File(s) under permanent embargo
Reason: This item is currently closed access.
Theorizing communication and social change: Towards a processual approach
conference contribution
posted on 2019-02-28, 11:28 authored by Sabina MiheljSabina Mihelj, James StanyerDebates about the role of media and communication in social change are central to our
discipline, yet advances in this field are hampered by disciplinary fragmentation, a lack of
shared conceptual language, and limited understanding of long-term shifts in the field. To
address this, we first develop a typology that distinguishes between approaches that foreground
the role of media and communication as an agent of change, and approaches that treat media
and communication as an environment for change. We then use this typology to identify key
trends in the field since 1951, including the sharp downturn in work focusing on economic
aspects of change after 1985, the decline of grand narratives of social change since 2000, and
the parallel return to media effects. We conclude by outlining the key traits of a processual
approach to social change, which has the capacity to offer the basis for shared language in the
field. This language can enable us to think of media, communication and social change across
its varied temporal and social planes, and link together the processes involved in the
reproduction of status quo with fundamental changes to social order
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Published in
European Communication Research and Education AssociationCitation
MIHELJ, S. , 2018. Theorizing Communication and Social Change: Towards a Processual Approach. Presented at the 7th European Communication Conference (ECC). "Centres and Peripheries: Communication, Research, Translation" Lugano, Switzerland, Oct 31st- Nov 3rd.Publisher
European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)Version
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Acceptance date
2018-05-19Publication date
2018Notes
This paper is in closed access. It is also published as a journal article: MIHELJ, S. and STANYER, J., 2018. Theorizing media, communication and social change: Towards a processual approach. Media, Culture & Society, Doi: 10.1177/0163443718810926. It is available here: https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/34673Publisher version
Language
- en