"
Communication Research Trends: Vol. 2:
No.
3, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/crt/vol2/iss3/1