ABSTRACT
It is not my purpose to provide an exhaustive account of mainstream sociological research in mass communications. I do, however, offer a resumé of the main trends and of the different emphases within that broad research strategy, essentially for two reasons: first because this project is framed by a theoretical perspective which represents, at many points, a different research paradigm from that which has dominated the field to date. Second, because there are points where this approach connects with certain important ‘breaks’ in that previous body of work, or else attempts to develop, in a different theoretical framework, lines of inquiry which mainstream research opened up but did not follow through.
