COMN 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Marshall Mcluhan, Mass Communication, Social Science
16 Nov 2016
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Monday september 19th 2016 (lecture 2: what is a social theory, what is mass communication, communication as social form. What is the purpose of social theory: to provide explanations for how and why things are the way they are, to guide action (ex. 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 or complete explanation hence, social scientist break it chunks. Several steps : define field of study (ex. sociology, psychology, communication, anthropology , each approaches the world in different ways; make a value judgment about what aspects of the social world to study. Keep in mind there are many different ways to look at the world. "communication"" is from the latin "communis,"" meaning "to make common"". Hence, "communication"" is a form of action - the action of making something common to one or more people .
