ABSTRACT
Marx’s approach to the analysis of society uses the dialectic as a way of thinking and a method of analysis. The dialectic in the form that Marx uses it goes back to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s dialectical philosophy. Marx developed this approach and applied it to the analysis in capitalism.
This chapter introduces dialectical thinking (Section 2.2) and outlines some aspects of its relevance for the analysis of communication, culture, and the media (Section 2.3).
In media and communication studies and cultural analysis, the dialectic allows us to understand communication as a subject/object dialectic; to ask critical questions about – and conduct critical analyses of – communication, culture and the media; and to challenge technological determinism by the dialectic of technology and society.
