Whither culture? On the predominance of cognitivism in media and communication studies

Abstract

This article seeks to historically contextualise the various cognitivist models used in communication studies, namely that of media effects, focusing on the external contingencies that have influenced the predominance of the information processing paradigm. Indeed, the heavy reliance on research methods in the field of communication pays tribute to the legacy of cognitivism, because most methods used in cross-cultural and comparative studies tend to confine cultural phenomena to static predefined categories. It is argued that cognitivist communication models cannot ultimately be separated from an ideological view of human agency as prone to passive reception and susceptible to persuasion and manipulation. Understanding these ideological underpinnings implies being attentive to Foucault’s interrogation of transcendental universalism through a Kantian-inspired exploration of the conditions for the possibility of experience and a Nietzschian-inspired genealogy that emphasises knowledge as produced and maintained by technologies of power.