Theory Categories

Mass communication theories are separated into four main categories. The four categories of
theory are post positivism, hermeneutic, critical and normative. All theories do not share the
same attributes. They differ in terms of goals, view of nature of reality, what is knowable, view
of how knowledge is created and expanded, and their view of the proper role of values in
research and theory building.
Post positivism:
Post positivist theory has roots in positivism. The term positivism was created and coined by
Comte. Positivism is the process of obtaining knowledge by scientific research. Research must
be observed, measured and use the scientific method to examine it. Social scientists wanted to
use the concepts of positivism. As a result, the post positivist theory was born. Social scientists
of post positivism understood that humans and human behavior are complex and not constant
like the phenomena of the physical world. The post positivist theory seeks to explain, predict and
control. This kind of theory views nature in the sense that the world is different than how we
perceive it to be. This type of theory believes that knowledge can only be advanced when
systematic scientific method research is used. Lastly, this type of theory makes sure to use the
scientific method so values of the social scientist are not included in research.
Example: Political advertising and the voting behavior of citizens rely on post-positivism.
Hermeneutic:
Hermeneutic theories are not interested in wanting to explain, predict and control. It is the study
of understanding by interpreting action and text. It tries to understand how and why that behavior
occurs. It is more interested in learning how and the reason why people’s actions take place in
the world. This theory seeks to understand how people create meaning for symbols. Hermeneutic
theories understand that views of the nature of reality differ from person to person based on their
social environment. For this theory, knowledge being advanced is dependent on the interaction
between the subject and the researcher. Lastly, this type of theory welcomes the values of the
researcher that may influence the research. Social hermeneutics tries to understand how events in
a social situation make sense to the ones who live it, how a way of life has meaning and value for
the people who live it. A text is any product of social interaction that serves as a source of
understanding. A movie, a love letter or any other text can be a source of understanding.
Example: Doing research on women's interpretation of romance novels.
Critical:
Critical theories are not concerned with explaining, predicting and controlling. They are not even
interested in learning how and why a person’s actions take place. These theories are more
concerned with steering away from tradition. They seek to challenge the status quo by changing
it. These type of theories are mostly associated with politics. Critical conclude that reality is
 based on political, economic and social factors. Knowledge can only be created and advanced
when the political systems benefits the people of communities.
Its goal is not to understanding the social world. It assumes that the social world needs
transformation. It is concerned with inequality and oppression, conflict of interests in society;
troubled by the spread of capitalist corporate power around the world. They see media as an
essential tool employed by corporate elites to limit how people view their social world.
Normative:
Normative theories do not seek to explain, predict or control. Nor are they interested in learning
how and why people’s actions take place. They are not even concerned with steering away from
tradition. These theories seek to explain how a media system should ideally operate and who
should operate it. The goal is to operate in a way that certain values can be realized.
Example: Press's role in a democracy, operation of the media in an Islamic republic or an
authoritarian state.

Post Positivist Hermeneutic Critical Normative

It is social scientific.It is based on It seeks change, studies It is designed to judge the
interpretation of texts. struggle between society's operation of a given media
structure and its agency. system against a specific
social system's ideals.
It is representational It is representational and It is nonrepresentational. It is based on comparative
and word pictures of word pictures of some Its goal is to change analysis – only judge the
some other realities. other realities. existing realities. worth of a given media
system in comparison with
the ideal system in which it
operates.
Its representations are Its representations are
generalizable local and specific.