COMN 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Chilling Effect, Post-Structuralism, Narrowcasting

• School: York University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMN 1000
• Professor: David Skinner

Document Summary

Social theory: a way of representing an event. A set of tenets and ideas that provides a systematic explanation social relationships. Communication is from the latin communist, meaning to make common . Mass communication is a central feature of social life and has influence in almost every dimension of our lives. Provides for a stable, adaptable culture with ideas and knowledge generated for use in specific place (eg. medicinal plants, building materials. ) A way of representing the world, a model of the world (or elements of it) To provide explanations for how and why things are the way they are. to guide action (eg. social policy, improve quality of life) Marx: the purpose of theory not simply to explain the world but to change it. Problem: social world too complex for complete explanation hence, social scientists break it chunks. Several steps: define field of study (eg. sociology, psychology, communication)