20世纪上半期，美国的大众传播知识社会学曾经产生过两个学术流派，即以社会 “团结”为学术诉求的芝加哥学派和以客观性为诉求目标的哥伦比亚学派。前者致力于 在社会探究过程中阐发他们具有美国本土特色的大众传播知识社会学，但却没有对他们 丰富的研究成果进行专题化整理建设；后者在一种更加自觉的意义上明确提出开展“大 众传播知识社会学”研究的构想，却因为难以克服的困难而没有取得富有成效的成果。 大众传播知识社会学的两个流派，反映了美国社会两个不同阶段的学术旨趣。

In the frst half of the twentieth century, two academic schools have appeared in the feld of knowledge sociology of mass communication in American, namely, the Chicago School with the academic pursuit of solidarity, and the Colombia school with the pursuit of objectivity. The former is committed to elucidating the knowledge sociology of mass communication with native characteristics in the process of social inquiry, however, they did not construct topical discussions on their rich research results; the latter clearly conceived the concept of “knowledge sociology of mass communication” in a more self-conscious level, while they did not achieve fruitful results because of the insurmountable diffculties.