Theorisation of Power, Ideology, Reality : Writing over a Misguided History of Critical Theories in Japan

Abstract

It is not possible to reappraise specific theories without consideration for specific existing conditions of the reading. Critical theories of mass communication, no matter what they signify, have long been regarded as a subsidiary of the mainstream empirical media research rather than in their own right. By re-examining contemporary critical theories such as those of Ien Ang, this paper attempts to build up a minimum basis for writing over such a dominant view of communication studies in Japan. The main focus in the paper is on the conceptualisation of power and ideology as indispensable factors for the discursive construction of reality. It is, therefore, important for the existing theories to be up-graded at all times according to transforming conditions of the reading. Raymond Williams, for instance, can be appropriated for the analysis of the present metropolitanised as well as globalised location of mass media.