bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nonparametric Analysis
Authors: Weber René
Published: September 2017

A class of data analysis procedures for statistical hypothesis testing that, unlike parametric statistical analysis, makes no assumptions about the sampling distribution of a statistic being evaluated (→ Sampling, Random),
nonparametric statistical analysis
is also called
distribution‐free statistical analysis
. The two terms have a slightly different meaning but are frequently used interchangeably. While nonparametric statistical inference is not bound to a priori specified parameters of a statistical model, distribution‐free statistical inference is not bound to an a priori specified sampling distribution of a statistic that serves as estimation for a parameter in a population.
Nonverbal Communication and Culture
Authors: Li Han Z.
Published: September 2017

Humans communicate verbally through words and nonverbally via facial expressions and body movements. Nonverbal communication refers to any human behavior, other than words, that serves a communicative purpose (→
Interpersonal Communication
). Such behavior can occur voluntarily or involuntarily, either simultaneously with words or alone. Nonverbal communicative behaviors that have been under intensive research include high–low context, silence, turn‐taking, facial expressions of emotion, head nod, gaze and mutual gaze.
Nonverbal Communication and Culture
Authors: Li Han Z.
Published: September 2017

Humans communicate verbally through words and nonverbally via facial expressions and body movements. Nonverbal communication refers to any human behavior, other than words, that serves a communicative purpose (→ Interpersonal Communication). Such behavior can occur voluntarily or involuntarily, either simultaneously with words or alone. Nonverbal communicative behaviors that have been under intensive research include high–low context, silence, turn‐taking, facial expressions of emotion, head nod, gaze and mutual gaze.
Perception
Authors: Shrum L. J.
Published: September 2017

Perception is an ambiguous term and is used in many different ways, at least in the field of communication. Perhaps this is understandable given that communication is a diverse field that draws on concepts from a number of disciplines. Thus, in reading communication literature, one might encounter terms such as precept, perceptual field, or perceptual fluency (terms basic to cognitive psychology), → social perception and selective perception (terms basic to social psychology; → Selective Perception and Selective Retention), and perception of social reality (a term almost unique to communication; → Media and Perceptions of Reality). In fact, each set can be thought of as representing particular stages of information processing, and each is fundamentally important to communication processes (Shrum 2006).
Political Communication
Authors: Schulz Winfried
Published: September 2017

Communication is considered to bepoliticalif it relates to the exchange of messages among political actors. For example, most of what politicians do is political communication. Likewise, citizens communicate politics when they discuss political issues with friends or family members, phone in to political radio talk shows, or participate in chats on the → Internet and social networking sites (→ Social Media). Demonstrations and other forms of protest are more expressive, sometimes even violent, forms of political communication. However, only few people engage in such forms of communicative activity. Most citizens confine themselves to the role of passive spectators of politics that is presented by mass media. Nevertheless, the consumption of political media content is a form of political communication too.
Pornography, Feminist Debates on
Authors: Dines Gail , Jensen Robert
Published: September 2017

The feminist pornography debates, known as the “porn wars” or the “sex wars,” began in the US, the UK, and many other countries around the world in the early 1980s. These struggles have raised questions about the nature and effects of not only pornography but also prostitution and stripping, highlighting crucial debates about women's agency and the role of structural forms of inequality in shaping women's lives in patriarchy.
Prejudiced and Discriminatory Communication
Authors: Ruscher Janet B. , Tipler Caroline N.
Published: September 2017

Prejudiced and discriminatory communication is studied in a wide range of social science disciplines, including communication, sociology, anthropology, and social psychology. Some forms, such as hate speech, are explicit, and they are recognized easily by an audience as reflecting prejudiced viewpoints. Other forms are more implicit: neither the speaker nor the audience may be aware that the speaker holds prejudiced views, even though independent evidence demonstrates that such views indeed are held. The conditions under which prejudiced views are expressed, as well as the forms that these communications take, are the subject of this entry (→ Social Stereotyping and Communication; Stereotypes).
Public Affairs
Authors: Heath Robert L.
Published: September 2017

As a concept and professional practice, public affairs is both a generic term for the trends and conditions that define and result from socioeconomic, sociopolitical processes, and the executive management function that works to position each organization comfortably in its non‐marketplace context. Taking the typical view of public affairs in the United States, Madden (2005, 665) defined it as “the management function responsible for interpreting an organization's external environment, or in the case of a corporation, its noncommercial environment, and managing an effective and appropriate response to that environment.” Its primary connection with society centers on factors in the public policy (non‐marketplace) arena that can lead government to influence (support or oppose) management decisions and organizational operations and policies (→ Corporate Communication; Corporate Reputation; Organizational Communication; Organizational Image). In the United Kingdom, the emphasis “on managing potentially complex relationships and issues that may ultimately affect the destiny of organisations … led many organisations to recognize the strategic importance of the public affairs function” (Harris & Moss 2001, 6).
Public Broadcasting, History of
Authors: Medhurst Jamie
Published: September 2017

Public broadcasting is notoriously difficult to define, and yet it has been at the center of debates in → media policy for decades in those countries where it exists. Proponents of public broadcasting argue that at its heart is the notion of providing the “best” in programming for all, while detractors would argue that it is a form of state control over what we can listen to or watch (→ Public Service Broadcasting: Law and Policy).
Relational Termination
Authors: Vangelisti Anita L.
Published: September 2017

Approximately 50 percent of first‐time marriages, and an even higher percentage of remarriages, end in separation or divorce. Because researchers and theorists are concerned with the prevalence of relational termination, they have devoted a great deal of effort to understanding the antecedents, processes, and consequences associated with divorce and the dissolution of romantic relationships.
Remediation
Authors: Bolter Jay David
Published: September 2017

Remediation (Bolter & Grusin 1999) refers to a historical process through which newer media forms interact with earlier ones. On the very first page of
Understanding media
(1964), → Marshall McLuhan noted that the “‘content’ of any medium is always another medium: the content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print.” Remediation proceeds from this insight, but understands the process as more complex and historically nuanced.
Research Ethics: Internet Research
Authors: Ess Charles
Published: September 2017

Internet research ethics (IRE) attempts to clarify and resolve ethical dilemmas encountered by researchers who use the → Internet as a medium for their research – for example, doing online surveys – and/or focus on the various forms of interactions observable online, such as virtual communities, social networks like MySpace, web pages, instant messaging, and other forms of computer‐mediated communication (→ Online Research; Research Ethics).
Research Methods
Authors: Brosius Hans‐Bernd
Published: September 2017

Alongside theories, research methods shape academic disciplines such as communication. Whereas theories determine the subject matter (i.e., the part of reality a discipline is looking at), methods determine how a discipline gathers information about its subject matter. Which methods are acceptable and how methods are applied is subject to an ongoing debate and communication process within a scientific community. The correct application of research methods ensures that scientific results (1) are collected systematically; (2) are independent of the scholar who collected them; and (3) can be replicated by other scholars. In other words, research methods increase the credibility of results, and hence improve their quality.
Rhetoric and Gender
Authors: Foss Karen a.
Published: September 2017

Rhetoric is the art and study of human symbol use. As a discipline, rhetoric began in ancient Greece as a practical art of persuasion, applied principally to political, legal, and judicial contexts (→ Rhetoric, Greek). Gender is the assignment of meaning to bodies (Foss, S. K. et al. 2013), a socially constructed system that determines what is masculine and feminine in a culture. The relationship between rhetoric and gender has played out in four different and progressively complex perspectives in the discipline of rhetorical studies.
Rhetoric in Northern and Central Asia
Authors: Williams David Cratis , Young Marilyn J.
Published: September 2017

Although the area of northern and central Asia is comprised of a large number of independent and sovereign nations, including the Russian Federation and the central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, its recent history is dominated by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). For most of the twentieth century each of these now independent nations was a part of the USSR; since 1991, the central Asian states have struggled to survive in the shadow of the Russian Federation. The central story of rhetoric in this region in both modern history and contemporary times must therefore be framed in terms of the former USSR and its transformations in the continuing period of post‐Soviet democratization, mock‐democratization, and authoritarian reinstantiation (→ Rhetoric in Eastern Europe).
Russia: Media System
Authors: Vartanova Elena
Published: September 2017

The Russian Federation is a 17.1 million km
2
territory, on which a population of 146 million is unevenly distributed. It has borders with 14 countries in Europe and Asia. Russia is a federal republic comprised of 88 federal administrative units subordinate to the central government. Russia is divided into seven federal regions headed by plenipotentiaries appointed by the president. Russia is a parliamentary democracy. The bicameral Federal Assembly consists of the Federation Council (members appointed for each of 88 federal administrative units) and the State Duma (450 members elected every four years by proportional representation from party lists (50 percent) and from single‐member constituencies (50 percent). The major political parties are Yedinaya Rossiya (Unified Russia), the Communist Party, the SPS (Union of Right‐Wing Forces), and the nationalist Liberal‐Democratic Party.
Selective Exposure
Authors: Bryant Jennings , Davies John
Published: September 2017

The study of selective exposure seeks to understand how and why people consume particular communication content when faced with a constellation of choices. Broadly defined, selective exposure refers to behaviors that are deliberately performed in an effort to bring communication content within reach of one's sensory apparatus (Zillmann & Bryant 1985). In the modern, media‐saturated world, selective exposure often occurs within the context of mass media, although by definition it encompasses all forms of human communication. The current state of research in this area can be understood by tracing historical approaches to selective exposure, outlining key theoretical components, and describing directions of current research.
Selective Perception and Selective Retention
Authors: Shrum L. J.
Published: September 2017

Perception refers to the process of categorizing and interpreting information that is attended to (→ Perception).
Selective perception
refers to the process of categorizing and interpreting information in a way that favors one category or interpretation over another. Thus, selective perception is generally considered to represent a bias in → information processing. More specifically, information tends to be selectively perceived in ways that are congruent with existing individual needs, goals, values, → attitudes, and beliefs. This process generally occurs automatically, outside the conscious awareness of the perceiver (→ Automaticity).
Sensationalism
Authors: Vettehen Paul Hendriks
Published: September 2017

Sensationalism may be defined as a theoretical concept that encompasses those features of journalistic products that are capable of attracting the attention of the audience. Since the early days of newspapers, complaints about sensationalism have recurrently emerged in public discussions about the quality of journalistic products. In a nutshell, these complaints pictured sensationalist news as a journalistic device being designed merely to attract the attention of large audiences at the expense of informing them properly about socially significant events. In its defense, it has been argued that sensationalist news is an appropriate response to the evolutionarily developed human habit of attending to information that increases the chances of survival and reproduction (→ Evolutionary Theory).
Separation of News and Comments
Authors: Shaw Donald L. , Terry Thomas C.
Published: September 2017

News and comment cannot coexist independently in a social system. Factual news and comment become twisted together like two strands of a rope. What is → news? What is → commentary? When we think of news, we often think of facts that refer to specific objects or events in the world. By contrast, commentary usually refers to a larger context. Commentary frames news (→ Framing of the News). News and commentary are constructed of words, pictures, sounds, or other symbols of social → meaning, but the communicator's intent is different in each case (→ Constructivism). News reports aim to reconstruct events, to create pictures in the minds of audiences. Commentary aims to shape how audiences construct these events. Commentary has intent. While news media usually are careful to separate news from commentary, audiences naturally blend them together. We can obtain a picture of events from news stories alone, as all news stories contain some evaluative descriptions beyond the facts, and one can learn events from commentaries alone, and still will learn some facts.
Sex Role Stereotypes in the Media
Authors: Hart Joy L.
Published: September 2017

Sex role stereotypes represent women and men in highly generalized, often unrealistic, ways. Such media → stereotypes are important because representation plays a key role in shaping what becomes social reality (→ Information Processing: Stereotypes; Media and Perceptions of Reality). Mediated messages influence knowledge as well as what is deemed significant and interesting (Brooks & Hébert 2006).
Social Capital and Communication in Health
Authors: Koch‐Weser Susan , Karan Kavita , Viswanath K.
Published: September 2017

The concept of social capital dates back more than 100 years and has intrigued academics, policymakers, and activists interested in understanding intergroup relations and social change in a variety of fields including communication, public health, sociology, and political science (Portes 1998). It has been seen as a promising way to examine how interaction and association among people and groups could influence public health, politics, economics, and overall comity and cohesion among disparate social groups. Despite substantive disagreements about the definition, utility, and appropriate measurement of social capital, there is broad agreement that social capital grows out of relationships between and among individuals and organizations and facilitates social action. Dimensions of social capital are generally understood to include norms of reciprocity, interpersonal trust, solidarity, and cooperation that seem to depend on social networks and civic engagement. Social capital is usually regarded as a positive phenomenon, although it can have negative effects when ties hinder positive action or serve to exclude segments of the population from key resources.
Social Judgment Theory
Authors: Atkin Charles K. , Smith Sandi W.
Published: September 2017

Social judgment theory (SJT; Sherif & Hovland 1961; Sherif et al. 1965) is based on the premise that the effect of a persuasive message on a particular issue depends on the way that the receiver evaluates the position that the message puts forth (O'Keefe 1990; → Persuasion). Sherif et al. (1965) claimed that an individual's attitude toward a particular issue or behavior is not adequately reflected by a single alternative or position among those available. Research in the SJT tradition determines the limits of the position of the receiver “relative to the bounds of possible alternatives defined by the extreme positions on the issue” (Sherif et al. 1965, 3) in terms of the → latitudes of acceptance, noncommitment, and rejection.
Social Norms
Authors: Rimal Rajiv N. , Lapinski Maria Knight
Published: September 2017

What people choose to do, the behaviors they enact or refrain from enacting, is guided by a number of factors, including their own dispositions, the situational context in which they find themselves, the social roles they take on, and their interpersonal relationships. The study of how people's behaviors are guided, in part, by social norms has been the focus of considerable research in recent years.
Speech Anxiety
Authors: Hsu Chia‐Fang , Hazel Michael , Ayres Joe
Published: September 2017

Speech anxiety, also known as → stage fright, refers to the feeling of anxiousness or fear associated with delivering a speech. The symptoms of speech anxiety typically involve physiological arousal (e.g., elevated heart rate), negative thoughts (e.g., being negatively evaluated), and behavioral disruptions (e.g., verbal disfluency; Ayres & Hopf

). According to Ayres et al. (in press), the study of speech anxiety can be traced back to ancient Greek rhetoricians 2,000 years ago, who viewed speech anxiety as arising from a lack of confidence or skills. Serious research using scientific methods did not begin until the mid‐1930s, when psychologists developed ways to measure stage fright, and examined the causes and effects associated with communication fear. Following Clevenger's (1959) synthesis article on stage fright, many communication scholars began to develop theories, measurement approaches, and interventions in the areas of communication apprehension and reticence, which refer to fear or anxiety across various communication situations.
Standards of News
Authors: Dicken‐Garcia Hazel
Published: September 2017

News standards connote normative qualities, such as → accuracy and decency (→ Ethics in Journalism), but the term denotes the way information is gathered, made into news reports, and presented (Dicken‐Garcia 1989). For example,
objectivity
encompasses six standards: verified facts, fairness, non‐bias, independence, non‐interpretation, and neutrality (Ward 2004). Journalists develop standards, which change across space and time, to gain credibility in society. US news standards changed as the press shifted from partisan (→ Partisan Press) to event‐centered to commercial during nineteenth‐century industrialization. Importance of accuracy and → balance, of little concern to partisan journalists, grew with the shift from producer to consumer society (→ Professionalization of Journalism).
Symbolic Annihilation
Authors: Means Coleman Robin R. , Yochim Emily Chivers
Published: September 2017

Symbolic annihilation is used to highlight the erasure of peoples in → popular communication. George Gerbner coined the term to describe the “absence” (1972, 44; Gerbner & Gross

; → Gerbner, George), “condemnation,” or “trivialization” (Tuchman

, 17) of a particular group in the media. Generally applied to women and racial and sexual minorities, symbolic annihilation points to the ways in which poor media treatment can contribute to social disempowerment and in which symbolic absence in the media can erase groups and individuals from public consciousness.
Teacher Immediacy
Authors: Andersen Janis , Andersen Peter
Published: September 2017

Teacher immediacy is the term used to describe communication behaviors that reduce the perceived distance between teacher and students. By definition, immediacy behaviors convey teacher warmth, communicate positive relational affect, signal approach and availability for communication, and create increased physiological arousal in receivers. Introduced in research based on her dissertation, J. Andersen (1979) identified teacher immediacy as a nonverbal construct and sought ways to measure the impact of teacher immediacy on instructional outcomes. Now, with the accumulation of nearly three decades of research on teacher immediacy, the substantial influences of teacher immediacy in creating positive instructional outcomes are well understood (Witt et al. 2004).
Television: Social History
Authors: Bourdon JéRôme
Published: September 2017

Television history has developed relatively recently. After pioneering work in the United Kingdom (Briggs 1961–1995) and the United States (Barnouw 1976), national histories of television (and broadcasting) have been written, mostly in Europe and sometimes beyond. Historians have focused mostly on political and institutional history. Television content has long been ignored except for countries (or researchers) rich enough to have access, and this remains a problem except in privileged situations (as in France, where the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel [INA] archives television programs for free access:
www.ina.fr
). Slowly, new ways of writing television, with content accessible online, are being developed, for example by VIEW (
European Journal of Television History and Culture
, since 2012 at
http://journal.euscreen.eu/
). Waves of nostalgia and, singularly, “ostalgia” also entail a reevaluation of television histories (e.g., Bren 2010). Attempts have also been made at denationalizing television histories, mostly in Europe (Bignell & Fickers 2008).
Third‐Person Effects
Authors: Brosius Hans‐Bernd , Huck Inga
Published: September 2017

The third‐person effect was introduced into communication research by W. Phillips Davison in 1983. The term conceptualizes his impression that people overestimate the impact that mass media content has on others – so‐called “third persons”:
Twitter
Authors: Hermida Alfred
Published: September 2017

Twitter is a free service that combines elements of blogging and social networking (→ Blogger; Facebook; Social Networks) and is considered as a form of → social media. Commonly described as a micro‐blogging service, it is one of a class of communication and information platforms defined as social awareness streams that allow for the rapid and immediate sharing of content, from short status messages to links, photos, and videos (→ Photography; Video).
Uncertainty Management
Authors: Afifi Walid A.
Published: September 2017

Given that the experience of uncertainty, in some form, is a part of nearly every interaction, it should come as no surprise that new theoretical efforts to understand it are foundational to the study of interpersonal communication and continue unabated today. Uncertainty reduction theory (URT; Berger & Calabrese 1975) served as the field's initial, and most influential, examination of uncertainty in interpersonal contexts, and the theory of motivated information management (TMIM; Afifi & Weiner 2004) represents the most recent effort. Interestingly, the range of theories also reflects an over‐twenty‐year struggle over the basic assumptions and perspectives that guide our understanding of people's experience of, and response to, uncertainty.
Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Authors: Solomon Denise Haunani
Published: September 2017

Uncertainty reduction theory explains both how interpersonal communication is affected by a lack of knowledge and how people use communication to gather information (→ Uncertainty and Communication). This theory was founded on the observation that → initial interactions between strangers routinely involve an exchange of demographic and Public information, and these interactions change in predictable ways as they progress (Berger 1997a). Rather than simply label these patterns as normative, the theory elaborates on the mechanisms that drive interpersonal communication behaviors. Interpersonal communication plays two roles within uncertainty reduction theory: (1) communication is among the behaviors that people seek to predict or explain, and (2) communication is a tool people use to gather information or form predictions and explanations (→ Information Seeking). Over the 30 years since its inception, uncertainty reduction theory has been applied to numerous communication contexts, and it has given rise to several alternative perspectives on uncertainty and communication. Thus, uncertainty reduction theory has had a major impact on the communication discipline.
Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Authors: Solomon Denise Haunani
Published: September 2017

Uncertainty reduction theory explains both how interpersonal communication is affected by a lack of knowledge and how people use communication to gather information (→ Uncertainty and Communication). This theory was founded on the observation that → initial interactions between strangers routinely involve an exchange of demographic and public information, and these interactions change in predictable ways as they progress (Berger 1997a). Rather than simply label these patterns as normative, the theory elaborates on the mechanisms that drive interpersonal communication behaviors. Interpersonal communication plays two roles within uncertainty reduction theory: (1) communication is among the behaviors that people seek to predict or explain, and (2) communication is a tool people use to gather information or form predictions and explanations (→ Information Seeking). Uncertainty reduction theory has been applied to numerous communication contexts, and it has given rise to several alternative perspectives on uncertainty and communication. Thus, uncertainty reduction theory has had a major impact on the communication discipline.
Underdog Effect
Authors: Schmitt‐Beck Rüdiger
Published: September 2017

The underdog effect is a phenomenon of → public opinion impinging upon itself: when at an election voters perceive a particular party or candidate to be the likely winner, they tend to support a competitor who is expected to lose – an “underdog” in the race. This implies that apparent success may undermine itself. The origin of the term is unclear, although it is sometimes claimed that it was first used at the 1948 US presidential election. Simon (1954) was the first to use it in a scientific analysis.
Underground Press
Authors: Atton Chris
Published: September 2017

The “underground press” typically refers to those → Newspapers and → magazines produced by the counterculture that emerged in the mid‐1960s and continued until the early 1970s. The counterculture was concerned with establishing an alternative society in direct opposition to mainstream society. The underground press became a vehicle for the elaboration of this ideal, along with social issues such as women's rights, ecology, and racial equality, and was politicized primarily by the US involvement in the Vietnam War. The aim of the underground press was to build a society where “culture and society were regarded as one” (Nelson 1989, 49), and to propose norms and values that broke with “straight” society absolutely. Interventions by the state were of particular concern, especially in areas of sexual freedom, drugs, and press → censorship (→ Activist Media).
UNESCO
Authors: Calabrese Andrew
Published: September 2017

UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization – is a specialized UN agency, founded in 1945, and composed of 192 member states. Its headquarters are in Paris, where member states maintain delegations headed by a person with diplomatic status, typically with the rank of ambassador. UNESCO also has more than 50 field offices around the world. The preamble to the UNESCO constitution emphasizes the importance of the organization's mission of peace through intellectual and cultural development and exchange, stating that “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed” (UNESCO 1945). The UNESCO constitution further states that the organization's purpose is “to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” For the 2006–2007 biennium, UNESCO had a budget appropriation of US$610 million, with an additional US$409 million in “extra‐budgetary resources” (additional funds from sources other than member states' assessed contributions), for a total budget of US$1.02 billion for the two‐year period.
United States of America: Media System
Authors: Stevenson †Robert L. , Scott Glenn , Shaw Donald L. , Willnat Lars
Published: September 2017

The United States of America, located in the northern hemisphere of the American continent, is a federal republic that consists of 50 states and the District of Columbia (capital: Washington). The population comprises 311.6 million people. The USA was created in 1776 out of 13 British colonies. The head of state is the president, and responsible for the legislation are two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The political system is dominated by two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans.
Uses and Gratifications
Authors: Sherry John L. , Boyan Andy
Published: September 2017

Dating back to work done in Columbia's Bureau of Applied Social Research in the 1940s, media uses and gratifications (U&G) research represents one of the oldest and largest continuous programs of research in the field of communication. The tradition represents hundreds of research projects since the 1940s examining the reasons why people use mass media including → Radio, → Television, film (→ Cinema), print media, and the → Internet. U&G has consistently been one of the most frequently published mass communication theoretical perspectives in communication journals over the past 50 years. The product of this massive research effort has been a large set of taxonomies of media use motives; research linking those motives to antecedent variables (e.g., social factors, personality) and media use, along with some consequences (effects) of that use; and an extensive theoretical discussion and critique. Many scholars hold that U&G represents a research perspective that is separate from the → Media Effects tradition (→ Communication as a Field and Discipline; Exposure to Communication Content; Media Effects, History of).
Validity
Authors: Krippendorff Klaus
Published: September 2017

In logic, validity is an attribute of the form of an argument that cannot lead from true premises to false conclusions. For example, “all A are B; some A are C; therefore some B are C” is a valid form. A common way to evaluate the validity of arguments is by treating it as a function of truth values – true or false – making sure that of all combinations of truth values, no false conclusions follow from true premises. In everyday life, the word “validity” is used similarly to “logic,” but more loosely and with qualifications. Near‐synonyms of validity are “soundness,” as in sound or unquestionable arguments; “plausibility,” as in conclusions that make sense and are accepted as most likely true; or “persuasiveness,” as in a convincing, believable, or credible account. Claims of validity are always built on a sense of authority, usually scientific, but also legal and popular. These synonyms can shift the burden of proof from the quality of arguments (soundness) to a community of reasonable people (persuasiveness), or to individual judgments (plausibility).
Video
Authors: Ritzenhoff Karen A.
Published: September 2017

Video began as a technological innovation and changed the media landscape of mainstream network television around the globe forever (→ Television Networks). As the technology became more accessible to the consumer market, it developed a greater impact on independent filmmaking: “media arts centers” emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as → community media with the advent of community video centers and programs. By the 1980s video had become a revolutionizing force worldwide, changing the way audiovisual media as part of TV and film culture were produced and consumed in everyday life (→ Television; Cinema).
Video Games
Authors: Gregson Kimberly
Published: September 2017

A game is a voluntary activity with rules and some sought‐after outcome. A video game is a game played on some electronic device. Playing video games is not necessarily fun all the time. However, succeeding at the challenge of learning the skills to master a game is rewarding.
Violence as Media Content, Effects of
Authors: Kunczik Michael , Zipfel Astrid
Published: September 2017

Discussion of the harmful effects of media violence is as old as the media themselves. There is no medium that has not been suspected of stimulating real‐world aggression. Spectacular violent acts such as those in Littleton, Colorado (where in 1999 two teenagers murdered 13 people before committing suicide), or Erfurt, Germany (where in 2002 a 19 year old killed 16 people and himself), regularly instigate public interest on this topic. Although there is a huge body of research on the effects of media violence, public discussion rarely reflects scientific knowledge (→ Entertainment, Effects of). This may be due to the fact that the results are complex, sometimes contradictory, and do not allow for simple conclusions. However, on the basis of this research some widely accepted assertions about the effects of violence in the media are possible.
Violence as Media Content, Effects of
Authors: Kunczik Michael , Zipfel Astrid
Published: September 2017

Discussion of the harmful effects of media violence is as old as the media themselves. There is no medium that has not been suspected of stimulating real‐world aggression. Spectacular violent acts such as those in Littleton, Colorado (where in 1999 two teenagers murdered 13 people before committing suicide), or Erfurt, Germany (where in 2002 a 19‐year‐old killed 16 other people and himself), regularly instigate public interest on this topic. Although there is a huge body of research on the effects of media violence, public discussion rarely reflects scientific knowledge (→ Entertainment, Effects of). This may be due to the fact that the results are complex, sometimes contradictory, and do not allow for simple conclusions. However, on the basis of this research some widely accepted assertions about the effects of violence in the media are possible.
Violence and the Media, History of
Authors: Boyle Karen
Published: September 2017

For over a century violence in the media has been framed as a “problem” by social commentators. The arrival of a new medium (from the early tabloids to comic books, from → cinema to the → Internet) has typically been accompanied by a wave of concern about its potential for “exposing” an audience to representations considered undesirable by policymakers and moral guardians (→ Tabloid Press; Comics; Morality and Taste in Media Content). It is no accident that it is the mass availability of these texts that has typically been of concern: the “mass” audience being conceived as endangered and dangerous, vulnerable and victimizing (→ Violence as Media Content, Effects of). These concerns have also shaped academic debate. As a result, work on violence in the media has been concentrated in social science disciplines, particularly in the US, and the work of arts and humanities scholars has been marginalized in public debate and policymaking.
Visual Communication
Authors: Griffin Michael
Published: September 2017

The study of visual communication comprises such wide‐reaching and voluminous literatures as art history, the philosophy of art and → aesthetics, → semiotics, → cinema studies, → Television and mass media studies, the history and theory of → Photography, the history and theory of → graphic design and → typography, the study of word–image relationships in literary, aesthetic, and rhetorical theory (→ Rhetorical Studies), the development and use of charts, diagrams, → cartography and questions of geographic visualization (images of place and space), the physiology and psychology of visual → Perception, the impact of new visual technologies (including the impact of digitalization and the construction of “virtual realities”; → Digital Imagery), growing concerns with the concept and/or acquisition of “visual literacy,” and the boundless social and cultural issues embedded in practices of → visual representation.
Visual Communication
Authors: Griffin Michael
Published: September 2017

The study of visual communication comprises such wide‐reaching and voluminous literatures as art history, the philosophy of art and → aesthetics, → semiotics, → cinema studies, → television and mass media studies, the history and theory of → photography, the history and theory of → graphic design and → typography, the study of word–image relationships in literary, aesthetic, and rhetorical theory (→ Rhetorical Studies), the development and use of charts, diagrams, → cartography, and questions of geographic visualization (images of place and space), the physiology and psychology of visual → perception, the impact of new visual technologies (including the impact of digitalization and the construction of “virtual realities”; → Digital Imagery), growing concerns with the concept and/or acquisition of “visual literacy,” and the boundless social and cultural issues embedded in practices of → visual representation.
Visuals, Cognitive Processing of
Authors: Bailenson Jeremy N. , Ahn Sun Joo
Published: September 2017

Visual perception is a seemingly effortless process for most people. However, it is not the case that the human brain receives information just as it exists in the environment. Vision is an
active process
, and while information from the outside world becomes transformed into information sent to the visual cortex, there are a number of decisions the visual system makes in order to solve inherent ambiguities (→ Information Processing). For example, objects in the physical world are three‐dimensional, while images stored on the retina are represented in only two dimensions. Consequently, it is almost impossible to resolve the information about size and distance with complete accuracy. Consider the case of a scuba diver with limited visual cues – the shark in her visual field could be seen as a very large fish 10 meters away, or as a very small fish just 1 meter away. Much research in psychology has focused on how people resolve ambiguous information using various visual cues including object size, motion, color, segregation (i.e., determining when one object begins and another one ends), and the distance of the object from the perceiver.
Voice, Prosody, and Laughter
Authors: Glenn Phillip
Published: September 2017

The terms “voice,” “prosody,” and “laughter” refer primarily to vocal, nonlinguistic aspects of communication. Human communication is rich with meaning conveyed through multiple channels, often divided into verbal (language, words, and symbols) and nonverbal. It may be tempting to think of nonverbal communication as primarily visual, but speakers convey much meaning vocally, too. Considering prosody, voice, and laughter together may promote a misleading view that spoken language operates somewhat independently from such paralinguistic indicators (also called supra‐segmentals in linguistics). This view has its origins in scholarly traditions that begin with studying the printed word. A different starting point is interaction, where all features of message production work integrally to contribute to meaning, which participants negotiate moment by moment. The French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure captured this distinction between studying
langue
, the abstract system that a particular group of people internalizes, and
parole
, actual speaking practices.
Ventriloquism
Authors: Cooren François
Published: September 2017

Ventriloquism is the phenomenon by which an actor makes another actor speak or say something through the production of a given utterance, turn of talk, or conduct. In the common understanding of the word, ventriloquism is a performance by which a person (called the ventriloquist) manipulates his or her voice in such a way that it appears to come from somewhere else. Also called the art of “making voices” or “throwing one's voice,” it can be traced back to ancient Greece, where the ventriloquists were then called
engastrimanteis
or belly prophets and considered oracles. In its modern version, this type of performance has become a popular form of stagecraft where the ventriloquist manipulates a dummy in such a manner that it appears to be speaking by itself, having a conversation with the ventriloquist or speaking to the audience.
War Correspondents
Authors: Pfau Michael
Published: September 2017

War correspondents provide first‐hand accounts of military conflict for dissemination to the public. The literature of war correspondents manifests a decidedly western focus. War correspondents originated during the imperial age, when British newspapers sought first‐hand accounts of distant continental and colonial wars, and became an institution during major nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century wars. Newspapers originated the role of war correspondent.
The Times
of London hired barrister Henry Crabb Robinson to cover Napoleon's campaign in Spain and later employed William Howard Russell to cover the Crimean and Franco‐Prussian wars. Scholarship about conflicts and journalism practices in general focuses disproportionately on western sources.
War Propaganda
Authors: Andersen Robin
Published: September 2017

War propaganda fuses international and domestic processes in communicating one or more nations as the “Other,” as worthy en masse of death and mutilation. During the twentieth century, as examples from Britain, Germany, and the US indicate, domestic as well as international media → propaganda became essential for planning and engaging effectively in combat against other countries. In World War I, governments employed verbal and visual strategies that effectively influenced mass public opinion in favor of war. Since then, technological media developments and advances in communication design have been employed to promote positive attitudes toward war, albeit with varying effectiveness. Terms such as Spublic diplomacy, media campaign, information management, “stagecraft,” spin, and even “militainment” have also been deployed to characterize ever‐evolving propaganda strategies. War propaganda to boost “Us” and dehumanize “Them” is also, however, the target of ongoing public scrutiny and challenge.
Watergate Scandal
Authors: Witcher Russ
Published: September 2017

Watergate was more than a break‐in at Democratic national headquarters. It reflected a larger struggle over US foreign policy between an increasingly powerful executive branch and a resurgent legislative branch. The precursor to this struggle was US involvement in the war in Indochina.
Women's Media Genres
Authors: Hermes Joke
Published: September 2017

Women's media genres include women's →  magazines and romances in print media, the →  soap opera on →  Television, and romantic comedy in film (→  Film Genres). They are not generally the corollary of men's media but defined in contrast to general audience media such as newspapers or “family genres,” including situation comedies, quiz shows, and action series on television. In some cases, they are specifically made for female audiences. In other cases, they have, over time, come to be identified as “women's genres” due to their consumption by largely female audiences. For instance, the classic detective novel has long been typical reading for middle‐class women and as such has come to be known as a women's genre. Western women's movements, notably second wave feminism from the 1960s onward, pointed to women's media genres as sources of women's oppression (→  Women's Movement and the Media). They criticized the assumed effect on readers of these genres (→  Media Effects) because of the traditional gender definitions in them. To be referred to as a “women's media genre” is not particularly a mark of distinction for a media form. It is sometimes used as an indication of (overly) high emotional or sentimental content (→  Emotions, Media Effects on). Audience reasons for using women's media genres include widely divergent arguments ranging from the everyday usefulness of traditional women's magazines (Winship 1987; Hermes 1995; Currie 1999; Gough‐Yates 2002), via recognition of real‐life dilemmas in soap opera, to the guilty pleasures afforded by romantic fiction.
Women's Movement and the Media
Authors: Bradley Patricia
Published: September 2017

In the US, as in many other western countries, the link between the media and organized feminism goes back to the establishment of what in the west has been called “first wave feminism” in the nineteenth century. At the famous 1848 Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY the organizer Elizabeth Cady Stanton sought to raise public awareness about women's rights by composing a Declaration of Sentiments modeled after the already sacrosanct US Declaration of Independence. Her Declaration elicited denunciatory press editorials. While she was unhappy about the misrepresentation of her ideas, Stanton understood the value of press attention. Subsequent waves of feminism continued to make use of media attention to achieve their ends, contributing to the discussion of the role of mass media in social movements, especially when messages are framed according to media practices contrary to the intent of the social movement (Barker‐Plummer 1995; → Feminist and Gender Studies).
Web 2.0 and the News
Authors: Hermida Alfred
Published: September 2017

Web 2.0 is a term → Internet entrepreneur Tim O'Reilly popularized to describe a stage in the development of the World Wide Web as a platform. It refers to a set of technical changes that allow technically unskilled users to have dynamic interactions on the Web, facilitating a broad range of activities in the creation, dissemination, and sharing of digital content. Web 2.0, as an architecture of participation (O'Reilly 2005), frames users as collaborating in the production, shaping, and distribution of → news and → information, rather than passively consuming content that others create (→ Computer–User Interaction; Interactivity, Concept of).
Zapping and Switching
Authors: Bilandzic Helena
Published: September 2017

Zapping is the selective avoidance of television commercials, either by changing the channel with the remote control or by leaving the room during the commercial break. Sometimes the term “zapping” is used as a synonym for changing channels, or switching, but more often it is connected to advertising avoidance. Analog or digital video recorders can be used for “zipping,” fast‐forwarding past the commercials (Bellamy & Walker 1996). The opposite of zapping – watching the commercials – is often referred to as “sticking” (Ottler 1998).