bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Persuasion and Social Influence
Authors: O'Keefe Daniel J.
Published: October 2016

Because persuasion is a common function of communication, it has been a subject of longstanding research attention. A number of different theoretical approaches have helped illuminate persuasion, including social judgment theory, the elaboration likelihood model, reasoned action theory, and cognitive dissonance theory. And research has yielded insights about how various factors influence persuasive outcomes, including communicator characteristics (such as credibility, liking, and similarity), message properties (e.g., different kinds of arguments, narratives, fear appeals, and so on), and recipient characteristics (such as moods, defensive reactions, and personality traits). One recurring theme is the importance of adapting (tailoring) persuasive messages to their recipients.
Location‐Based Communication
Authors: Silva Adriana de Souza e , Ling Rich , Humphreys Lee
Published: October 2016

Scholars in the area of location‐based communication (LBC) examine the role of location in the communication process. While the popularization of the mobile phone has made this type of communication more prominent, the category covers a wide variety of communicative practices, including information gathering by individuals about their geographical surroundings, and tracing the flow of other individuals across social contexts. Location‐based services and location‐based social networks have become increasingly popular with the rising number of smartphones in different parts of the world. This entry focuses on research about the history and social implications of technology‐aided LBC. The entry additionally addresses the social implications of embedding LBC into daily life, and its consequences for the understanding of privacy, surveillance, sociability, control, and exclusion.
Metadata
Authors: Gunter Barrie
Published: October 2016

Metadata are data that describe other data. They are classification criteria and content descriptors that are used to organize data sets and collections. They can also be used to facilitate future search and location of data. Metadata are applied to printed texts, photographic images, audio‐talk, music, and film and video recordings. Metadata have become increasingly important in the digital era because of the dramatic growth in the amount of content that is now available via the Internet. The importance of developing common standards for data storage and classification has been embraced by a number of international organizations that have set out to create metadata systems that can be used in a meaningful way by people worldwide.
Mobility
Authors: Ling Rich , Silva Adriana de Souza e
Published: October 2016

This entry outlines the various dimensions of mobility and mobility research. It starts by outlining the defining factors of mobility and then traces the major dimensions of this area of study. There is a particular focus on how different concepts of mobility help us to understand the social situation of the individual. The article then examines several topics that are of particular interest to mobilities researchers. These include the issues of temporality, social networks, privacy, power, tourism, and migration/diasporas, and finally the coming role of intelligent transportation systems.
Discourse Theory
Authors: Cooren François , Martine Thomas
Published: October 2016

Analyzing discourse consists of studying naturally occurring excerpts of language, whether in written or in oral form. While the study ofdiscourse (with a small d) tends to focus on the eventful aspect of interactions, the study ofDiscourse (with a big D) centers on the iterable aspects of verbal productions, that is, the extent to which certain genres, repertoires, or registers can be identified in what people say and write. After showing the key contributions of speech act theory and conversation analysis, this entry shows how a theory of discourse has to acknowledge the level of polyphony that also defines what speech acts, interactions, and writings consist of.
User‐Generated Content
Authors: Bruns Axel
Published: October 2016

User‐generated content (UGC) encompasses a wide range of media and creative content types that were created or at least substantially cocreated by “users”—that is, by contributors working outside of conventional professional environments. The term emerged to widespread recognition especially with the participative turn in Web design in the early years of the new millennium, which is often referred to as the emergence of “Web 2.0.”
Phenomenology
Authors: Anton Corey
Published: October 2016

Phenomenology refers to both a tradition of Continental philosophy and a methodology of research that employs many principles and insights from that tradition. This entry offers a broad sketch of phenomenology and shows its relevance to communication theory and research by outlining its basic methodological orientations, by reviewing some of its key concepts and main themes, and finally, by considering a few exemplars from the field of communication.
Mead,GeorgeHerbert
Authors: Hannan Jason
Published: October 2016

George Herbert Mead was one of the seminal figures of modern communication theory, best known for his concept of the social self. This entry provides a brief account of Mead's life and thought. It covers his social progressivism, his distinctions between the “I” and the “me,” the nature of the social self, and his legacy in the field of communication theory.
Markets
Authors: McAllister Matthew P. , Fassihi Azadeh Nazer
Published: October 2016

This entry highlights markets as a key concept for a variety of communication phenomena and scholarship, especially in media studies and political economy. As a label for how groups of people may be constructed and conceptualized (i.e., the targeting of lucrative markets for the generation of capital), the term contrasts with other noneconomistic labels, such as “citizen,” “public,” or “audience.” When “market” is used in the domain of communication, it often refers to the imposition of capitalist, economistic, and profitability logics upon communication participants and activity. “Market” helps us to understand the economic dynamics and performance of our commercial media systems and advertising as a funding and cultural force. Trends in marketization, in which for‐profit market assumptions are built into a variety of social phenomena, also affect world media systems and elements of society such as communication in healthcare, academia, politics, digital culture, and even presentation of the self.
Expression
Authors: Taylor Bryan C. , Simonson Peter
Published: October 2016

Expression is a basic concept in both scholarly theories and vernacular understandings of communication. It was terminologically derived from the Latin verb meaning to press out a physical substance, but over time came to signify representation practiced through art, language, or other symbols. Its deep conceptual roots in the West are found in ancient Greco‐Roman rhetoric; it traverses the canons of both delivery and style (whose Latin name,
elocutio
, is sometimes translated as “expression,” here connoting the aesthetic qualities of technical performance). That deeper history in turn indicates some of the persistent theoretical fault lines in understanding expression. This entry engages three of those fault lines, subsequently depicting expression as (1) embodied, stylized performance whose relation to “substance” is to be scrutinized; (2) utterance whose successful accomplishment is contingent upon initiation as well as reception; and (3) individual and collective practice both enabled and constrained by institutionalized structures of power and meaning.
Social Cognition
Authors: Kim Min‐Sun
Published: October 2016

Social cognition is a multidisciplinary research field that focuses on the mental processes by which we make sense of our social worlds. The basic tenet of the social cognition perspective is that accounting for the complex dynamics of social behavior requires an understanding of the cognitive structures and processes that shape the individual's understanding of the social situation. This entry focuses on central aspects of the field of social cognition, including its history and historically important “foundational” research areas (attribution, impression formation, and prejudice/stereotyping). The entry also discusses recent theory and research relevant to how communication processes influence and shape social perception and memory, and how social perceptions impact our communication with others, including current work on social cognitive neuroscience. Complementing that work are insights from cross‐cultural psychology, examining variations in how humans try to make sense of each other in a variety of cultural settings.
Social Exchange Theory
Authors: Kim Min‐Sun
Published: October 2016

Social exchange theory (SET) is one of the most influential conceptual paradigms that was developed to explain the factors governing interaction among humans. Social exchange theory postulates that just as an individual's behavior in the marketplace is motivated by a desire to maximize profits and minimize losses these identical motives are applicable in the realm of human relationships. Several researchers have theorized that human beings will markedly demonstrate a natural proclivity towards sustaining relationships that they believe yield a greater amount of rewards than costs incurred. Social exchange theory explains an individual's outcome to different social interactions by examining the exchange of resources during social interactions. These resources can be material goods and services or an exchange of social value. The theory's predictive powers stem from its ability to yield answers concerning relationship development (from initial interaction), maintenance, and dissolution and the corresponding communication that occurs during such situations.
Interpersonal Relationships
Authors: Duck Steve , Usera Daniel
Published: October 2016

Interpersonal communication is a conglomeration of many approaches and disciplines coming together to understand relationships. It grew from interactions among scholars from different disciplines and has evolved to become a family of approaches with shared predispositions to understand how people talk and relate to each other orally, nonverbally, and, more recently, electronically. Relationship research is often divided according to the life span of a relationship: its initiation, maintenance, and dissolution.
Measurement
Authors: Holbert R. Lance , Grill Christiane
Published: October 2016

There are four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio. Whether a single item or a composite (index or scale), greater understanding of any measure often comes with an evaluation of four moments: mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis. The quality of a measure is judged using several criteria, the most important of which are reliability, validity, and generalizability. Communication researchers employ a wide range of multivariate analytical tools (principle components analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis) to assess measurement. This entry provides a brief overview of these measurement‐specific topics.
Social Network Analysis
Authors: Quan‐Haase Anabel , McCay‐Peet Lori
Published: October 2016

This essay examines social network analysis as both a theoretical lens to the study of social structure and a methodological approach for the collection and analysis of data. Social network analysis is defined as the study of the relational aspects of social structure, where social structure refers to the patterns of interactions among social actors. The approach stems from anthropology and sociology originally, but has been applied to the study of a wide range of social phenomena. Social network analysis has become particularly useful and relevant in the context of social media and big data analysis.
Plato
Authors: Haskins Ekaterina V.
Published: October 2016

Plato is considered one of the greatest ancient Greek philosophers. In fact, he is responsible for inventing the language of philosophy as a discursive practice at a time when the meaning of “philosophy” was still in flux. Plato never defined philosophy directly and unambiguously; instead, he wrote dramatic dialogues that featured his intellectual hero, Socrates, as the main character. Plato's dialogues were written over the span of half a century (399–347bce). Debates continue about the development of Plato's thought and about differences between Socrates the character and Plato the author. Interpretation of Plato's dialogues is further complicated because of their dramatic nature and frequent use of humor and parody. Despite these reservations, it is safe to claim that Plato's dialogues critically engage discourses of his predecessors and contemporaries. Plato stages the conflict between philosophy and traditional arts of language in order to establish philosophical discourse as the only path to true knowledge and justice.
Religion Studies
Authors: Clark Lynn Schofield , Chiou Grace
Published: October 2016

This entry provides an overview of key scholars in the field of religion who have influenced communication theory and philosophy. It recognizes the importance of studying religion as a social dimension especially in relation to meaning‐making, narratives, and ethics. It argues that the split between a mythic and comparative approach to religion also shapes the ways communication scholars view and make decisions regarding collective concepts in communication, such as copyright, privacy, freedom of expression, and connection.
P
eirce,
C
harles S.
Authors: Lanigan Richard L.
Published: October 2016

The entry consists of a biographical sketch of Peirce, noting the circumstances that influenced the development of his thinking and writing. The biography also situates him within the history of American philosophy, especially his authorship of the movement known as pragmatism. His publications record an intellectual journey from Aristotle through medieval philosophy and a familiarity with Hegel and Kant to the contemporary conjunction of phenomenology and semiotics. In fact. Peircian semiotics represents one of major schools of postmodern semiotic thought in contemporary philosophy and human science. His work on semiotic phenomenology is an integration of grammar, logic, and rhetoric with direct application to communication research ranging from interpersonal relations to media analysis. His doctrine of semiotics is a philosophy constituting a logic‐based methodology for qualitative research on human communication.
McL
uhan,
M
arshall
Authors: Strate Lance
Published: October 2016

Marshall McLuhan brought the study of media into widespread awareness during the 1960s, and had widespread influence in numerous fields and disciplines. His aphorism, “the medium is the message,” is a call to pay attention to media and their effects, rather than the content they carry. Defining media broadly, he argued that they are extensions of the human body, especially of sense perception, and emphasized the differences between hearing and vision. McLuhan argued that the distinctive characteristics of Western culture are linked to alphabetic literacy, especially as amplified by printing, and are disappearing due to the electronic media.
Symbolic Interactionism
Authors: Denzin Norman K.
Published: October 2016

The major assumptions, historical foundations, methodological issues, strands, and theories within symbolic interactionism are discussed. Key terms including interaction, experience, meaning, political economy, representation, circuits of meaning, self, information, and technology are also taken up. A critical, interpretive approach to communication and media is outlined.
Semiotics
Authors: Cobley Paul
Published: October 2016

This entry outlines some of the ways semiotics is defined and considers some of the narratives into which semiotics has been fitted within communication theory. It discusses the domain of semiotics, the constitution of the sign, the ideas of “code” and “text,” and the relation of semiotics to the “textual” turn that still wields influence in media studies. It shows how semiotics has been inflected sometimes in a misleading fashion while also attempting to demonstrate that the semiotic project can be grasped by a focus on the task of illustrating the complex and fluctuating relations between “illusion” and “reality.”
Spiral of Silence
Authors: Matthes Jörg , Arendt Florian
Published: October 2016

This entry introduces the theory of public opinion, usually referred to as the Spiral of Silence, originally proposed by Noelle‐Neumann in 1974. After outlining the key propositions of the theory along with the main research findings, this paper discusses theoretical and methodological challenges of Spiral of Silence scholarship and enumerates the contributions of this theory to the field of mass communication.
Social Media
Authors: Moe Hallvard
Published: October 2016

The term social media describes Internet‐based services that facilitate social networking as well as the creation and sharing of content among users. It is in no way a precise analytical term, but the phenomenon of social media grew during the first decade of the 21st century to become thoroughly integrated into various domains of public and private life. Academic definitions of the term have been somewhat pragmatic, as scholars have sought to make sense of the different ways in which the phenomenon affects media and communication structures, content, and uses. Research has covered a range of topics, including aspects of social media use in identity formation, and social media in political communication. The most concerted critique of social media as a phenomenon comes from critical political economy.
Shannon,Claude
Authors: Grant Colin B.
Published: October 2016

Claude Elwood Shannon (born April 30, 1916 and deceased February 24, 2001) was the father of information theory. It was Shannon'sMathematical Theory of Communicationthat offered a breakthrough in the theory of information which has fascinated philosophers and social scientists ever since and has given the field the hugely influential concepts of entropy, channel capacity, noise, receiver and the information “bit.” This fascination has not precluded fundamental misunderstandings of his work by scientists outside Shannon's field of signal engineering. However, these misunderstandings have in turn proved highly influential.
Metamedium
Authors: Jensen Klaus Bruhn
Published: October 2016

Metamedium refers to the digital computer as a technological platform on which a variety of different media can be reproduced and recombined. As such, computers have reopened discussions of what constitutes a medium in the first place—as a material, discursive, as well as institutional, entity. This entry traces the origins of the concept of a metamedium, and relates it to the longer history of media as tools, technologies, and metatechnologies. While originally associated with personal and other stand‐alone computing devices, metamedia can now be seen to include a range of information and communication technologies, specifically the internet and other communication networks. In a future perspective, metamedia are associated with notions of ubiquitous and pervasive computing, and with an “Internet of things,” in which multiple media interfaces are embedded in diverse natural objects, artifacts, and social settings, presenting research with new conceptual issues and classic normative questions.
Meaning
Authors: Taylor Bryan C. , V. Munoz Ricardo
Published: October 2016

The term “meaning” conceptualizes a fundamental object of explanation in the study of communication, one whose status may be characterized as alternately ubiquitous, mundane, elusive, and compelling. Broadly, “the meaning of meaning” is generated in intellectual traditions that conceptualize the nature of, and the relationships among, three distinct sets of phenomena: (1) an external, material reality, which forms the object of human experience and knowledge; (2) an internal, private consciousness, in which the modern individual experiences the world as a uniquely personal matter; and (3) intersubjectivity, viewed as the communicators' achievement of shared understanding.
Science, Technology, and Society Studies
Authors: Boczkowski Pablo , Crooks Roderic , Lievrouw Leah , Siles Ignacio
Published: October 2016

This entry examines contemporary scholarship on media and information technologies at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and communication studies. The term “media and information technologies” is used to bring together a variety of research frameworks that seek to capture symbolic, social, cultural, or political aspects of technology. This body of work emphasizes broad historical scope, infrastructural dimensions, and the distinctive interplay of materiality with symbolic content and meaning. The discussion is organized around three key conceptual bridges: prevailing notions about causality in technology–society relationships; the process of technology development; and the social consequences of technological change. The entry concludes by considering some broader implications of the contemporary landscape of research at the intersection of STS and communication studies for continued intellectual dialogue between the two fields.
Lévi‐Strauss,Claude
Authors: Geoghegan Bernard , Schüttpelz Erhard
Published: October 2016

Claude Lévi‐Strauss played a decisive role in internationalizing “communications” as a topic of transdisciplinary research in the 1950s and 1960s. His writings relayed concepts among communities of American and French academics, as well as among natural scientists, engineers, and social scientists. His reinterpretation of engineering in the perspective of cybernetics and information theory established premises that informed a generation of debates in the fields of semiotics, structuralism, poststructuralism, and anthropology on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, the very success of his conceptual approaches to communications, and the widespread assimilation of his theses into mainstream scholarship, has often rendered his influence and originality invisible to later generations of scholars. This entry recovers the history of Lévi‐Strauss's interventions and innovations that have proven most relevant to communications research.
Pragmatism
Authors: Russill Chris
Published: October 2016

Pragmatism, as an intellectual tradition developed from philosophy, is reviewed in its historical and contemporary significance for communication theory. The importance of James's psychology, Peirce's logic of scientific inquiry, and pragmatist conceptions of community are discussed in order to situate the “revival” of pragmatism that emerged in the late 1970s. The key contributors to the revival—Bernstein, Rorty, Habermas, Carey—are reviewed, as are contemporary debates in pragmatism and communication theory.
Grounded Theory
Authors: Urquhart Cathy
Published: October 2016

This entry describes the basic aspects of grounded theory method (GTM) and covers four key points. First, the goal of GTM is to generate a theory. Often the coding procedures are leveraged independently by researchers for data analysis, not to generate a theory. Second, the use of GTM implies a noncommittal literature review, where the emerging theory determines the relevance of that literature review. There is an absolute obligation on the part of grounded theorists to engage their emergent theory with the existing literature, for theory‐building purposes. Third, overlapping data collection and analysis are recommended, but not essential, because they help build the emerging theory using theoretical sampling and “slices of data” to build it out and densify it. Fourth, the history of GTM involves a major intellectual dispute and consequent split between its founders, Glaser and Strauss. Understanding this split helps us understand grounded theory.
Linguistics
Authors: Haugh Michael
Published: October 2016

Linguistics is generally agreed to be the scientific study of language. There is nevertheless debate about what constitutes proper scientific study (the methods and theories underpinning linguistic analysis) and what is encompassed by the term
language
(the object of linguistic analysis). However, while there is still heavy emphasis placed in much of present‐day linguistics on the analysis of language form and structures that are abstracted or idealized away from the particulars of communication, there is increasingly a range of linguistic theories that readily engage with linguistic form and structure as key resources that influence the ways in which we communicate with others. Understanding the diverse range of offerings in linguistics is thus of critical importance for scholars of communication who wish to draw from it in theorizing or analyzing communication.
History of Technology
Authors: Arceneaux Noah
Published: October 2016

This entry outlines the basic ideas associated with the academic tradition known as “the history of technology,” a perspective that emphasizes the complex relationships between technology and society. Specific studies that have applied this perspective to the study of communications technologies are then presented, along with some of the ways in which the perspective has been modified. Suggestions for future areas of research are highlighted, including the benefits that such a perspective can bring to communication scholars.
System
Authors: Rasmussen Terje
Published: October 2016

This entry addresses types of social systems, and specifically the sociological systems theory of Niklas Luhmann. The levels of social systems are presented along with their media and codes—and, most importantly, the approach to communication, which is key to this kind of systems theory.
Derrida,Jacques
Authors: Krapp Peter
Published: October 2016

Jacques Derrida interrogates the concept of communication as part of a campaign against logo‐phonocentric tendencies in Western thought, deploying the concept of iterability to demonstrate that a hierarchy of presence over absence is untenable. His idea of deconstruction also became associated with digital media and the promise of computer‐mediated communication. In thinking about communication technologies, Derrida disagrees with some of the most influential diagnoses of media theorists like Marshall McLuhan.
Virtual Reality
Authors: Giddings Seth
Published: October 2016

This entry addresses the development of virtual reality since the 1980s, both as an actual set of immersive digital media technologies and as a technological imaginary of media, immersion, and the future of human–technological relationships inspired by these technologies. It explores the overlap between these two—between actual technologies and idealized, fictional, or speculative visions of future media—and reflects on the concept of the
virtual
for digital media and communication.
Sociology of Knowledge
Authors: D. Pooley Jefferson
Published: October 2016

The sociology of knowledge is the subfield of sociology devoted to the interplay between social conditions and ideas. The subfield has traced the many ways that social factors, such as military funding, public controversy, generational experience, and personal rivalry, have helped to shape the ideas that scholars and intellectuals produce. The entry describes the early development of the sociology of knowledge, with reference to Max Scheler, Karl Mannheim, Emile Durkheim, and Karl Marx, and more recent contributions from Robert K. Merton, the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK), and science and technology studies (STS). Influential approaches to the sociology of intellectual life from the last few decades are surveyed. The potential for media and communication theory to inform the sociology of knowledge, and vice versa, is taken up in conclusion.
Postmodernism
Authors: Vermeulen Timotheus
Published: October 2016

Postmodernism is a conceptual category that circulated widely in media and communication studies in the 1980s and 1990s, but its currency has dwindled since the start of the 21st century. Over the years, the term has been used to refer, variously, to a historical period, a way of life, a philosophical theory, a sociological condition, the “end of history,” an emancipatory program, a cultural critique, moral relativism, a stylistic register, and the “death of the author.” Many scholars distinguish between the termspostmodernismandpostmodernityto restore a sense of order to this conceptual chaos, generally theorizing the first as a cultural modality that reacts to modernist aesthetics and the second as a socioeconomic condition that supplants industrial society. Philosopher Antoon van den Braembussche has even suggested a tripartite division, further singling out a notion of “the postmodern” as label for a philosophical debate distinct from Enlightenment theories.
Robot
Authors: Giddings Seth
Published: October 2016

This entry addresses the figure of the robot as it appears across communication theory and robotics: as a set of fictional characters in science fiction, cinema, and literature; as the basis for a number of thought experiments over the nature of consciousness, humanity and its limits, and the future; and as one in a set of actual technological developments with an impact on communication, popular culture, and everyday life.
Performativity
Authors: Tse Yu‐Kei
Published: October 2016

The concept of “performativity” originates in the study of pragmatic aspects of language structure and use from the 1960s on. The seminal concepts of performativity, speech acts, and discourse analysis in linguistics were inspired by the pioneering works of Austin and Searle. This entry provides an introduction to linguistic performativity as a basis for understanding how this concept is applied in humanities and social sciences, in fields such as linguistics, anthropology, literature, performance theory, gender studies, and media and cultural studies.
Lewin,Kurt
Authors: Hollingshead Andrea B.
Published: October 2016

Kurt Lewin (pronouncedlə‐veen) is universally recognized as the founder of modern social psychology, a pioneer in organizational and applied psychology, and an influential figure across the social and behavioral sciences. He was among the first researchers to study social influence, group dynamics, and organizational development. He was a practical theorist and an applied researcher whose work focused on understanding and solving social and organizational issues such as religious and racial discrimination, intergroup relations, conflict, morale, leadership, and employee productivity. Among his many pioneering contributions to social science were action research, field theory and force field analysis, and the study of group dynamics. He was an early advocate of using both field and laboratory experimentation to examine social behavior.
Group Communication
Authors: Gouran Dennis S.
Published: October 2016

The social scientific study of communication in groups originated in scholarship that was inspired largely by Kurt Lewin (field theory) and Robert Freed Bales (equilibrium theory). Also influential was John Dewey and his explorations into the phenomenon of reflective thinking. As interest among those in communication began to shift from a primarily pedagogically centered focus on improving interaction in groups to questions concerning the development of interaction and its impact on the outcomes groups achieve, research and inquiry into the types that occur in sociology and social psychology began to emerge. Lacking, however, were theoretical perspectives for both guiding the selection and pursuit of questions worthy of investigation and synthesizing the findings that derived from them. Largely a consequence of responses to criticisms published in the 1970s, attention to theory took hold in the 1980s and led to the emergence of the five influential perspectives: the functional, developmental–structurational, symbolic convergence, bona fide–naturalistic, and socio‐egocentric perspectives examined in this entry.
F
oucault,
M
ichel
Authors: Chouliaraki Lilie
Published: October 2016

Michel Foucault, one of the most influential critical intellectuals of the twentieth century, never focused on the concept of communication as such. Despite this neglect, it would be misleading to ignore the substantial contribution that his theories of language and power have made in the field of communication. In this entry, I summarize this contribution around two key concepts: language as discourse and power as an “economy” of both freedom and constraint.
Narrative Inquiry
Authors: Bamberg Michael
Published: October 2016

Narrative inquiry (NI) is the examination of what stories are, what they mean, and what they can do—with the stipulation that the processes of how we construe such meanings and functions (the act of interpretation) is reflectively laid open. Against this background, NI serves two basic strategic aims: first, to work toward the defining characteristics of form and structure of narrative (its ingredients), as well as the organization of their thematic content (inquiry
“on narrative”
); second, to make use of narratives to inquire into a wide range of phenomena (inquiry
“with narratives”
). This entry aims to lay out these two directions of engaging in NI
on
narrative and
with
narrative, using as one of the guiding questions how in each case narrative is used as the unit of analysis—with the ultimate goal of recognizing the contributions each can offer.
Machine Code
Authors: Berry David M.
Published: October 2016

Machine code is the basic level of machinic description that is directly executable by a computer. It is stored internally in the computer, in the form of binary code with a specific numerical value. Machine code is the level at which the instructions that are executed by a computer are directly transferred to its processor and actuated. It is very rare for programmers to write in machine code directly; instead a programmer works at the level of assembly language, which converts the numeric code of machine code into a quasi‐symbolic form, while still being operative at the machinic level.
Database
Authors: Bucher Taina
Published: October 2016

Databases can be understood broadly as record‐keeping and information‐retrieval systems that have existed for as long as humans have collected, stored, and managed data in one way or another. More specifically, the term database is most commonly used to describe how computers store, manage, and organize data. A database is a collection of data that is encoded and arranged according to a common format. The term is also used interchangeably about systems that manage collections of data and about the tools and techniques that support the manipulation and operation of these data. This entry traces the sociotechnical history of databases, including the notion of database as a cultural form, its mechanized predecessors in punch‐card paper files, the groundbreaking idea of a relational database, through to the rise of big data.
Visual Information‐Processing
Authors: Roskos Beverly
Published: October 2016

This entry begins with the parallel visual pathways in the brain that provide the basis for the major pieces of a mediated message: who, what, where, when, and how. Next are the attention and memory mechanisms that give rise to a mental representation of the message, followed by research on the impacts of dual modes of processing, message complexity, and multitasking on memory for and comprehension of the messages. Finally, the argument is made that new methods are needed to understand the comprehension of mediated messages, especially stories, across time.
Economics
Authors: Zhang Xiaoqun
Published: October 2016

Economics is a discipline that explores the contradiction between humans' unlimited material needs and the scarce resources they have. Economists have various propositions on how to address this contradiction. Four major economic theories have been developed upon these different propositions: classical political economics, Marxian economics, Keynesian economics, and neoclassical economics. They have different views of the ownership of property and the relationship between markets and governments. Most of the theoretical advances in the 20th century took place in neoclassical economics, and thus, it is regarded as the mainstream of the discipline. Applying the theories of neoclassical economics, media economists have explored the characteristics of media markets, media industries, and media regulation. Their contributions have helped to develop media economics as a new research discipline.
Flow, Broadcasting
Authors: Helles Rasmus
Published: October 2016

The concept of flow is commonly used to describe the unique character of television as compared to other media. Flow highlights that television does not primarily consist of a progression of individual programs, but of a flow of content, in which the temporal order of programs is broken up by commercials, trailers for upcoming shows, etc. Debates about flow have concerned the ontological claim that flow is an essential consequence of the technological nature of broadcasting, and the epistemological limits of analyses based on flow theory, especially in relation to audience practices. Critics have also warned about the lack of precision in theoretical formulations of flow. An important reason for the success of the concept is that it encompasses dimensions of broadcasting on the levels of text, production, and reception. The entry concludes with a discussion of the challenges to the explanatory status of the concept that follows from new digital platforms for broadcast distribution.
Democracy
Authors: Danisch Robert
Published: October 2016

Democracy is both a system of government and a way of collectively organizing our lives together. Both senses of democracy are characterized by equality and require mechanisms for broad‐based collective decision‐making. Systems that implicate equal participants in deliberative processes call for the use of communication practices to help reach consensus and guide decisions in uncertain circumstances. The link between communication practices and democratic life has been an object of theoretical consideration since at least the ancient sophistic tradition of studying rhetoric and up to contemporary concerns about the public sphere, deliberation, social movements, and mass communication.
Political Economy
Authors: Winseck Dwayne R.
Published: October 2016

The political economy of communication (PEC) takes the media, Internet, and telecommunications industries—for example the structure of their markets, technologies, rules, laws and polices, patterns of use—as objects of analysis. PEC examines the communication and media industries as a cluster of associated technologies set within an institutional context of business arrangements, policies, laws and regulations, established technologies, and arrangements from the past—as well as capital, wealth, power, and the habits of everyday life.
Visual Studies
Authors: Barnhurst Kevin G.
Published: October 2016

Formal theories
reveal a visual dimension underlying better known picture theories. Patterns of elements such as lines, shapes, and spaces, along with their properties, generate emotional responses and follow visual styles in society. The elements combine into systems that create perspectives on the world. Formal awareness may generate an understanding of visual philosophies and their inherent values and consequences.
Picture theories
start from the tension between scientific invention and artistic expression. From linguistics and philosophy, semiotics provides terms for analyzing pictures as signs that mediate among mind, eye, and reality, operate within codes, and reproduce mythology. From film and literary aesthetics, narrative theory offers analytical structures that reproduce realism through supposed objectivity, rationality, and autonomy in dialogue with conventions and genres. Critical, cultural, and poststructural theories assert the inauthenticity of pictures, the social construction of representation, and the instability of meaning. Visual aesthetics, analysis, criticism, and ethics have entered flux in digital times.
Models of Communication
Authors: McPhee Robert D. , Poole Marshall Scott
Published: October 2016

Communication models, some famous and widely influential, have represented and guided communication theories and their application since the field's early days. Topics covered here include the definition of models astranslations of conceptions or theories into systemic forms that are representative of a focal real domain, in some way and for some purpose; the nature, construction, and evaluation of models; and the three main types of models: models of reality (diagrams, etc.), models of data (structural equation models, etc.), and models of possible worlds (simulations, etc.). The mutual influences among model, theory, and received reality and across the three types of models are highlighted.
Melting of Colloidal Crystals
Authors: Wang Feng , Zhou Di , Han Yilong
Published: October 2016

Crystal melting is affected by many factors such as defects, surfaces, dimensionality, lattice structure, and particle interaction, and thus exhibits rich phenomenology. It is usually a first‐order phase transition which currently lacks a fundamental theory. Despite numerous studies over the past century, melting remains poorly understood at the microscopic level. Micrometer‐sized colloidal particles can be viewed as “big atoms” which can assemble into various phases. Their thermal motions can be directly imaged and tracked using optical microscopy. Hence, colloids are powerful model systems for studying phase transitions. Recent progress made in fabricating tunable micrometer‐sized colloidal particles has enabled the direct visualization of crystal melting with single‐particle dynamics. The observations have greatly expanded our understanding of melting kinetics. In this review, the experiments and simulations conducted on the superheating, melting, and premelting of colloidal crystals have been surveyed. The latest results on crystal melting obtained from colloidal model systems and challenges and future perspectives have been discussed.
High Strength Conductive Composites with Plasmonic Nanoparticles Aligned on Aramid Nanofibers
Authors: Lyu Jing , Wang Xinzhi , Liu Lehao , Kim Yoonseob , Tanyi Ekembu K. , Chi Hang , Feng Wenchun , Xu Lizhi , Li Tiehu , Noginov Mikhail A. , Uher Ctirad , Hammig Mark D. , Kotov Nicholas A.
Published: October 2016

Rapidly evolving fields of biomedical, energy, and (opto)electronic devices bring forward the need for deformable conductors with constantly rising benchmarks for mechanical properties and electronic conductivity. The search for conductors with improved strength and strain have inspired the multiple studies of nanocomposites and amorphous metals. However, finding conductors that defy the boundaries of classical materials and exhibit simultaneously high strength, toughness, and fast charge transport while enabling their scalable production, remains a difficult materials engineering challenge. Here, composites made from aramid nanofibers (ANFs) and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) that offer a new toolset for engineering high strength flexible conductors are described. ANFs are derived from Kevlar macrofibers and retain their strong mechanical properties and temperature resilience. Au NPs are infiltrated into a porous, free‐standing aramid matrix, becoming aligned on ANFs, which reduces the charge percolation threshold and facilitates charge transport. Further thermal annealing at 300 °C results in the Au‐ANF composites with an electrical conductivity of 1.25 × 104 S cm−1 combined with a tensile strength of 96 MPa, a Young's modulus of 5.29 GPa, and a toughness of 1.3 MJ m−3. These parameters exceed those of most of the composite materials, and are comparable to those of amorphous metals but have no volume limitations. The plasmonic optical frequencies characteristic for constituent NPs are present in the composites with ANFs enabling plasmon‐based optoelectronic applications.
Rapid 3D Refractive‐Index Imaging of Live Cells in Suspension without Labeling Using Dielectrophoretic Cell Rotation
Authors: Habaza Mor , Kirschbaum Michael , Guernth‐Marschner Christian , Dardikman Gili , Barnea Itay , Korenstein Rafi , Duschl Claus , Shaked Natan T.
Published: October 2016

A major challenge in the field of optical imaging of live cells is achieving rapid, 3D, and noninvasive imaging of isolated cells without labeling. If successful, many clinical procedures involving analysis and sorting of cells drawn from body fluids, including blood, can be significantly improved. A new label‐free tomographic interferometry approach is presented. This approach provides rapid capturing of the 3D refractive‐index distribution of single cells in suspension. The cells flow in a microfluidic channel, are trapped, and then rapidly rotated by dielectrophoretic forces in a noninvasive and precise manner. Interferometric projections of the rotated cell are acquired and processed into the cellular 3D refractive‐index map. Uniquely, this approach provides full (360°) coverage of the rotation angular range around any axis, and knowledge on the viewing angle. The experimental demonstrations presented include 3D, label‐free imaging of cancer cells and three types of white blood cells. This approach is expected to be useful for label‐free cell sorting, as well as for detection and monitoring of pathological conditions resulting in cellular morphology changes or occurrence of specific cell types in blood or other body fluids.
An Investigation of the Relationship Between Emergency Medicine Trainee Burnout and Clinical Performance in a High‐fidelity Simulation Environment
Authors: Lu Dave W. , Dresden Scott M. , Mark Courtney D. , Salzman David H.
Published: October 2016

Objective

Burnout is prevalent among emergency medicine (EM) physicians, with physicians experiencing burnout more likely to report committing medical errors or delivering suboptimal care. The relationship between physician burnout and identifiable differences in clinical care, however, remains unclear. We examined if EM trainee burnout was associated with differences in clinical performance using high‐fidelity simulation as a proxy for patient care.

Methods

In this cross‐sectional study across six institutions, we measured trainee performance over four simulation scenarios based on recognized EM milestones. For each scenario a faculty rater assessed whether the trainee performed predefined critical actions specific to each case. A summation of performed actions across all cases resulted in a cumulative task (CT) score (range = 0–85). Raters also assigned an impression score on a 10‐point scale (0 = poor; 10 = outstanding) assessing the trainee's overall performance after each scenario, with the mean of the scores resulting in an overall impression (OI) score. After the simulation assessment, we measured trainees' burnout via the Maslach Burnout Inventory through a confidential, electronic survey. Trainee depression, quality of life (QOL) and daytime sleepiness were also evaluated. Survey results were compared to simulation scores using analysis of variance and covariance.

Results

Fifty‐eight of 89 (65.2%) eligible participants completed the survey and simulation assessment. Thirty‐one of 58 (53.4%, 95% CI = 40.2% to 66.7%) trainees reported burnout. In trainees with burnout compared to those without, mean CT scores (73.4 vs. 75.2, 95% CI of difference = 0.06 to 3.51) and OI scores (6.4 vs 6.8, 95% CI of difference = 0.03 to 0.79) were negatively associated with burnout after controlling for training program. In contrast, QOL were positively associated with CT [F(1,48) = 4.796, p = 0.033] and OI [F(1,48) = 4.561, p = 0.038] scores. There were no significant associations between simulation performance and depression or daytime sleepiness.

Conclusion

Emergency medicine trainees with burnout received lower cumulative performance scores over four high‐fidelity simulation scenarios than trainees without burnout.