On Theory Of Media Culture Of Birmingham School

Birmingham School , which is based on The Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies of Birmingham University, is a school that is characteristic of its cultural studies, and it initiates cultural studies in the English world by its prominent achievements on cultural studies. The theory of media culture of Birmingham School is one of the important parts of critical theories on mass communication.There are two reasons, both theoretically and practically, for Birmingham School to research media culture. Seeing from the theory aspect , researching on ideology must involve in the mass communication theory. Birmingham School applies itself to the underlying ideology and hegemony through complicated cultural phenomena. Such culture-political research is highly dependent on media culture research. Seeing from the aspect of social environment , consumer society emerged after world war II , and popular culture dominated by media sprang up, at the same time , with the transformation of the social communication structure ,cultural meaning and negative effect of media culture appeared , all these called for whole-new requirements for their media culture research.Different from the functionalism research based on pragmatism of American traditional schools, the theory of media culture of Birmingham School has its own profound philosophical base, namely culturalism and structuralism.The major ideas of theory of media culture of Birmingham School include many aspects . Media is culture, in modern society, media has become important cultural practice and phenomena. Media is ideology , it is not only the tool of ideology, but also ideology itself. Media is power, it is the main fields of ideology and cultural hegemony. Theory of media culture of Birmingham School has profound influence, and has become an important branch of the numerous critical schools. It inherits the critical tradition of the Frankfurt School, and it also surpasses and innovates it in some aspects , so it is a milestone during the development of communication theories. Through systemic summarization and analysis of theory of media culture of the School of Culture Studies , we can get a new dimension of thought different from traditional media analysis , and it will has significant theoretical and realistic meaning to the building of Chinese communication theories if we conscientiously learn and fully assimilate communication theories from foreign countries.