Enhancing the hybrid media system model: The role of critical theory in media and communication research

Rok Smrdelj and Mojca Pajnik in their article published in European Journal of Communication propose a theoretical reconceptualization of the hybrid media system model by introducing structural and material conditions of contemporary media sphere with reference to critical theory. The main thesis is based on the principle of historicization and the concept of social relations. Using this framework, the authors demonstrate that those who wield dominant power within the neoliberal capitalist economy also have influence over the logic of the hybrid media system. Following the premise that the “agency” is constrained by hierarchical social relations, the article proposes to enhance the hybrid media system model to explicate not only cases where digital media have enabled successful civic activism leading to social change but also cases where newer digital technologies reinforce pre-existing social relations of power and subordination. The main contribution of the article is to show that critical theory strengthens the explanatory power of the current eclectic-empirical media models without fundamentally undermining their foundations.

Open access: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02673231241306249