Un modelo metodológico para investigar los efectos socioculturales de los media

Abstract

Manuel Martín Serrano propounds the theoretical basis of the methodology - already used in some investigations- for identifying the codes underlying cultural products. This basis comprises in more concrete terms a) a theoretical framework; b) an analysis of mediations c) a methodological framework, and finally d) a technique for checking the theory. The theoretical framework is founded on two principles which are basically the expression of a contradiction between the technological possibilities of the media and the ends pursued by the mediators. These principles are: a) the systematic rejection of general codes (comprehensible to all members of a cultural community) and the use of restricted codes; b) the replacement of the objective presence of the referents in the messages by a reproductive comrnunication in which the referent comes under the control of the mediators (professional communicators) . Finally, with regard to the methodology, it should aim to facilitate the analysis of the processes of mediation and eventually reveal the codes by means of which the cultural products analysed are engendered.