Page 122 - Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies

110 BRITISH CULTURAL STUDIES AND THE RETURN OF THE ‘CRITICAL’

leadership of pragmatism, social theorists focused upon the idea of the
social, the role of community and the process of communication. These
concepts suggested (particularly to Dewey) the potential of a democratic
way of life; accordingly, communication as a life process would eventually
and undoubtedly lead to democratic practice.
Over time, however, significant differences became evident in the study of
culture and society. The German approach remained within the historical,
speculative and philosophically oriented realm of academic
scholarship. The American analysis of society, on the other hand, became
increasingly empirical, behaviouristic and scientific in the consideration of
the individual, the role of communication and the effects of the media.
Mass communication research followed the route of atomistic positivism in
its analysis of democratic practice. Implicit in this direction of social
scientific enquiry was an assumption of shared cultural and social values
across American society. Thus, the spectre of mass society would also be
conceived of as holding the promise of an emancipatory movement,
involving all people and suggesting a triumph of individualism in an age of
technology and under bureaucratic guidance.
Throughout these developments, the cultural studies approach to mass
communication in the United States depended upon a firm belief in a
utopian model of society. It was based upon a vision of consensual
participation as democratic practice and an understanding of the exercise
of political and economic power as acts of progressive intervention in the
advancement of people. Radical dissent, including marxist criticism of
American society, remained outside the mainstream of mass
communication research. When it arose, it belonged to the literature of
social criticism rooted in rhetorical studies, literature, political economy
and sociology, in particular, from where it was unable to engage the field in
an extensive and prolonged debate concerning the foundations of social
theory and the false optimism of social enquiries into the role and function
of communication and media.
However, neither a cultural tradition in American mass communication
research, nor the acquaintance with British mass communication research,
particularly since the 1970s, when it had been favourably received and
widely incorporated into the analysis of political communication and the
study of television effects, can directly explain the success of the British
cultural studies group. Instead, the prominence of these ideas in the current
American mass communication literature may be the result of a growing
disillusionment with contemporary liberal pluralism reflected in the social
sciences and humanities together with a rising radical critique of the liberal
tradition in American thought. In addition, the field of mass
communication studies has benefited from a keen interest in the notions of
culture and communication among other academic disciplines, which
resulted in an increased reception of the relevant intellectual discourse