Conclusion: Present and Future in Chilean Communications Studies

Abstract

The central object of inquiry for an intellectual history is the set of ideas that were produced in a given period. Once we specify that ideas are produced, the inquiry must also be open to the ways in which the ideas are produced, by whom, and under what sort of conditions. People who produce ideas are intellectuals. Intellectuals, however, are not a predetermined or given social category. To understand fully the production of ideas, we must specify the social and cultural roles that intellectuals play, the kinds of relations they have with the most important social groups and the structures of political and economic power, and the circumstances which condition their options and choices with respect to their fields.