Communication and theories of social change: A communitarian perspective¹

In the postwar period, theories of communication and social change have been largely dominated by the two liberal and Marxist schools of thought. The liberal theories have argued for a ‘modernization’ paradigm that tends to be idealist and social psychological in orientation, uses the nation‐state as its chief unit of analysis, focuses on the internal dynamics of the developmental process, and draws conclusions that are partial to market solutions and transnational corporate penetration of third world economies. The Marxist theories, by contrast, are based on historical materialism, operate largely on the basis of a ‘dependency’ paradigm that critiques the modernization theories for their failure to account for the structural factors at the national and international levels and for their pro‐capitalist bias. The dependency paradigm has used the world capitalist system as its chief unit of analysis, focused on the centre‐periphery dynamics of development, argued for a social revolution and developmental policies that aim at industrialization and planning. This essay provides a third perspective on communication and social change. Emerging from a materialist‐idealist interdependency perspective, this perspective borrows heavily from the contributions of communication theory in the last 70 years. It constructs a model for the understanding of how through the struggles for hegemonic domination, public discourse intervenes in social life in order to conserve, reform, or transform the social structure.