Hegel and Marx’s concept of dialectics can help scholars to understand the fundamentally contradictory character of communication in modern society: communication doesn’t just communicate interests, but communicates such interests due to the antagonistic structure of modern society in opposition to somebody. Critical scholarship analyses communication by identifying political contradictions and the ways in which these contradictions are communicated in public or ideologically masked and distorted.
1.2.4. Ideology Critique: Critical Theory is a Critique of Ideology
Ideologies are practices and modes of thought that present aspects of human existence that are historical and changeable as eternal and unchangeable. Ideology critique wants to remind us that everything that exists in society is created by humans in social relationships and that social relationships can be changed. It wants to bring ‘problems into the self-conscious human form’ (Marx 1997, 214), which means that it wants to make humans conscious of the problems they are facing in society and the causes of these problems. Arguments like ‘there is no alternative to capitalism, neoliberalism, competition, egoism, racism, etc. because man is egoistic, competitive, etc.’ forget about the social character of society. They create the impression that the results of social activity are unchangeable things. Critical theory provides an ‘analysis of the mystical consciousness that is unclear about itself’ (Marx 1997, 214).
In modern society, communication regularly takes on ideological forms. Such ideologies try to advance specific interests by communicating in ways that present certain groups positively, opponents and enemies negatively, play down or conceal negative realities about specific groups and overstate or invent negative dimensions of opponents and enemies.
1.2.5. Critical Theory is Connected to Struggles for a Just and Fair Society. It is an Intellectual Dimension of Struggles
Critical theory provides a ‘self-understanding […] of the age concerning its struggle and wishes’ (Marx 1997, 315), it can ‘show the world why it actually struggles’ and is ‘taking sides […] with actual struggles’ (Marx 1997, 214). This means that critical theory can help to explain the causes, conditions, potentials and limits of struggles. Critical theory rejects the argument that academia and science should and can be value-free. It rather argues that all thought and theories are shaped by political worldviews. The reasons why a person is interested in a certain topic, aligns himself/herself with a certain school of thought, develops a particular theory and not another one, refers to certain authors and not others, are deeply political because modern society is shaped by conflicts of interests and therefore for surviving and asserting themselves, scholars have to make choices, enter strategic alliances and defend their positions against others.
Introduction: Critical Theory of Communication
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