Paper 1

Question 1

axiology

Answer 1

nature of value

Question 2

epistemology

Answer 2

nature of knowledge

Question 3

ontology

Answer 3

nature of reality

Question 4

objectification

Answer 4

treating human interaction as real, or as an object.

Question 5

reification

Answer 5

“making into a thing” reification is the process of social relations being perceived as inherent attributes of the people involved in them. So human relations come to be identified with the physical properties of things., appearing natural. Objects are transformed into subjects and subjects are turned into objects.

Question 6

alienation

Answer 6

problematic separation of a subject and object that properly belong together. for example, women might feel alienated by the government based on unequal laws. government is supposed to be for all people. or within my paper 2. people feel alienated from the political system, thus lower voter turnout recently

Question 7

Sayers 2011 (page 3)

Answer 7

an entire book centered on Marxism and alienation specifically. Marx has a lot of dense, hard readings so piecing together this section was difficult.

Question 8

Huspek 1997 (page 3)

Answer 8

communication scholar. normative theory: theory that offers basis for critique of existing institutional arrangements and ground for morally defensible emancipatory practices. we need to question tradition. gives a good basis for frankfurt school and habermas

Question 9

Wiggershaus 1986 (bottom of 3)

Answer 9

same thing for the frankfurt school. tracking down basic information pertaining to them instead of just research using their theories was difficult. this source helped me understand the frankfurt school more.

Question 10

MacDonald 2017 (bottom of 3)

Answer 10

gave me more insight on the frankfurt school and their beliefs. i did not have access to their original work, but sources like MacDonald allowed me to find direct quotes from them.

Question 11

Thomassen 2010 (page 4)

Answer 11

this book helped me understand in much greater detail Habermas and his contribution to critical theory. again this is pieced together based on not having access to his original work

Question 12

Fuchs 2016 (page 4)

Answer 12

I did not particularly seek out Fuchs’ work, but he is a critical scholar interested in the same things as me. This is mostly an introductory reading into the frankfurt school mostly

Question 13

Fuchs 2018 (page 4)

Answer 13

I used this research because it is exactly what I am interested in looking at as a researcher. I introduced this research to update the frankfurt school and showcase research interesting to me.
goal? understand president trump.
The research goes through a lot of Marxist thought, delving into capitalism and labour within the United States. But what particularly interests me within this piece is the author discusses alienation from the political system within the United States. Fuchs (2018) states that people are feeling alienated from the system, a system that is supposed to be for them and work for them, which leads to the overall decrease in voting we’ve seen in the last few decades. This is where my interests lie and what I ultimately try to demonstrate in my research proposal. If individuals feel alienated because of scapegoating communication which as demonstrated leads to lower self efficacy, it leads to lower voter turnout and political participation.

Question 14

Sprague 1994 (page 5)

Answer 14

I used this research in particular because it clearly defines critical theory apart from post positivism and interpretivism, making it easier to understand critical. Second, it is also interested in political power, so it’s a source I personally liked.

Question 15

Boyle 2013 (page 6)

Answer 15

Per the library database, I did not have access to the original work by Giddens, so I used research from a more recent piece. This source allowed me to read some of Giddens original work (hence the use of a Gidden quote) and also break down structuration theory much more easily.

Question 16

Zompetti 2019 (page 8)

Answer 16

There were two goals with using this research 1) it shows hegemony and ideology being the center of critical scholarship but 2) it uses my two main interests, social media and a political leader’s power being demonstrated. Zompetti breaks down president trump’s rhetoric to understand how he is persuading the masses (in this case, about fake news). On top of analyzing his rhetoric, Zompetti demonstrates President Trump simply taking on that role of president reinforces ideological and hegemonic beliefs. Because he is president, we believe him. Reinforces his power, through twitter, which is my main interest.

Question 17

Bennett, Segerberg, Yang 2018 (page 10)s

Answer 17

I used this research to demonstrate social media is NOT top down, which is how postpositivist research (cause, effect). They demonstrate that after Treyvon Martin’s death, the media (television news) began to take it out of the conversation. On social media, specifically twitter however, people began talking about it even more since legacy news had stopped. Because of this, television news CHANGED their agenda based on social media users. This demonstrates top down isn’t always right and has a positive outlook on the potential of social media

Question 18

Manor and Crilley 2018 (page 10)

Answer 18

Manor and Crilley, on the other hand, demonstrate the need to be weary of social media’s potential. While their research in Israel had not confirmed that political leaders had mastered using social media to bypass traditional gatekeepers, they warned that they could have the potential to shut out smaller voices (bennett article demonstrates) and have the ability to take over a platform made for “smaller” voices. The point of showing both of these research articles was to demonstrate an opening for my own research and how again critical theory is the best way to understand social media at this point.

Question 19

Nominalist vs social constructionist

Answer 19

Nominalist believe in a completely subjective view of reality. There is “no world out there” - only the names and labels created by individuals to help make their way through the social world. The label itself can help individuals in interaction, but has no inherent reality or meaning outside of the label or name.
Social constructionists, however, do not believe reality is completely subjective or objective. We believe reality is an intersubjective construction created through social interaction. Meaning and reality are developed in coordination with others through communication. We create our world through our words, symbols, and behaviors. These intersubjective realities then can become objectified, or made to seem like natural features of the social world. For example, we collectively through communication interaction decided money has value. Money does not inherently have value and does not exist without people and communication. These concepts (like money) have been filled with meaning through many communicative interactions historically and in current experience.

Question 20

structuration theory

Answer 20

structuration theory is a key point within critical theory because it exemplifies how crucial objectification and reification are. structuration theory states there is a reciprocal relationship between agency or individuals and structures or the rules we draw on as individuals. for example, in a college classroom we raise our hands, do not interrupt the professor, and so on because that is what the structures tell us to do. duality of structure goes on to say that the rules were initially created through interaction. these structures only exist in so far that there is social reproduction across time and space.

Question 21

critical emancipatory

Answer 21

(epistemology) believes knowledge and meaning are socially and historically situated. self reflection is connected to an interest in achieving autonomy of action through self-understanding. knowledge serves the interest of change and emancipation from dominant ideologies and hegemony

Question 22

Ideology

Answer 22

(epistemology) assumptions of reality that influence perceptions within a society. it’s not just beliefs and attitudes, it shapes our understanding of what exists and we rarely question it. American ideology is Democracy - yet many of us cannot articulate what that means and we do not bother questioning whether this is how our country should run

Question 23

hegemony

Answer 23

(epistemology) controlling cultural and political power within a society that is sustained by legitimacy from the governed. the goal of critical theory is to draw attention to and change these structures within society
ex: minimum wage within the united states federally has not been raised in years. however, many people argue that the federal gov should not raise minimum wage, because those jobs are for high school / college aged individuals, but those same people are usually the same people living paycheck to paycheck and below the poverty line reinforcing and legitimizing the hegemonic structure.

Question 24

axiology

Answer 24

post pos believes values should be excised and controlled for, interpretivists believe values should be acknowledged and explored, critical theorists believe that these values should drive your research

Question 25

critical theory adds a nonlinear approach

Answer 25

this means things do not fit so neatly into cause and effect boxes with arrows leading to one conclusion. critical theorists understand that all moving parts can influence one another in a non linear way. when i bring up the hypodermic needle model, it has a very linear process. the sender generates a message which then has effects on the individual receivers of that message. the goal of critical research isn’t to discuss linear patterns, but to uncover power differences and how ideological and hegemonic practices are reinforced or derailed through communication.