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54 Communication Theory & Research
have become visible (Blumler et al., 1985; Dervin et al., 1989; Jensen, l987a;
Rosengren, 1985; Schrøder, 1987).
This article is an attempt to explicate, in terms of a number of basic character-
istics of the various approaches, the confluences which have recently taken place
in research on the reception, uses and effects of mass media content, while at
the same time identifying the controversies arising from different theoretical
and political orientations. Coming from different traditions, the authors wish to
suggest that the process of dialogue and détente may lead to a dynamic state of
coexistence, rather than final unification.
For analytical purposes, we note five main traditions of research in this area:
(1) Effects research, (2) Uses and gratifications research, (3) Literary criticism,
(4) Cultural studies, (5) Reception analysis. First short background histories,
thumbnail sketches of the five broad traditions will be provided, rooted as they
are in distinctive conceptions of the nature and purpose of science and scholar-
ship. After this historically oriented background, we analyse in the next, more
systematically oriented section of the article each of the five traditions, in turn,
in terms of (a) their conceptualization of three constituents of mass communica-
tion processes: the message, the audience and the micro and macro aspects of the
social system in which the whole process is embedded; and (b) their methodolo-
gies and modes of analysis. We finally proceed to a discussion of some pragmatic
aspects of previous research and our own analyses: the politics of audience
research in general, the social relevance and applications of audience studies and
implications for further research.

History

Effects Research

The history of mass communication is the history of a series of new media being
introduced: books, journals, newspapers, film, radio, television. At present, new
and not so new developments of television are restructuring the international
media scene: various combinations of computerized cable, satellite and video
technologies. For each new medium, there has been widespread fear that its
effects might be deleterious, especially to supposedly weak minds, such as those
of children, women and uneducated people. ‘Moral panics’ of this type accom-
panied the introduction of film, comics, TV and video. Directly and indirectly,
such panics gave rise to much research on the effects of the use of this or that
medium (Cohen, 1980; Roe, 1985; cf. DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Indeed,
mass-communication research owes at least part of its very existence to some-
times exaggerated and misapprehended notions of the effects of mass commu-
nication (McQuail, 1987).
Over the years, mass-communication research itself has started from, and
arrived at, quite diverse notions about the strength of the effects of mass-media
use. According to conventional wisdom, these notions have developed cyclically,
from the idea of strong effects to that of weak effects, and back again. If that is