A síndrome de Prometeu: um obstáculo no desenvolvimento do campo da comunicação

Abstract

The text considers a frequent approach in the area of communication studies, the social/media construction of reality, as being an obstacle in the task of defining the identity of this area. Notwithstanding the existence of a well known sociological theory with that name, it is argued that a certain use of that perspective in research turns a genuine epistemological tool into an article of faith. Instead of being a scientific analysis, this diffuse and pervasive social constructionism involves an unmasking attitude whose practical goal is to raise consciousness in relation with the media. Such a discourse choice is called here the Syndrome of Prometheus. Its effect is the progressive effacement of the identity of the area of communication on account of a double reduction: a loss of the disciplinary specificity, on account of a fusion with the sociological realm, and a loss of scientific status, because of the substitution of the evidence furnished by the considered object of study for a theoretical a priori of the researcher.