Study Of The Theory Of Media Forms

Communication comprises not only Critical School and Experiential School. This dissertation insists that studies of Innis, McLuhan, Meyrowitz Levinson and somebody else on communication forms one relatively normative Paradigm, which Meyrowitz named "Medium Theory". According to literature searches in my power, most explorations about this tradition of communication study touched upon single scholar of them. Although some others expounded them together, they didn't consider them as one normative paradigm and review them holistically. So, this dissertation decodes their thoughts of communication, and analysis social historic background and their personal things, in order to comparatively roundly unfold this paradigm, also presents my own appraisement. The main contents are the following: Firstly, the object of this study, Medium Theory, is defined, including its connotation,which is farther clarified by discussing different labels on them,and denotation. After this, horizon expands to their theory cultivation and the macro circumstances they lived in, so as to set forth their characteristic theory and bring forth the development lengthways of Medium Theory. In succession, the main contents they studied and the important theoretical propositions they presented are concisely analyzed, and the logic of their thoughts is outlined. Secondly, this paper tries to prove that Medium Theory is a normative paradigm, mainly from three features: ontological-study what, epistemological- how study, teleological- why study so, according to the concept of "Paradigm" put forward by scientific philosophy Kuhn. Based on discussions above, this paper analysis the limitation and contribution of Medium Theory, which centers on the problem of the relationship between technology and society. In the last chapter, this dissertation applies Medium Theory to inspect differences of socialization in history, especially in the tele-world today. This dissertation relatively integrally unfolds Medium Theory. It's helpful to comprehend the thoughts, logic and the development of this paradigm of communication study.