ABSTRACT
But why communicative power, why ideology when this kind of approach seems to have all but dropped out of the media studies lexicon in what have been the expansive days of reception theory and active audiences, when as Corner (1991: 267) observes, so much ‘effort has been centred on audiences’ interpretive activity that even the preliminary theorization of influence has become awkward’ (original emphasis). Attempting to provide some brief and tentative answers to this question could be a way of locating the analytical priorities which inform this study of television news. A rather inelegant, albeit useful metaphor will be pressed into service as a starting point: it might be said that in terms of one of its most longstanding interests, the question of ‘effects’, at least three pendulum ‘swings’ have occurred in the study of media communication (McQuail 1977; Curran, Gurevitch and Woollacott 1982; Hall 1982), and with the recent focus on and promotion of audience studies over the past few years a fourth ‘oscillation’ may be currently underway.
