Hello, dear person! I'm Eliane and I want to invite you to go back in time and discover what mass communication was like in the 1940s and 1950s. At that time, TV gained a lot of space, radio was one of the main means of communication and society was going through many changes.
But how does all this fit into the functionalist tradition of theories, which is the subject of this video? Did communication have a specific role in maintaining social order? Stay with me until the end and you will understand.
And first of all, do you know what functionalist theory is? Pay close attention to what I'm going to say now. Watch.
As much as many use the term functionalist theory, it is not a theory. She is an insight into how communication helps keep society in order. And within this vision, this functionalist tradition, several communication theories fit.
I have already explained two of them here on the channel. The Lasswell model and the Theory of Limited Effects are part of this functionalist view. This also includes Mathematical Theory, which I will explain in another video, and other studies.
Therefore, it is more correct to define it as a Functionalist Tradition. As I said at the beginning of this video. Or you can also just say Functionalism.
But I ask for poetic license to talk about functionalist theory, because I know that a lot of people end up researching this way, either because they get confused, or because they learned it wrong. But now you know what's right! And what began with this theoretical tradition?
It actually emerged in the 1940s, in the United States, but was influenced by thinkers from the beginning of the 19th century. To name the most important, there are Auguste Comte, Émile Durkheim and Herbert Spencer. And the main influence is on Comte's Positivism, which is the idea that we can study society in a scientific way, just as we study nature.
In addition to him, Durkheim and Spencer also provided bases for this theoretical view. Durkheim believed in the idea of social cohesion, where society functions well when everyone shares the same norms and values. And he also introduced the concept of collective consciousness, which is the set of common beliefs and values that unite a society.
Spencer compared society to a living organism, where each part performs a specific function, just like the organs of the human body. He also used the idea of social evolution, the same as Darwin's, believing that society evolves from simple forms to more complex forms. I'm going to leave here a very good quote from the book Basic Course in Communication Theories.
This book here, guys, I've actually seen several theory books and this one is really, really cool. You can understand everything. I'll leave the link in the description if you want.
Now pay attention to this excerpt that I took from page 51. Heir to the conceptions of sociological positivism, functionalism seeks to apply the same principles of the physical and natural sciences in social reality, mirroring them to create its theoretical models, as well as in the search for invariable laws that would explain the functioning of the social, economic, political and cultural life of human society. At the time of these guys who founded the theory, Europe was buzzing with the growth of industry, with political stability after the war, with the development of science and technology and functionalism and a set of theories that see society as a great system .
And in this system, each part has an important role. And of course, it is communication that keeps this system working properly. In fact, if you've been following my video series on communication theories, you already know that the 1940s were crazy full of new ideas.
I'll leave the link to the full playlist below for you to watch. Now we will better understand how this all happened. And since you already know what functionalist theory is, let's talk about its most basic principles.
First, it focuses on the social functions of communication, that is, it is concerned with understanding how communication helps society function. And one of the main ideas is the organic analogy. It's like comparing society to the human body.
As I just said here that Spencer suggested it, remember? Do you agree that each part of your body has a role in keeping you alive? In functionalism, social institutions, such as the media, for example, work in the same way, each with its own role in keeping society healthy and balanced.
Another important point is social interdependence. Just as the organs of the human body depend on each other, social institutions are also interconnected. Therefore, communication does not work alone.
It is connected to several other parts of society, influencing and being influenced by them. It's making sense to you. Now we will see how these concepts were applied in practice, back in the 1940s and 1950s.
At that time, the world was going through many changes, because after the Second World War, global reconstruction was in full swing. I had to build everything again. In addition to technological advances, such as the popularization of TV and the strengthening of radio, which completely changed the communication scenario.
I have a really cool video here about the history of media. Get the link here in the description too, or on the card, to watch it later, I'm sure you'll like it. Well, functionalist communication gained prominence especially in the United States, which was where many researchers began to apply their ideas to better understand mass communication.
And one of the main points of functionalism in communication was to understand how these new means helped to maintain social order and integrate society. TV and radio programs weren't just for fun. They played an important role in informing, educating and persuading the public and to this day they contribute to social cohesion.
And it was in these decades that mass communication became a very strong tool for promoting cultural values, social norms and even for integrating people. Therefore, there are many studies and theories of communication in the 1940s, before and after. Paul Lazarsfeld, for example, showed how mass communication influenced public opinion and he discovered the important role of opinion leaders.
He is one of the scholars of the Theory of Limited Effects. And there is the famous Lasswell Model about who says what, on what channel, to whom and with what effect? Which helped to understand the essential elements of communication, in addition to other studies and theories.
Now I want to talk a little about some of the criticisms and limitations of functionalism, because, despite the contributions, functionalist theory is also not perfect. And a common criticism is that it focuses too much on the positive and visible functions of communication and ends up ignoring the more complex and subtle things in society. Remember that I commented at the beginning of this video that it originated from positivism?
So, it can leave aside social inequalities because of this and the tensions that exist within society by also treating communication in a very simplistic way. All early communication theories end up being quite simplistic. It's super normal.
Another limitation is the tendency to see communication in a very linear and predictable way, as if it were a machine. And this mechanistic view does not take into account all the complexities and multiple interpretations that can arise in communication. This mechanistic view is also widely seen in Lasswell's model, which is one of the functionalist theories.
He divided communication into pieces and judged that this was enough to understand how communication works. But not quite. Mathematical Theory also has this mechanistic appeal, because it also considers many technical communication processes.
Furthermore, functionalism does not consider feedback and interaction that are part of any communicative process. These criticisms show that, even though functionalist theory has been very important, it also has its flaws and cannot explain everything about communication in society. But this theoretical vision is still relevant today.
It helps to understand how mass communication plays important roles within society, such as informing, educating and integrating people. For example, the news keeps us up to date with important events that are happening in the world and educational programs can teach new skills and new knowledge to those watching. Furthermore, the idea that communication contributes to social cohesion is still valid.
Because in times of crisis, communication is essential to maintain order and guide people's behavior. I'll talk about this in another video. And the functionalist tradition also serves as a basis for understanding other communication theories.
I'm explaining them all in this video series, so I think I deserve your like, don't you think? And even with these criticisms, functionalism is still useful for analyzing communication and its role in society. I hope you enjoyed learning about functionalist communication and in the next video I will talk more about a theory that was also born within functionalism.
Continue following this series and discover the Mathematical Theory of Information. Now things are going to get serious and I'll see you there. Thank you very much for watching this far.
A kiss and see you in the next video.
