Changes and actuality of the critical theory

Abstract

This article approaches media criticism considering a broader theoretical foundation, which is related to the critical appreciation of the roles and functions of different media keeping in the horizon a communicative practice concerned with the common good. The standard this criticism is the relationship and responsibility of the media with the common good and with social justice. Such theoretical framework, known as Critical Theory, plays an important role in promoting good critical work in the specifics of the activity – criticism over goods, programs and content. The tradition of the Critical Theory is revised in this study through approximations and revisiting of references in a cyclical movement that creates dialogue and transformation. Our argument is organized in four topics: a brief discussion on what is Critical Theory and its two most important frameworks; the critique and shift of such frameworks; signals of a third new moment (the revisiting); and the influence of the Critical Theory in Communication studies.