| Non-physical--social or intellectual--constructions play a role in the conduct of human action, and evaluations of these constructions require analytical tools that do not depend upon empirical measurements. Proposed is an evaluative framework for ideas as agents of social action. Elements of the framework include: what is the idea, what was its purpose, what were its origins, how and under what conditions did it evolve, with what ideas was it in competition, and what was its effectiveness? Under study was the role of the participatory idea of mass communication, construction of mass communication as participation in social, economic, and political processes, during the 1920s, the 1970s, and the 1980s as new communication technologies were coming into use and prominence in the United States. The inauguration and rapid growth of broadcasting in the 1920s, debate about the expansion of cable television into major urban areas in the early 1970s, and the introduction of interactive communication systems in the 1970s and 1980s came amid conflicting constructions of mass communication and its effects in society. Broadcasting, for the first time, offered simultaneous receipt of mass media messages. Cable television offered opportunities for transmission of broadcast-like content to mass audiences, for narrowcasting to special-interest groups, and for two-way transmission of information. Interactive technologies essentially changed both the site for participation and the discourse about the participatory idea of mass communication. The technologies offered actual participation of audience members in the origination of content and from the convenience of their homes. Audience members' involvement would be direct and not a socially constructed or intellectually constructed participation. The evaluative framework, in use, does not determine the validity of the participatory idea at any point but only can analyze its use in competition with other ideas. Refinement of the framework is necessary for analysis of ideas not specifically related to communication, but use of such a framework offers opportunities for analysis of social and intellectual constructions in competition. |
