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Chapter 2 - Media Systems

from Part 1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2018

Boguslaw Nierenberg
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Summary

Systematic methodology as a way of scientific research was born in the 1930s because of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, who introduced its framework during the course of a psychological seminar at the University of Chicago. However, his methodology was not completely original. Reference to the system concept can be found in works of Gottfried W. Leibniz, Karola Marks, George W. F. Hegl, Vilfred Paret or Talcott Parsons, and even in the works of ancient philosophers. Aristotle is actually the author of a formulation that says: “In the case of all things which have several parts and in which the totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something beside the parts, there is a cause; for even in bodies contact is the cause of unity in some cases, and in others viscosity or some other such quality [Aristotle 2003: 337].” These words are commonly interpreted as key for systems theory, and denote that completeness is more than a sum of components.

Systemic Conceptions

Ludwig von Bertalanffy should be considered the forerunner of the modern systemic method of research. In an article entitled The Theory of Open Systems in Physics and Biology, he off ered that objects undergoing research should be treated as open systems, i.e. set of elements connected in such a way that they create a new entity standing out in the environment. [Bertalanffy 1950: 23–29] Open systems may be treated as the most general definition of a system. Bertalanffy himself was baffled by the simplicity and universality of the preferred research method. He wrote that if we define the notion of a system properly we will notice that there are models and rules that may be applied to generalized systems independently of their type, their constituents and forces acting on them [Bertalanffy 1984: 63]. Initially unappreciated, the general theory of systems soon gained its adherents.

Type
Chapter
Information
Media Management
A Comparative Analysis of European and American Systems
, pp. 37 - 56
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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