Denis McQuail

Denis McQuail has had a long and well-documented history within the field of communications. He has over a dozen books published that date back to 1968. During the past thirty years he has covered many aspects of the communication field but what he is best known for is his contribution to the education of the public concerning communication theory. Mostly, he has written books covering topics concerning media and their audiences and this paper will focus on some of those works and what they mean to this class.

Though details are sketchy, he has been at the University of Amsterdam for about twenty years. In the early 80s he published a book called Communication Models. The book details basic communication models (Lasswell Model, Shannon and Weaver’s Model, Gerbner’s Model), theories of media, audience centered models, and mass media systems in general. In textbook style, the book outlines each topic and gives detailed information about them. Basically, it is a compilation of existing communication theories with his own thoughts intertwined within them. He and co-author Sven Windahl obviously spent a great deal of time on it but at the time is was nothing more than a book of theories.

His next book was called Mass Communication Theory. It was written two years later and it discusses in greater detail the mass communication concept. Specifically, it talks about the significance of mass media and how it affects the individual and society rather than focusing on the definitions of the models in general. "The three primary objectives: to update and take account of recent theory and research; enlargement, to reflect the continuing expansion of the field; clarification and improved presentation (pg. 13)." An example of this is Chapter 10. McQuail discusses the future of mass communication and states that it is either socially fragmenting or unifying. He goes from there and makes several points on how the media needs to be socially responsible in order to be effective. This example shows two things. One, he is getting away from defining terms and leaning towards educating people. And two, He is concerned with how the media affect their audiences.

His next book came out nine years later in 1992. Called Media Performance, it is written in a different style than his previous books. His previous theories are taken more to be facts now. Rather than spending chapters defining and validating terms he uses paragraphs. The rest of the space is referring to application of the theories. For example, he discusses at great length the importance of an informed public. He states that the more aware a public is the less likely it will be affected by media.

Overall, while his life is somewhat of a mystery, his work has centered on explaining communication theories and its applications. All of his books contain information on this subject and this allows us to make several inferences about him. For instance, as I mentioned before, by watching his books evolve we can see that his original theories are turning to facts. Also, he appears to very adamant about informing the public on the benefits and dangers of mass communication.

Another aspect that needs to be brought to light is his exceptional knowledge of all the media. He has written books specifically concerned with the press, television, and radio. He is obviously well-informed about each branch of media and with the introduction of the Internet as a serious form of communication we can be sure that he will have another book on the way soon.

McQuail’s work has a deep impact on this class. While reading some of his books I couldn’t help but notice that I knew what he was talking about. From the information I have learned in this class is directly related to the information that McQuail talks about. The major difference is that while we are focused on learning theory he is more concerned with educating the public. Overall though, McQuail’s work is very important to the field of mass communication and this class because he has taken theory and placed it in text so that we can read and learn for ourselves. So even if he feels that he isn’t educating enough (I am not saying he does), he can be assured that even if he stops today their will be others who read his books that will take up his cause.