in an exegetical manner (close, repeated reading to extract themes, metaphors, techniques, argument, meaning, etc.); for example with respect to their relationship to power or justice, or their persuasion, emotional appeal, or logic. Critical Perspectives on Media and Communication Critical social theory in communication, while sharing some traditions with rhetoric, is explicitly oriented toward "articulating, questioning, and transcending presuppositions that are judged to be untrue, dishonest, or unjust."(p. 147) Some work bridges this distinction to form critical rhetoric. Critical theories have their roots in the Frankfurt School, which brought together anti-establishment thinkers alarmed by the rise of Nazism and propaganda, including the work of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Modern critical perspectives often engage with emergent social movements such as post-colonialism and queer theory, seeking to be reflective and emancipatory. One of the influential bodies of theory in this area comes from the work of Stuart Hall, who questioned traditional assumptions about the monolithic functioning of mass communication with his Encoding/Decoding Model of Communication and offered significant expansions of theories of discourse, semiotics, and power through media criticism and explorations of linguistic codes and cultural identity. Axiology Axiology is concerned with how values inform research and theory development. Most communication theory is guided by one of three axiological approaches. The first approach recognizes that values will influence theorists' interests but suggests that those values must be set aside once actual research begins. Outside replication of research findings is particularly important in this approach to prevent individual researchers' values from contaminating their findings and interpretations. The second approach rejects the idea that values can be eliminated from any stage of theory development. Within this approach, theorists do not try to divorce their values from inquiry. Instead, they remain mindful of their values so that they understand how those values contextualize, influence or skew their findings. The third approach not only rejects the idea that values can be separated from research and theory, but rejects the idea that they should be separated. This approach is often adopted by critical theorists who believe that the role of communication theory is to identify oppression and produce social change. In this axiological approach, theorists embrace their values and work to reproduce those values in their research and theory development. References Further reading Chandler, Daniel. Transmission Model of Communication (1994). Daniel Chandler, 1994. Web. October 10, 2009. Cooren, F. (2012). Communication theory at the center: Ventriloquism