The phrase “critical theory” was first promoted by the German philosopher and sociologist, Max Horkheimer, in a 1937 essay, “Critical and traditional theory.” An astute academic entrepreneur, he devised it to promote the approach to studying society and culture that he and his colleagues had been developing at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt
Cultivation theory, developed by George Gerbner and his colleagues, proposes that television viewing makes an independent contribution to audience members’ conceptions of social reality. The central hypothesis guiding cultivation research is that the more time people spend watching television, the more their beliefs and assumptions about life and society will be congruent with the most
Communication theory is heir to classic issues in the history of ideas. If philosophy has traditionally asked how human knowledge of reality may be possible, communication theory addresses the media, modalities, and messages by which humans exchange, reflect on, and enact different perspectives on reality. Revisiting a number of key epistemological, ethical, and political issues
Thinking about measurement brings to mind an old adage, “If it exists, it is measurable.” However, in research, we tend to go beyond that adage, saying “If it exists, it must be measurable” (Leedy 1997). Most researchers will likely agree that measurement is a pillar of social and behavioral sciences research (Guilford 1954). What Is
The theory of reasoned action (TRA) is a general theory of behavior that was first introduced in 1967 by Martin Fishbein, and was extended by Fishbein and Icek Ajzen (e.g., Fishbein & Ajzen 1975; Ajzen & Fishbein 1980). Developed largely in response to the repeated failure of traditional attitude measures to predict specific behaviors, the
In its original sense “grounded theory” stands for a methodology, research program, and method of qualitative research. In a narrower but also more practical sense the term describes a qualitative technique of text analysis comparable to qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis. Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss introduced grounded theory as a general research program
Throughout the ages, most people believed that the cosmos had existed for all eternity in an unchanging or static condition, neither expanding nor contracting. One reason individuals held this belief was an absence of scientific data, coupled with the inability to answer questions about the universe through measurement and observation. Another reason was that most
Introduction Importance Of The Theory Why do consumers purchase health insurance? To purchase anything, the consumer must give up something, and in the case of health insurance, that ‘something’ is the premium payment. Although the nature of the premium payment is clear (to both consumers and economists), what is not clear is the nature of
Rhetorical theory can help public relations to account for the symbolic aspects of communication, which arguably are the heart of public relations activity. Although some fleeting mentions were made of the term in the early public relations literature, it is often said that the rhetorical approach originated around 1980, when Robert L. Heath proposed rhetoric
Studies under the heading of determination theory focus on the question of how media content is produced. The main assumption is that news releases and other public relations material play a critical role in news-gathering activities. Public relations (PR) as a source of media content has been analyzed in communication studies since the 1970s (Sigal