Theoretical Approaches to Normativity in Communication Research

Abstract

Normativity is inarguably a major concept in the social sciences. Even so, social science research seldom acknowledges its importance, its influence on research inquiries, and its impact on the trajectories of communication science and on the scientists themselves. It is against that background that this article calls for a better understanding of the role of normativity in communication studies. In doing so, it analyzes Bourdieu's theoretical framework of field, habitus, and capital and how the intersection of all three concepts helps explain and justify the importance of norms in communication research. Finally, this article identifies differences between the norms of the orthodox and the heretics, based on various schools of thought and on paradigms from both U.S. and German communication–research histories.

The World-Systemic Dynamics of Knowledge Production: The Distribution of Transnational Academic Capital in the Social Sciences

“…Thus, one of the most important phenomena in career development is the mobility of researchers (Komlosy, Boatca and Nolte 2016). Emigration positively affects academic capital accumulation since it helps scholars become socialized in academic practices and conduct (Rothenberger et al 2017) while enriching skills in scholarly collaboration (Henriksen 2018;Ronda-Pupo and Katz 2018) and networking possibilities (Bormann 2017;Coccia and Bozemann 2016). This in turn boosts publication output (Aksnes et al 2013).…”

The Visual Citizen in a Digital News Landscape

“…As Green notes, "most citizens most of the time are not decision makers, relating to politics with their voices, but spectators who relate to politics with their eyes" (2010, p. 4). In normative terms, this civic gaze underpins journalism's epistemic authority, that is, its promotion of a professional investment in pursing truth-claims (Allan & Peters, 2015;Blumler & Cushion, 2014;Rothenberger, Auer & Pratt, 2017), and the capacity to make tangible the attendant social conditions and political alternatives of the day for purposes of public deliberation and debate (Hanitzsch & Vos, 2017). It is not an overstatement to say that journalistic mission statements recurrently prioritize a responsibility to validate through robust challenge differing visions of democratic governance.…”

Theorizing international inequalities in communication and media studies. A field theory approach

“…Bourdieu conducted heroic efforts to emphasize the role that the field of forces plays in academic life, and his later followers dedicated an enormous amount of research to this topic (Bauder, 2015;Bauder et al, 2017;Grenfell, 2008;Gouanvic, 2005;Hilgers and Mangez, 2015;Leung, 2013;Recke, 2011;Rothenberger et al, 2017;Thatcher et al, 2016;Wacquant, 2018;Wiedemann and Meyen, 2016). According to the original Bourdieusian idea, the field is "the space of the relations of force between the different kinds of capital or, more precisely, between the agents who possess a sufficient amount of one of the different kinds of capital to be in a position to dominate the corresponding field" (Bourdieu, 1988, p. 34).…”

“…Habitus is one of the main concepts of Bourdieu's field theory, and it refers to some durable and transposable dispositions or tendencies social agents have in order to being active during social actions (Grenfell, 2008). Regarding habitus in practice, the most important empirical phenomenon in career development is the mobility of researchers, because it effects on other parts of the habitus like publication habits (Aksnes et al, 2013), proper conduct (Rothenberger et al, 2017), cooperation skills (Henriksen, 2018;Ronda-Pupo and Katz, 2018) or networking (Bormann, 2017; Coccia and Bozemann, 2016).…”

“…The role of norms in the Bourdieusian theory was extensively investigated by Rothenberger et al (2017), but we should still relate them directly to the field of CMS (Fig. 3).…”