On James·W.Carey’s Ritual View Of Communication

As one of the prominent representatives of American communicational culture study, James W. Carey puts forward the ritual view of communication, which is the key theory in communication theory of cultural orientation. Ritual view of communication is the object of this study. on the basis of the background, it focuses on the core substance and theoretical extension, then summarizes the influence of the theory and gives evaluation. At the end of the study, it discusses the localization issue of the ritual view of communication in China.In terms of background, the ritual view of communication is influenced by Carey’s personal experience and the atmosphere of American mainstream communication studies. Meanwhile, its theoretical origin is located in the theory which has a direct impact on the ritual view of communication, such as John Deway’s "Communication View of Sharing", Harold Innis’"Media Bias Theory" and Clifford Geertz’s "thick description"The core substance and theoretical extension of the ritual view of communication are the key part of study. It redefines the nature of communication, and explains the interaction between communication and culture, rite. Then it builds the model of ritual communication. Besides, under the guidance of the ritual view of communication, Carey studies technology, journalism and democracy on the perspective of culture, thus forming the unique view of technology, journalism and democracy, which are the theoretical extension of the ritual view of communication.On the impact and evaluation of the theory, it tries to probe its influences on the American communication study as well as the guidance on the current practice of journalism and advertising. Also it points out the innovation and limitations of the theory respectively. In addition, it discusses the localization issue of the ritual view of communication from four aspects:firstly presenting the whole process of localization; secondly pointing out the problem of localization; then analyzing the significance of localization; finally giving some suggestions for localization, therefore, promoting the development of Chinese communication studies.