Differences between Traditional School of Communication and Critical School

1. The traditional school, also known as the empirical school, is represented by the American School of Communication. Use empirical, scientific and quantitative research methods to study communication problems. Based on reality, it aims to maintain the existing capitalist system and draw corresponding conclusions through research. It matches American social pragmatism, so it focuses on the study of communication effect. The four founders of communication, lasswell, lazarsfeld, Luen and hovland, are all representatives of traditional schools.

2. The critical school is represented by Frankfurt School, and the main figures are Hawke Hammer and Adorno. Guided by new Marxism, we uphold the spirit of criticism and speculation. The profound criticism of the capitalist system and its mass society aims at discovering more advanced social systems through criticism. The main areas of criticism are capitalist system, popular culture and research methods of quantitative social sciences, such as positivism.