Mass Communication: Trends on the Discourse on the Television and Television Research

Abstract

Over the years, television research has sought to understand the nature of the relationship between and its audience. The research questions posed to understand this relationship, however, have differed greatly according to the ideological and epistemological orientation that has influenced what the researcher sees as the aim of the research, his method, his conception, of the audiences, the medium, the message, and his location of the power in the relationship. To understand the shifts in what have been posed about TV, it is imperative to look at the research tradition within which they have been posed. This paper surveys trends in Mass Communication research, which influence the thinking about television, to locate the shifts in the thinking and to find out which trends have been most useful in enhancing understanding of the medium and how it works.