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The Interrelation between Broadcast and Network Communication 119

Table 4.2 Medium theory as applied to network and
(retrospectively) to broadcast communication
Broadcast
(media studies) Network (cyberstudies)
Content theory Information theory 1 CMC perspectives
(user, content, control, (communicative
Transmission views
effects tradition) efficiency, CMC and
(Interaction) Shannon, Gerbner, ‘perfect knowledge’)
Lasswell, Katz Cues-filtered-out
Audience studies 1 approaches
Mass–elite frameworks Information theory
Frankfurt School –
culture industry 1
Orthodox Marxist
theories of ideology 1
Semiotic accounts of
communication
Medium theory Frankfurt School – Virtuals community
culture industry 2 perspectives
Ritual views
Neo-Marxist theories of Virtual space
(Integration) ideology 2 perspectives
Society of the spectacle CMC as cyberspace
The theory of simulacra
‘Medium’ theory 1 Medium theory 2
Post-Saussurian
perspectives
The mediumization of
audience studies –
‘soap communities’
Broadcast also facilitates Sociality with objects
a ‘virtual community’

Communication theory cannot confine itself to the study of the inter-
action between media producers and media audiences, between message
producers and message receivers. Understanding the nature of communi-
cation mediums requires an understanding of communicative integration –
the phenomenon explored in the following chapter. Even when we are not
interacting with others ‘through’ these mediums, the mediums themselves
still frame our lives.

Notes

1 Similarly, the significance of vaudeville as an entertainment form which developed a
very large pre-electronic mass should be noted here, particularly for the formation of
highly visible national stars (see Snyder, 1994).
2 Which typically point to a marked decline in face-to-face networks (see Guest and
Wierzbiki, 1999).