Hermeneutic theory: Malaysian practices

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hermeneutic philosophy and phenomenology are advanced in the Handbook of Media and Communication Research as being two of four ‘main traditions’ shaping media and communication studies. Informed by hermeneutic scholarship, ‘ready-to-hand’ (Heidegger) habitual media user practices become a central focus. Drawing on Gadamer’s hermeneutic thought positions agent practices within perspective or a tacit hermeneutic representational ‘horizon of understanding’. Ricoeur showed subsequently that culturally hegemonic horizons of understanding can be perceived from ‘distanciated’ (Ricoeur) positions, viewed as powerful bearers of ideology, a political ‘moment’. In this paper’s reflecting on approaches to mediated practices, hermeneutic phenomenology underwrites the discussion of Malaysian multicultural research as instantiating exemplar. In a first section, the philosophy involved with a practices analysis is outlined in discussing phenomenology and media studies. The second section considers media research situating practices within horizons of representational understanding, digitally, institutionally and also constituted within ‘figurations’. A final section sees hermeneutic practices as a tacit presence in Malaysian multi-cultural activity: mall visiting and media viewing, responses to advertising and identity defining religious occasion.