SENATE OF SERAMPORE COLLEGE

(UNIVERSITY)

MASTER OF THEOLOGY (FIRST YEAR)

EXAMINATION (2019-2020)

PROJECT PAPER

DEPARTMENT-COMMUNICATION

PAPER CODE- MCOM001

DESCRIPTION- METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH.

Topic: Postmodernism and its Implications for Methodologies.

- The Postmodern Challenge to Theological Research.

- Postmodern Methodology of Communication Research.

Submitted by-

Johana,
Student’s Detail – SSC31MTH1AB42471931352
Phone no. - 8730864177
Emiail - revjohana@gmail.com

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Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1

1. Postmodernism........................................................................................................ 1-9

1.1.Four Characteristics of Postmodernism ............................................................. 5-8

1.1.1. Postmodernity is the Decline of the West……………...……………………5

1.1.2. Legitimation Crisis………………..………………………………………......6

1.1.3. The Intellectual marketplace………………………………………………6-7
1.1.4. The Process of deconstruction..……………………………………………7-8
1.2. Four Major Themes in Postmodernism…………………………………………8-9

1.2.1. Rejection of Classical Metaphysical Thought…………………………….…8

1.2.2. Rejection of Human Autonomy……………………………………………....8

1.2.3. Postmodernism in Praxis……………………………………………………..8

1.2.4. Strong Anti-Enlightenment Stance………………………………………..8-9
2. Postmodernism and its Implications for Methodologies…………………………9-10

3. The Postmodern Challenges to Theological Research………………………….10-11

4. Postmodern Methodology of Communication Research………..………………11-15

4.1.The Context of Postmodernity……………………………………………….……12
4.2. Language Games……………………………………………………………....12-13
4.3.Deconstruction………………………………………………………………...……13
4.4.Postmodern Methodology…………………………………………………...…14-15

5. Critical Evaluation and Comments .................................................................... 15-16

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………...16

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...17-18

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 Introduction

Postmodernism represents a questioning or rejection of Modernism. It challenges the basic

assumptions upon which it was built, namely, that knowledge is certain, objective and
inherently good.

Postmodernism is a dubious and problematic term to be summed up in light of the fact that
even researchers differ on its conceptualization and defining it. The term modernism suggests
to the post-Enlightenment perspective on reasonability in Western culture, which has for some
time been applied by science in its endeavour to test cause-effect relationship all the more
typically. Innovation held that those relationship are genuine 'out there' holding back to be
found, and they can be estimated by exact exploration strategies. Postmodernism, interestingly,
holds that, since a reasonable quest has started to self-destruct, a solitary or general
comprehension can never again be applied.

Postmodernism has reconstituted human correspondence since its appearance during the 1960s.
It catches different world perspectives through halfway previews of the real world, information,
and qualities. The Postmodern speculation bridges aesthetic, monetary, and hypothetical talk
based on scrutinizes of innovation. Postmodernists challenge modernist truth asserts by
uncovering irregularities in the communication of those very cases. Henry Ford's initial vehicle
fabricating brought Fordist phrasing into innovation and its industrialization, urbanization, and
transmission of new advancements. Regardless of whether one attempted to fix a mechanical
or a social issue, innovators accepted a well-known fact existed out there, anticipating
revelation by analysts and execution by rulers.1

1. Postmodernism

The term Postmodernism was first used in the 1930s to refer to a major historical tradition
already in progress and as the description for certain developments in the arts.2 Then it was
applied to refer to a movement in architecture that was a reaction against the rigid linear forms
of modern architectural styles in the 1950s and 1960s.3 The term ‘Postmodernism’ has then

1
Stephen W. Littlejohn & Karen A. Foss, Eds., Encyclopedia of Communication Theory “Postmodern
Theory” contributed by Christopher Joseph Westgate (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2009) 2.
2
Stanley J. Grenz, A Primer on Postmodernism (Grand Rapids Michigan/Cambridge, U.K.: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 2.
3
Daniel J. Adams, Towards a Theological Understanding of Postmodernism
https://crosscurrents.org/adams.htm accessed on 4/2/2020 2:43am.

3
often been heard in the closing decades of the twentieth century spreading to other areas,
including philosophy and theology.4 It has become broadened to include movements in
literature, art, and a mixture of philosophy and sociology that has come to be known as critical
theory.

Postmodernism is a form of scholarship which emerged mainly through the work of French
intellectuals such as Lyotard, Derrida and Foucault. Postmodernism is largely a reaction against
the intellectual assumptions and values of the modern period in the history of Western
philosophy (roughly, the 17th through the 19th century). Indeed, many of the doctrines
characteristically associated with Postmodernism can fairly be described as the straightforward
denial of general philosophical viewpoints that were taken for granted during the 18th-
century Enlightenment, though they were not unique to that period.

The term Postmodernism and its relative terms like - Postmodern, Postmodernist,
Postmodernity are very commonly used in the field of academic and arts. Postmodernism has
been applied at different levels of theoretical conceptualisations to extensive ranges of objects
and phenomena in what we used to call reality. Postmodernism has become several things at
once. However, because it was used for completely opposed to practices in different artistic
disciplines, the term was extremely debateable almost right from the start.5

Postmodernism, then, means and has meant different things to different people at different
conceptual levels, rising from humble literary-critical origins in the 1950s to a level of global
conceptualization in the 1980s. The result was, and still is, a massive but also nerve-wracking
confusion that has given important new desires to and opened new territories for intellectual
exploration.6

Social scientists tend to speak of Postmodernity, while those in the arts and humanities prefer
the term Postmodernism. Postmodernity refers more to a cultural condition or state of being,
it focuses more on a cultural movement or a plurality of movements within culture. We might
say that Postmodernity is the condition in which late twentieth-century culture finds itself;
Postmodernism is a reflection upon that condition and a response to it.

4
John Macquarie, “Postmodernism in Philosophy of Religion and Theology,” International Journal for
Philosophy of Religion 50 (2001): 9.
5
Hans Bertens, The Idea of the Postmodern: a History, (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), 3.
6
Bertens, The Idea of ..., 10-11.

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The Postmodern is, therefore, a movement which has arisen in reaction to the modernism of
Western civilization. At the same time it is a part of the broader and deeper changes going on
in the world today. This is because of the widespread influence of western culture throughout
the world and the fact that the process of modernization continues to support and uphold
capitalism, urbanization, technology, telecommunications, and western popular culture to
virtually every corner of the globe while the advancements in information technology brings
along globalization as well.

It is necessary to have a better understanding of Postmodernism. It sounds apt to deal with the
characteristics of Postmodernism and the four major themes of Postmodernism.

1.1.Four Characteristics of Postmodernity

The Postmodern era can best be understood in terms of four major characteristics. Indeed, we
can say that these four characteristics define the meaning of Postmodernity. Daniel J. Adams
gives appropriate characterization of Postmodernism in the following ways:7

1.1.1. Postmodernity is the Decline of the West.

Western philosophy has reached its peak of linguistic analysis, at the same time western
democratic political theory was being challenged by both Neo-Confucianism and Islam, even
at present also by Hinduism in sociological and philosophical ways, communism of course is
still there but we are not likely to see it flourishing as it seems to have reached its zenith and is
considered by many as too much idealistic; not realistic, and western religion is being
questioned by secularism and philosophical rationalism on the left and personal piety on
the right.

The modern worldview was highly determined by the western assumptions of - the inevitability
of progress; the invincibility of science; the desirability of democracy; and the unquestioned
rights of the individual. The concept of "West is best" is challenged by the new perspectives
through a rewriting of the history of the so-called ‘modern period’. It has become obvious that
the modernity of the west meant the eclipse and destruction of other cultures. Hence with these
notions in mind appeared the Postmodernism to recover the fragmented remains of these
cultures as well as make certain that Western cultural hegemony comes to an end.

7
The following points of characterization of Postmodernism is based on Adams, Towards...Postmodernism
..., accessed on 4/2/2020 2:43am.

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 1.1.2. Legitimation Crisis

So-called metanarratives,8 which in the past were accepted as authoritative, are now being
seriously called into question. The metanarrative of unlimited development which said that
development is an ultimate human needs that it has to be acquired to give any price in order to
be a country developed, has been questioned regarding its authoritative value by a number of
factors like - environmental pollution, the depletion of natural resources, fear of global
warming and increasing depletion of the ozone layer, serious accidents at chemical factories
and nuclear power plants like Chernobyl in Russia, perpetual increase in poverty in much of
the world because of unequal distribution of development. In the Postmodern era it is no longer
taken for granted that development is unlimited or even that certain kinds of development are
necessarily good.

With no universally held values and measures, the result is a dichotomy of values and value
systems with each competing against the others. Furthermore, even within a given cultural
value system, there may not be enough moral and political support to ensure legitimation. This
has resulted in a fragmentation of society into smaller special interest groups based on ethnicity,
religion, and economic issues.

Significantly, even in the world of Christianity this same fragmentation is taking place in the
mainline denominations and in contemporary theology. The general ideologies and mainline
doctrines and dogmas have been questioned. The idea of Postmodernism gave birth to
emergence of thinkers like Nietzsche, Stephen Hawking, Emmanuel Kant, etc., who question
even the basic elements of Christianity. All these ideologies gave courage to come out people
with atheism, agnosticism, etc. to stand against the generally held Christian doctrines, dogmas
and theologies.

1.1.3. The Intellectual Marketplace

In the past, cultural and religious knowledge and value was effectively controlled by the
intellectual and political elite. Parents controlled their children, teachers controlled their
students, priests controlled their congregations, and politicians controlled the citizens, and so
on. Knowledge was power, and therefore the diffusion of knowledge was strictly controlled.

8
Metanarrative or the Grand Stories can simply be understood as particular value systems that can be
universally legitimized and accepted.

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But the emergence of Postmodernism brings about a significant change. The cultural and
religious knowledge and value could no longer be effectively controlled by a few intellectual
and political elite. With the provision of information superhighway by better internet facility
comes globalization which enhances much better accessibilities to all and the way knowledge
and value are diffused throughout society has become altered. The ones who use to claim to
have exclusive knowledge and intellectual power have been brought down by free diffusion of
information and knowledge by computer networks. Hence, one does not have to be a member
of the intellectual and political elite. We live in an intellectual and spiritual marketplace.

1.1.4. The Process of Deconstruction

Jacques Derrida claimed to have foreseen the destruction of society for the birth of a better
society already in the year 1924. This idea of deconstruction comes along with the notion of
the so called ‘Frankfurt School of Thought’ and Postmodernism. It could be said to be the
product of resentments against the reigning social structure. Deconstruction is a way of
delegitimizing the customary, established meaning of texts, a method which drives straight into
the core of traditional conceptualization of authority. Deconstruction tries to scrutinize a text
from all potential viewpoints so that individual bits of information are extracted and separated
from each other. Every text at any given period of time is conditioned by a network or web of
relations that in turn affects the meaning of that text. Therefore a principle has no "once and
for all time" meaning

Obviously, deconstruction has profound consequences on theology. Sacred texts, such as the
Bible, do not have a single ultimate meaning nor are such texts necessarily authoritative.
Indeed, the network or web of relations outside the text may determine both the meaning of the
text and the nature of its authority. A traditional reading of the text and a Postmodern
deconstruction of the text will result in vastly different interpretations.

Taken together, these four characteristics result in a world of almost unlimited pluralism but
provide us with no way of evaluating this plurality of ideas, values, and products. As the
sociologist Zygmunt Bauman says:

The main feature ascribed to "Postmodernity" is the permanent and irreducible pluralism of cultures,
communal traditions, ideologies, "forms of life" or "language games". . . . or awareness and recognition
of such pluralism. Things which are plural in the Postmodern world cannot be arranged in an evolutionary
sequence, or be seen as each other's inferior or superior stages; neither can they be classified as "right"

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 or "wrong" solutions to common problems. No knowledge can be assessed outside the context of the
culture, tradition, language game, etc. which makes it possible and endows it with meaning. Hence no
criteria of validation are available which could be themselves justified "out of context." Without universal
standards, the problem of the Postmodern world is not how to globalize superior culture, but how to
secure communication and mutual understanding between cultures.9

1.2. Four Major Themes in Postmodernism10

At least four major themes can be discerned in Postmodernism as follows;

1.2.1. Rejection of Classical Metaphysical Thought

Metaphysical objectivity is replaced by sociological subjectivity. In theology this rejection of

classical metaphysics has taken the form of a shift from deductive theology to inductive
theology. This shift lies at the foundation of liberation theology and the numerous socio-
political theologies now in vogue.

1.2.2. Rejection of Human Autonomy

The subject, that is, the person, is always part of a larger sociological matrix which includes
history, culture, economics, religion, politics, and philosophical worldview. Theology does not
"fall from the skies" but is constructed within a complex socio-cultural matrix.

1.2.3. Postmodernism is Praxis

This applies for the practical ethical aspects of human life. Postmodern thinkers have been
especially harsh critics of the "underside" of modernism whereby people of non-Western
cultures have been exploited, and oppressed. This is why the contextual theologies from the
non-Western world, as well as feminist, womanist, African-American, Hispanic, and other
theologies from marginalized groups, place so much emphasis upon praxis. Theology is not
only to be thought; it is also to be lived. Whereas philosophy has traditionally been the dialogue
partner with theology, today it is sociology. Orthopraxis replaces orthodoxy.

9
As quoted in Adams, Towards... Postmodernism... accessed on 4/2/2020 2:43am.
10
The following points are retrieved from Adams, Towards...Postmodernism... accessed on 4/2/2020
2:43am.

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 1.2.4. Strong Anti-Enlightenment Stance

Some Postmodernists even call the West's attempts to make its values universal intellectual
terrorism. Taken together, praxis and a strong anti-Enlightenment stance involve a rejection of
the West, an attractive perspective for Islamic scholars. There is in Postmodern theology a
decided turning away from the Enlightenment tradition with concurrent attempts to recover the
insights of traditional cultures.

2. Postmodernism and its Implications for Methodologies.

Postmodernism, at its initial stage and to some extent even in today also, is applied mainly in
the artistic and social sciences. It consists of a combination of intellectual perspectives which
together pose a challenging criticism of the fundamental principles on which modernism,
specifically the scientific research method, is based. It is a broad term that involves many
different approaches, most of them regarding uncertainty, disorder, indeterminacy and
regression rather than progress. Even the proponents of Postmodernism do not always agree on
what it really means. There are progressive and conservative Postmodernists. Some
Postmodernists seek reaction while others seek resistance. Then there are those who strive for
reform and others who like to disrupt the status quo.

Postmodernism and its implications on methodology, especially in communication, is used to

describe communication and messaging formats, styles, guides, technology and media used in
a Postmodern world. It a methodological approach towards information technology in a
society.

Postmodern methodology is a methodology that used to reach influential audiences to

deconstruct untidy market places, brands to deliver their advertising messages. Marketing
practitioners create successful marketing strategies in the 21st century and they have more
creative thinking.

The idea of a socially constructed reality leads directly to a radical shift in the idea of method.
Some Postmodernists hold that a method not only discovers a part of reality, it simultaneously
constructs it. No longer do we see ourselves as seeking to uncover a pre-existing reality, but
rather as involved in an interactive process of knowledge creation.

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Postmodernism rejects the emphasis on rational discovery through the scientific method.
Postmodernism replaces rational discovery through scientific research with respect for
difference and a celebration of the local and at the expense of the universal. It accepts that
reality is socially constructed, but claims that it does not exist objectively in the external
environment, simply to be copied in our thoughts. Reality is a human creation.

Postmodernists reject the idea of a fixed, universal and eternal foundation to reality. They argue
that because reality is in part culturally dependent and culture changes over time and varies
from community to community, we can logically assume that reality is not the same for
everybody. Knowledge is fundamentally fragmented and unstable. Narratives of truth and
knowledge are deconstructed. Convention is challenged, research styles are mixed, ambiguity
is tolerated, diversity is emphasized, innovation and change are embraced, and multiple
realities are focused on. Postmodernism rejects the possibility that we can have objective
knowledge. Postmodernism values the subjective and multiple opinions of individuals and
communities rather than predetermined rules for action. It assigns value to multiple meanings
rather than the single, authoritative voice of the expert researcher. This is because what we call
knowledge has to be made with the linguistic and other meaning-making resources of a
particular culture, and different cultures can see the world in different ways. Language is fluid
and arbitrary and rooted in power or knowledge relations. Meaning is, therefore, also fluid and
“messy”. Following on from this reasoning, Postmodernists caution that we should be careful
with generalizations, even when it comes to words such as “many”, “most” or “often”. 11

3. The Postmodern Challenge to Theological Research.

Since the late twentieth century, theologians have been developing a Postmodern theology and
they have been especially engaged with the philosopher Nietzsche. This is understandable if
we consider that Nietzsche radically questioned the whole concept of truth. The Eastern
orthodox theologian David Hart, for example, describes Postmodernity - in line of Nietzsche’s
thought - as an awareness that all metanarrative structures stand upon a shifting surface of dead
and living metaphors, while all ‘truths’ are endlessly fluid.12

11
_______________ Research Paradigms: Postmodernism http://www.intgrty.co.za/2016/09/20/research-
paradigms-Postmodernism/ accessed on 4/2/2020 2:43am.
12
A.H. Verhoef, “Postmodernism and the Need for Story and Promise: how Robert Jenson’s Theology
Addresses Some Postmodern Challenges to Faith” Acta Theologica 32/1 (2012): 172.

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It’s been more than four centuries that the Postmodernists have advocated and fostered a “new
age way” of creating and rationalizing the human life and progress. Typical Postmodernists are
atheists but then some of them prefer to follow the eastern religious thoughts and customs. In
fact many are naturalists including humanitarians, environmentalists and philosophers. These
Postmodernists confront the core religious and capitalistic values of the western world; they
seek change for a new age of liberty within a cosmic commonality.

Generally speaking, Postmodernism is any attempt to move beyond the Enlightenment project
of rationalism and the human capacity to discern objective and universal truth that is abstracted
from the particulars of the historical and cultural situation. Reality and human knowledge are
perceived as undergoing constant change and the epistemological stress is on concrete
experience over against static and abstract principles. Knowledge for the Postmodern is relative
and fallible.13

For Postmodernity, the truth is something that is competed for, a matter of power, because truth
is according to Nietzsche the lie socially agreed upon. In this context the “radical orthodoxy”
reacted to Postmodernism under the initiative of John Milbank. The radical orthodoxy’s
reaction to Postmodernism is that Christianity cannot prove its case, but must and can offer a
rhetoric of peace in contrast with the Nietzschean rhetoric of violence.14

Socio-political theologies such as Liberation Theology from Latin America and Minjung
theology from Korea, Homeland theology from Taiwan, and the Theology of Struggle from the
Philippines, Ubuntu and Black theologies from Africa, Dalit Theology from India, and other
new forms of theologies like Tribal Theologies, Feminist Theology emerged challenging the
ongoing theological speculations and discourses. These new trends in theological ideologies
bring along new trends in methodological aspects of theological researches as well.

4. Postmodern Methodology of Communication Research.

The origin of Postmodern methodology and its implications for communication methodology
is linked to the development of communication theories. As communication theory studies
technical process of information and the process of human communication, Postmodern

13
Craig A. Baron, “Christian Theology and the Reenchantment of the World,” Crosscurrents Winter
(2007): 116.
14
Verhoef, Postmodernism and..., 172.

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methodology and its implications are the newly created tools and the market places that allow
these created new methods to happen.

Postmodern approach focuses on deconstructing common beliefs and examining their values
in an individual life. It is an approach against the opinion that is held by majority or tradition.
Postmodernism has reconstituted human communication since its arrival in the 1960s. It
captures multiple world views through different aspects on reality, knowledge, and values.
Postmodernism has its root on criticisms of modernism and has built its stand on aesthetic,
economic, and theoretical discourse. Postmodernists challenge modernist truth claims by
exposing inconsistencies in the communication of those very claims.

Postmodernity is characterized by an ever accelerating rate of social, economic and

technological change, instant media access and global access to goods, people and
ideas.15When we talk about Postmodernism methodology in communication research it
investigates how cultural practices relate to wider systems of power associated with power
operating through social phenomena such as ideology, class structure, national formation,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender and generation where all these concerns of socio-economic
and political critiques of society with an emphasis on questions of ideology, power and
domination in the context of social communion.

This method can be contextualized to make appropriate to Indian context. Till today
communication researches taken up in Indian context are so far under the colonial influence to
study how far media can influence human behaviour.

The following are the important aspects of Postmodern perspective/methodology:

4.1. The Context of Postmodernity

Upholding contextuality in a research is one of the most important aspects of the integrity of a
research. To be able to provide a valid Postmodern methodology for communication research
it is a must to know the context of the research first. Postmodernity is the era in which
Postmodern ideas, attitudes, and values reign, when Postmodernism moulds culture. It is the
era of Postmodern society.16

15
Herna Hall, “The Impact of Postmodernism on the Social Functioning of Young Adults” (D. Phil Thesis,
University of Pretoria, 2013) 4.
16
Grenz, A Primer, 2.

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Stanley J. Grenz beautifully sums up the context of Postmodernism in the following lines,
“Postmodernism refers to the intellectual mood and cultural expressions that are becoming
increasingly dominant in contemporary society. We are apparently moving into a new cultural
epoch, Postmodernity”.17

4.2. Language Games18

Postmodern thinkers argue that language itself and new forms of media have created an age in
which meanings are harder to identify and tougher to specify. The modernists’ grand narratives
that once offered the promise of holding us together have fractured into fragmented language
games in which different groups develop different voices and rules for understanding.19

This challenges the modernists’ approach of structuralism which argues that language is a
social construct and that people develop literary documents-text in an attempt to provide
structures of meaning to make them sense out of the meaningless of their experience.20

Lyotar aptly sums up this way,

Postmodernism ... is committed to modes of thinking and representation which emphasize

fragmentations, discontinuities and incommensurable aspects of a given object, from intellectual systems
to architecture... It prefers to montage to perspective, intertextuality to referentiality, ‘bit-as-bits’ to
unified totalities.21

Postmodernism asserts that the present time is a time in which signs no longer refer to things
but only to other signs in infinite regression. A solid sense of connecting words to reality is no
longer possible, if it ever was, because our world has become a “hyperreality” composed of
words and claims. Language has become the new reality for the Postmodern world. Meanings
are contingent upon other meanings, and concepts are never definable in a final sense.22

4.3. Deconstruction

A form of Postmodern criticism known as deconstruction propounded by Derrida (1982)

attempts to show that many messages can simultaneously mean what both they appear to mean
and the opposite of what they appear to mean. Words do not necessarily mean what their

17
Grenz, A Primer..., 2.
18
The term was originally coined by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his book Tractstus Logico Philocus (1921).
19
Rob Anderson & Veronica Ross, Questions of Communication: A Practical Introduction to theory
(Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2002), 115.
20
Grenz, A Primer..., 4.
21
As quoted in Anderson, Questions of Communication..., 115.
22
Anderson, Questions of Communication..., 115.

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speakers or writers intend for them to mean. The Postmodern theorist presumes that speaker,
author, listener, reader, and critic are equal judges of meaning. In Postmodern criticism, the
deconstruction of a message is a way of demonstrating its integral uncertainty and self-
contradiction. This method of deconstruction aims to undo all constructions. Deconstruction
tears texts apart, reveals its contradictions and assumptions to show how they are ambiguous
and capable of undermining or contradicting themselves.23

Creswell writes that applying this view when conducting research is the need to “deconstruct
texts” which include readings and writings to the hierarchies inhibited innside, as well as
dominations, oppositions, inconsistencies, and contradictions.24This perspective can be useful
in studies that are using content analysis, narrative or case studies. In analysing the data
researchers can aim to highlight any issues or concerns, especially in studies where there is
hands on interfacing between researcher and communities (or individuals being studied).

Postmodern philosophers applied this theory of deconstruction to the world as a whole. Just as
a text will be read differently by each reader, they said, so reality will be read differently by
each knowing self that encounters it. This means that there is no one meaning of the world, no
transcendent centre to reality as a whole.25

4.4. Postmodern Methodology

Postmodern approach is subjective and it lacks the analytical nature and its thoughts were
vague and completely based on belief. Postmodernist thinking trust that there is no universal
truth or abstract.26 This approach rejects the application of logical thinking. The Postmodern
era thinking was based on unscientific and irrational ideologies against the ideology of
modernity.

The Postmodern methodology of communication research could be carried out effectively with
having in minds all the stated characteristics of the Postmodern contexts. In this age of
indefinite genres and mixed methods, the Postmodern era helps one to realize that things are
not as they were. It is now more difficult to compartmentalize research into neat, mutually

23
Anderson, Questions of Communication..., 115.
24
________________, Postmodernism https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/com9640epstein/?p=573 accessed on
2/2/2020 12:43am.
25
Grenz, A Primer ..., 6.
26
________________, Postmodernism https://www.communicationtheory.org/Postmodernism/ accessed on
2/2/2020 12:43am.

14
exclusive purviews. In that sense, an understanding of these Postmodern idoelogies can assist
the researcher in seeing qualitative research in all of its complexities.

Postmodern research methodology in the field of communication has recognized that the
methods used to research societal issues, questions, or problems were not up to the task of
describing what it was that they needed to describe. This led to a re-evaluation and redefinition
of traditional methods of conducting sociological research such as anthropology and
ethnographic research.27

In the Postmodern perspective, the understanding of a variety of methodologies and the

recognition of the methodology that is most appropriate to the research at hand is really
important. Even though the Postmodern methodology is such a chaotic approach. Methods
must be compatible with the chosen methodology which must, in turn, be compatible with the
research questions and the hypothesis, whether explicit or implied.

“A successful research project will operate like a team, like a well-oiled, smoothly running engine, or
even like a collage of disparate parts that combine to create a consolidated view of a particular topic,
issue or problem.”28

5. Critical Evaluations and Comments:

From the above mentioned topics we can assess Postmodernism and Postmodern methodology
or approach in the following points:

5.1. As has been mentioned Postmodern ideology is too vague that there can be no clear
cut definition on what exactly is Postmodern and to what extent is to be considered
Postmodern. This opens the gate ajar for thinkers to be too pessimistic on the society
and could lead to negativity in ideological formulations especially in the future and
younger generations.
5.2. Since there is no clear cut definition of what Postmodernism, there can hardly be any
generally accepted clear cut Postmodern methodology in the field of research as well.
5.3. The negativity of Postmodernism upon scientific studies can lead to a danger of the
outcome of improper methodologies in the field of research studies. Too much

27
Karyn Cooper & Robert E. White, Qualitative Research in the Post-Modern Era: Contexts of Qualitative
Research (London, New York: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012), 119.
28
Cooper, Qualitative Research..., 119.

15
 pessimistic rational and scientific studies can lead to unrealistic claims in research
methodologies.
5.4. Metanarrative and generally accepted beliefs and truth are what Postmodernism cannot
tolerate. But in practical these things are important to have proper administrations in
the society, church, and so on. From the perspective of Postmodernism even laws, acts,
rules and regulations of a country, organisations could be considered invalid. Even
ethical stances of the church, society and culture could be at stake by looking at them
from Postmodern perspective.
5.5. While Postmodernism could be said to be of too pessimistic on the one hand, it is one
of the most important factor that give rise to the emergence of freelancing in mass media
and research studies. The ways which have been paved by critical thinkers have become
agents to bring about better changes in the society as well.

Conclusion

Communication Research in India needs a radical shift from effect study to a study of the entire
policies, productions, broadcasting process in order to identify the hidden addenda of media
organizations. And the research should focus on media giants, cultural industries and the
politically powerful individuals.

The concept Postmodernism, as has been mentioned, is a vague and difficult topic. But the
vagueness and its difficulty cannot hinder its importance in the academic studies. Its emergence
has caused many new yet feasible approaches to philosophical, theological and communication
researches. Scholars could not come to the conclusion in drawing the demarcation line as to
what really is Postmodernism, and to what extent is to be accepted as Postmodern. But, the
reality of post modernity prevails our social life affecting our communication, our religious,
moral and ethical lives. The challenge is set before us, as Christians to face this modernism to
provide genuine communication and community.

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Bibliography

A. Books:

Anderson, Rob & Veronica Ross. Questions of Communication: A Practical Introduction to

theory. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2002.

Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: a History. London and New York: Routledge,
1995,

Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids Michigan/Cambridge, U.K.:

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996.

Littlejohn, Stephen W. & Karen A. Foss, eds. Encyclopedia of Communication Theory

Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2009.

Cooper, Karyn & Robert E. White. Qualitative Research in the Post-Modern Era: Contexts of
Qualitative Research, London, New York: Springer Science+Business Media B.V.,
2012.

B. Thesis & Journals

Craig A. Baron. “Christian Theology and the Reenchantment of the World.” Crosscurrents
Winter (2007).

Hall, Herna. “The Impact of Postmodernism on the Social Functioning of Young Adults.” D.
Phil Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2013.

Macquarie, John. “Postmodernism in Philosophy of Religion and Theology.” International

Journal for Philosophy of Religion 50 (2001).

Verhoef, A.H. “Postmodernism and the Need for Story and Promise: how Robert Jenson’s
Theology Addresses Some Postmodern Challenges to Faith.” Acta Theologica 32/1
(2012).

C. Internet Sources

Adams, Daniel J. Towards a Theological Understanding of Postmodernism

https://crosscurrents.org/adams.htm accessed on 4/2/2020 2:43am.

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____________________, Postmodernism
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/com9640epstein/?p=573 accessed on 2/2/2020
12:15am.

____________________, Research Paradigms: Postmodernism

http://www.intgrty.co.za/2016/09/20/research-paradigms-Postmodernism/ accessed on
4/2/2020 2:43am.

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