Abstract

GIMENEZ, Gilberto. Comunicación, cultura e identidad: Reflexiones epistemológicas. Cultura representaciones soc [online]. 2011, vol.6, n.11, pp.109-132. ISSN 2007-8110.

As a "crossroads science" communication science has a paradoxical statute in the field of social sciences, owed on the one hand to its hybrid and plural character, and on the other, to the fact that any act of communication constitutes a "social total phenomenon" by which not only a message is transmitted but also a culture, an identity and the type of social relation that connects the speakers. That is why it is difficult to define, in a univocal way, what communication is. In this respect John Fiske distinguishes, in a broad sense, two schools: the "process school", based on the classic linear model, and the "semiotic school" that conceives communication as the production and reception of meanings in a cultural context. Nowadays, the scholars of communication increasingly adhere to the latter "school" or trend, since in their researches they tend to go far beyond the simple exchange of messages and adopt what they called a "transactional conception" that incorporates the relationship to culture and identity as central chapters of the theory of the communication.

Keywords : comunicación; cultura; identidad; epistemología de las ciencias sociales.