Nietzsche once asked, “what does your conscience tell you?” to point to Ethics of man [woman]. Thinking about that, I am reminded of Erich Fromm’s thesis on the very notion of “conscience” in Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics. A book he wrote back in 1947. I find many of Fromm’s […]

Long time ago (as far back as the late 60s, early 70s) Jürgen Habermas started to believe in the transformative power of undistorted communication. He thinks that communicative action is central to political action and paradigm shifts. He seems to be on to something with his theories. Following Habermas’ logic, we must focus on linguistics […]

Agenda Setting Theory Explanation of Theory: The Agenda-Setting Theory says the media (mainly the news media) aren’t always successful at telling us what to think, but they are quite successful at telling us what to think about. Theorist: Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw Date:  1972/1973 Primary Article:   McCombs, M., & Shaw, D.L. (1972). The agenda-setting […]

A few days ago, A very good student of mine who shall remain anonymous basically “dared” me to post on facebook and my own website the content of the preface to my textbook on cinema, charging that most Americans do not think and will not care about the argument that cinema is a teaching machine” […]