This article evaluates some of the tensions between information and communication sciences and criticism: What sort of relations does communication (as an epistemological area) maintain with criticism? Then, relative to Armand Mattelart’s early research, the paper considers the materialistic perspective as constituting the principium of a “critical communication research agenda”: What sort of analysis does critical materialism allow? Finally, the analysis looks at the question of praxis and the practical profits required by that materialistic approach. Thus, we consider what causes research to take up the critical challenge of the requirements of social practice.