The notion of power in mass communication research: Foucault and critical communication studies

Power is a widely used term in a diversity of mass communication research. However, no major work so far has focused on the notion of power itself. Researchers of American mainstream approaches tend to identify media power with media effects and use these two terms ambiguously. Theorists of Marxist critical perspectives focus on structural power relationships but seem to deal less than adequately with various forms of power and struggle in everyday life except for the problem of political, economic, and ideological domination.; The goal of this thesis is therefore to clarify the nature of power. I will attempt to show how the behavioral paradigm (i.e., American mainstream research) and the realist paradigm (i.e., Marxist critical studies) study power inadequately. I will then argue that Michel Foucault's genealogical study of modern power, which is based on a pragmatic nominalist perspective, has contributed to the study of "politics of everyday life."; In the conclusion, I argue that critical communication studies could benefit from the above discussion and move toward the study of power of mass communication as capacity rather than effects, to see this capacity in terms of empowerment rather than determination, to take research strategically rather than under universalized theory. I will show how Foucault's power studies contributes to an exploration of the disciplinary power of the mass media, and leads to a broader critical concern with various forms of domination and struggle.