Community integration and the use of local media

Abstract

In this review essay theories about community integration and local media are described, with special attention to theories that are influenced by Merton (1949) and Janowitz (1952). A central idea in these theories is that a positive association exists between community integration and the use of local media. However, opinions diverge on how this association should be interpreted. During the 1950s and the early 1960s, it was assumed that this association was caused by the fact that the use of local media has an influence on community integration. Then, in the 1970s, it became practice to assume community integration has influences on the use of local media and that this influence accounts for the association between community integration and the use of local media. This contradiction was signaled by Stamm (1985) who proposed that the influence might go either way. This paved the way for a partial restoration of the ideas that were devised in the 1950s and 1960. Since then, it is often assumed that the use of local media stimulates community integration. These successive developments are explained by pointing at broader developments in communication research, social science, and western societies. The author concludes that the successive developments are not validated by sound empirical research or by new theoretical insights. Further, it questions the very basis of theories about community integration and the use of local media, i.e., the assumption that a direct causal links exists between community integration and the use of local media.