Communication Concepts – serie

What is the biggest social problem in the news today? Who makes issues newsworthy and important? Why do some issues receive more attention than others? Social issues that are widely recognized in the media's agenda often demand attention on the public agenda and in turn, slide up the policy agenda, creating policy changes. James W. Dearing and Everett M. Rogers's research on social issues that hit the top of the media agenda--the war on drugs, drunk driving, the Exxon Valdez, AIDS, and the Ethiopian famine--provides important theoretical and practical insight into the agenda-setting process and its role in effecting social change. This reader-friendly volume introduces students to an important area of communication research and offers them direction for further inquiry. Researchers and professionals in political and mass communication, media studies, research methods, and marketing will appreciate this volume's insightful approach to agenda-setting and policy. "Agenda-Setting is a very useful introduction to the topic as well as a through review of the stream of research. . . . This book introduces a number of ideas that are useful in public relations strategic planning such as the concept of an issue life cycle. A lag/lead analysis of issue development is discussed that would also prove useful to campaign planners. The concept of framing is introduced as a technique that brings meaning to an issue." --Public Relations Review "Authors James W. Dearing and Everett M. Rogers explain the importance of the agenda-setting hypothesis in mass communication research and suggest how research can be advanced in the future. . . . In the book's most impressive character, the authors raise 12 research issues to advance agenda-setting, including the need for more international, comparative approaches. A very complete list of references and a separate list of suggested readings are helpful to scholars. Highly recommended for all serious collections in journalism, mass media, mass communication, political science, and public policy research." R. A. Logan in Choice

What is the biggest social problem in the news today? Who makes issues newsworthy and important? Why do some issues receive more attention than others? Social issues that are widely recognized in the media's agenda often demand attention on the public agenda and in turn, slide up the policy agenda, creating policy changes. James W. Dearing and Everett M. Rogers's research on social issues that hit the top of the media agenda--the war on drugs, drunk driving, the Exxon Valdez, AIDS, and the Ethiopian famine--provides important theoretical and practical insight into the agenda-setting process and its role in effecting social change. This reader-friendly volume introduces students to an important area of communication research and offers them direction for further inquiry. Researchers and professionals in political and mass communication, media studies, research methods, and marketing will appreciate this volume's insightful approach to agenda-setting and policy. "Agenda-Setting is a very useful introduction to the topic as well as a through review of the stream of research. . . . This book introduces a number of ideas that are useful in public relations strategic planning such as the concept of an issue life cycle. A lag/lead analysis of issue development is discussed that would also prove useful to campaign planners. The concept of framing is introduced as a technique that brings meaning to an issue." --Public Relations Review "Authors James W. Dearing and Everett M. Rogers explain the importance of the agenda-setting hypothesis in mass communication research and suggest how research can be advanced in the future. . . . In the book's most impressive character, the authors raise 12 research issues to advance agenda-setting, including the need for more international, comparative approaches. A very complete list of references and a separate list of suggested readings are helpful to scholars. Highly recommended for all serious collections in journalism, mass media, mass communication, political science, and public policy research." R. A. Logan in Choice

Overall, Ritchie provides an excellent introduction to Shannon's theories of communication and the associated ideas concerning information. --Library Quarterly SERIES QUOTE: "The second volume in the series is titled information and the third volume is Gatekeeping. Taking their lead from Chaffee, both Ritchie and Shoemaker carefully explicate the concepts which focus their texts. As is the first volume in the series, these are well-thought out, succinct, and very readable volumes. Additional titles are planned. . . . If the standards set by these three are continued, this promises to be an exciting series which provides clarity and focus to the study of communication." --ETC: A Review of General Semantics Challenging, intriguing, complex--defining information has occupied many of the best minds in the field of communication for half a century. Information seeks to summarize and resolve the difficult issues associated with this endeavor. Ritchie succinctly explains the distinctions among the myriad definitions/understandings of information and why these distinctions are important. Providing a definition for information, he then explores how the concept of information can connect various aspects of the communication process in a coherent way. This analysis ranges across several levels of conceptual usage: technical meaning in engineering; the complex meanings of information; and its metaphorical usage by communication theorists.

What is perhaps most amazing about this little book is its comprehensiveness. In little more than a 100 pages, Price manages to discuss the relevance of 'public opinion' to just about every major mass communication theory. . . . The reference list alone would be a valuable resource for anyone studying public opinion. . . . Price does a stellar job of explaining in easy-to-understand language what most of these references have to say about public opinion. . . . The two greatest contributions of the book are Price's organization of the vast literature on public opinion, coupled with his distillation of major works, including some truly hefty tomes, into a few simple words. Those who have grappled with the thoughts of Habermas and Blumer, for example, will greatly appreciate Price's succinct and insightful descriptions of the relevance of these difficult works to the study of public opinion. Another strong point is the book's currency: while you will find references to works published in the 1920s, you also will find books, articles, and reports published in the 1990s. . . . If you are new to the study of public opinion and communication, this book is the most painless, yet valuable introduction I can recommend. If you think you already know a lot about public opinion, the book may be even more valuable: it may dispel you of the notion that anyone knows a lot about public opinion." --Journalism Quarterly Public opinion--is it a simple aggregation of individual views, or instead some kind of collective-level, emergent product of debate and discussion? What is the role of public opinion in popular government? How do the mass media shape public opinion, or link it to governmental decision-making? Price's Public Opinion explores such questions by tracing the historical development and application of the concept of public opinion. It examines the concept's origins in Enlightenment thought and follows its evolution as a tool for social-scientific research. Intended as a map of the sprawling research terrain, Public Opinion introduces the conceptual mechanisms underlying public opinion research and shows how these concepts are used in an attempt to resolve enduring theoretical, normative, and practical questions. Because public opinion is one of the most vital and enduring concepts in the social sciences, this book will enjoy wide application in psychology, sociology, political science, journalism, and communication research in both academic and applied settings.