Despite Wright's optimistic claim in 1974 that func
tionalism was alive and well, it seems that both con
ceptually and empirically, functionalism has been o f
little value... Mass communication theory needs a
comprehensive research approach which takes into
consideration producers (including vested interests)
and consumers, as well as other definable groups
and intervening social processes and relations....
What is needed is a theory of society that embraces
not only the control mechanisms serving to maintain
the social order but which also deals with the conflict
ual processes that resist or attempt to subvert the
"equilibrium"....
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