20 YEARS OF RESEARCH ON TELEVISION - A PO ST-LAZARSFELDIAN SOCIOLOGY

This article reviews the research on television that, breaking with La zarsfeldian theory, changed orientations in the 1970s. Thanks to syste matically empirical studies that have diversified survey methodologies , two poles of inquiry have emerged : on the one hand, an interest in the mass media's long-term cognitive effects; and on the other, an int erpretation of messages and their reception. These two poles of resear ch are based on different analytical procedures. They also reach antin omic conclusions about television's social status.