Ideological Factor in Mass Communication: Historical and Theoretical Aspects

The article examines the communication nature of ideology, its capacity to serve as a mediator between ideological principles (theory) and political practice. Apart from that, the author shows that the basic paradigms of communication research are ideologically marked and the dominant paradigm is based on the values of liberal democracy, while representatives of the alternative research paradigm mainly attempt at exposing the inadequacy of liberal pluralist ideology.