International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Communications and media as a field of research in Europe scarcely predates World War II and, with minor exceptions, did not develop as a full program of study until the last quarter of the twentieth century. The main exception was Germany, where a press science ( Zeitungswissenschaft ) was quite well established in some German universities before the war and was later restored under the name of Publizistik (→  Communication and Media Studies, History to 1968 ). Much of the early work was historical or practical, but theory about the links between the press and society had also been developed by German sociologists ( Hardt 2003 ). Early French sociologists, notably Gabriel Tarde, had also paid attention to the press and other means of publicity as influences on collective behavior, the formation of opinion, and the transition to modernity. Early British sociology was focused primarily on social problems, and the “media” attracted little academic attention until after the arrival of television in the 1950s. In general, the large task of postwar reconstruction and regeneration in Europe overshadowed issues relating to the media. All in all, at the middle of the twentieth century the field seemed very open to an influx of American ideas about mass media and methods of inquiry, not least because American media, especially film and music, were already ubiquitous in Europe. As Tunstall ... log in or subscribe to read full text