ABSTRACT
Denis McQuail is a skillful surveyor of mass communication theory. In the preceding chapter he has outlined a strategy of critical inquiry and mapped out a research terrain to represent it. The approach is described as a union of the social responsibility and empirical schools of media criticism. The merger is said to link normative principles with the research procedures of the social sciences. The work is careful and exacting, and many researchers can benefit from this thoughtful demarcation of the field.
