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Dialectical Imagination: Frankfurt School and IAMCR

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Reflections on the International Association for Media and Communication Research

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Abstract

Adorno and Horkheimer’s critique of the culture industry is addressed in this chapter which explains why it remains relevant in the face of media companies and digital platforms that sustain inequality and injustice. Arguing that the impact of their critique has been profound, the author explains IAMCR’s alignment with a critique of dominant ideology, especially in the early decades of the association.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Despite the involvement of Eastern European scholars, IAMCR was not immune to Cold War politics. The association’s second President Raymond Nixon actively recruited mainstream American scholars, including Paul Lazarsfeld and Wilbur Schramm, whose 1954 book The Process of Effects and Mass Communication was prepared under government contract as training materials for US Propaganda programs. Schramm was also known for reporting on Dallas Smythe to the FBI during the McCarthyism witch-hunt when Smythe was working at the Institute of Communication Research, University of Illinois.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Bingchun Meng

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  1. Bingchun Meng
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Correspondence to Bingchun Meng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Political Science, Philipp’s University of Marburg, Marburg, Hessen, Germany

    Jörg Becker

  2. Media and Communications Dept., London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Robin Mansell

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Meng, B. (2023). Dialectical Imagination: Frankfurt School and IAMCR. In: Becker, J., Mansell, R. (eds) Reflections on the International Association for Media and Communication Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16383-8_2

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