What Is Theory?

What is theory?

The term theory has been defined by the Encarta dictionary (2006) as a scientific principle explaining an event or a trend; a set of facts, propositions, or principles analysed in their relation to one another and used, especially in science, to explain phenomena a statement or set of statements used to explain a phenomena. Based on this definition, one can say that a theory is a general principle that explains or predicts facts or events. A theory is generally accepted as valid after it has been proved to be correct following repeated testing.

Theory has both scientific value and practical value. Its scientific value is that it teaches us among other things how to describe, interpret, understand, evaluate, and predict an event or a trend. It also provides us with an overview of the development of a discipline, its relations with other disciplines and its possible future developments. An example of this is studying the media theory. How it has developed over time and how it focused on different issues in different historical periods. In this case the study of the history of the media theory provides a historical overview of the discipline and thus reveals much about the development of the discipline. Theories such as the effect theory started from a behaviourist perspective closely associated with positivism Ð'- the theory that knowledge can be acquired only through direct observation and experimentation Ð'- and behaviourism of the social sciences and then moved on to more critical approaches presently practiced in the social sciences

The practical value of theory is that it can be applied to solve everyday problems because it teaches us to the skills of describing, interpreting and understanding, evaluating and predicting an event. These skill once deeply-rooted in the way we deal with reality can be applied to all sorts of situations in our lives leading to better understanding, enjoyment and critical awareness.

The building blocks of theory

The building blocks of all theory related to human behaviour of whatever kind are: ontology, epistemology, purpose, and focus. Ontology refers to how you see something, your own personal view while epistemology refers to how you investigate something.

As far as ontology is concerned, we distinguish between two broad views of humanity: a deterministic view or determinism and a liberal view or humanism. Determinism is guided by the point that human behaviour is governed by forces beyond individual control. Thus, a determinist will agree that the media does frame people and events and that the media also influences public opinion about people and events to a certain extent.

The point of departure in humanism is the belief that people have a free will and that they make choices about how to act. Therefore, though a humanist might agree that the media participates in framing people and events to influence public opinion in a specific direction, he will be more cautious and say that the media may frame people and events under certain circumstances and given certain conditions including the various conditions of the media audiences, and may influence public opinion in a certain way

Epistemology seeks to answer the question how we know what we know Ð'- the science of knowledge. Again there are two distinct groups: those who believe in objective truth and those who believe in subjective experience, perception and understanding. The first group can be called objectivism and the second subjectivism. Objectivists believe that reality is material and external to the human mind, independent of feelings, and the same for everyone. Theorising can therefore be objective since it is uninfluenced by values, personal feelings, and other subjective factors when perceiving material reality. In the case of media framing a person or events, the objectivists believe that there are objective ways of investigating that will lead to objective conclusions. On the same issue, subjectivists believe that there are different ways of looking at this issue leading to different opinions, with no justified correct opinion.

The third building block concerns the purpose of theory. What is the purpose of theory? Is it to discover and formulate universal laws about the nature of the media, or is it to discover patterns of media behaviour that may prevail under certain conditions and in certain circumstances. Two different schools approach this view differently. Universalists who believe that it is possible to generate universal laws of human behaviour and Situationalists who believe that it is not possible to generate universal laws of human behaviour and also they believe that theory can only articulate rules that describe patterns in human behaviour, rather than laws.

The fourth and final building block of theory is the focus of a theory. As far as focus is concerned the two broad schools are behaviourism and humanism. Behaviourism focuses on observable behaviour. Behaviourists