Mass Communication Research at the Crossroads: Definitional Issues and Theoretical Directions for Mass and Political Communication Scholarship in an Age of Online Media

Abstract

More than a dozen years ago, in a highly regarded article in this journal, Chaffee and Metzger (2001) theorized about the nature of mass communication in the digital age. The present article, building on issues raised by Chaffee and Metzger, explores the nature of mass communication in a social media era and demarcates overlapping terms, notably mass communication and mediated communication. Arguing that theory plays a key role in advancing mass communication research at a technological crossroads, the article discusses ways that three major mass communication theoretical perspectives—cultivation, agenda-setting, and uses and gratifications—can specifically be adapted to illuminate media processes and effects in the contemporary age.