bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genre
Authors: Cobley Paul
Published: September 2017

The English term “genre” derives – via French – from the same Latin root as “general,” “genus,” “gender,” “genesis,” “generate,” “genius,” and “gene.” Etymologically, then, it is bound up with the idea of generating complex configurations from a basic underlying pattern. The concept of genre is important to communication research because it designates not only specific kinds of messages, but also their characteristic social uses by audiences.
Gestures and Kinesics
Authors: Guerrero Laura K.
Published: September 2017

Kinesics is the study of bodily movement, including gestures, posture, and movement of the head, arms, legs, or torso (Birdwhistell 1970). Some scholars also include → facial expression and → eye behavior as kinesic behavior. However, because these behaviors are discussed elsewhere in this encyclopedia, this entry focuses primarily on gestures and bodily movement.
Girl Culture
Authors: Mazzarella Sharon R.
Published: September 2017

Within the discipline of communication there has been a long history of studying the relationship between girls, media, and other cultural artifacts. Until recently, however, the focus of such studies has been almost solely on girls as consumers of media and other products and/or as passive victims of mediated portrayals of femininity (→ Gender: Representation in the Media). For example, the norm for academic studies of girls has, until recently, been to define girls as potential victims of the culture that surrounds them – a definition guiding much of the research examining how girls are affected by teen magazines, romance novels, popular music, and other cultural artifacts.
Global Media, History of
Authors: Winseck Dwayne
Published: September 2017

The first phase of a truly global media network ran from the 1860s through the 1920s. Two major interpretations of this era are available. One, long established, emphasizes how aggressive nation‐states deployed communication firms to further their own economic and political goals in carving up the planet (→ Cultural Imperialism Theories). Another, more recent, reads the period as one of capitalist cosmopolitanism, noting the international cartels and other multinational enterprises that in actual fact dominated the growth of the first global technical infrastructure for communication. However, growing nationalism and protectionism over the 1920s put paid to early proposals for a constructively regulated global communication system.
Goals, Cognitive Aspects of
Authors: Dillard James Price
Published: September 2017

The term “goal” refers to a future state of affairs that a person wishes to attain or maintain. Goals prompt planning, which, in turn, serves as the basis for action. From these simple premises, it is apparent that the core function of goals is to regulate behavior and that communicative goals and plans fall under the broader conceptual umbrella of behavioral goals and plans.
Goals, Cognitive Aspects of
Authors: Dillard James Price
Published: September 2017

The term “goal” refers to a future state of affairs that a person wishes to attain or maintain. Goals prompt planning, which, in turn, serves as the basis for action. From these simple premises it is apparent that the core function of goals is to regulate behavior and that communicative goals and plans fall under the broader conceptual umbrella of behavioral goals and plans.
Goals, Social Aspects of
Authors: Dillard James Price
Published: September 2017

A goal‐oriented perspective on communication entails the assumption that social interaction is an instrument for achieving objectives. Communication is the means by which something gets done.
Goffman, Erving
Authors: Leeds‐Hurwitz Wendy
Published: September 2017

Erving Goffman was a sociologist, but what he studied was communication. He established the “interaction order” as a legitimate topic of study; in doing so, he provided the logic for why, and the method for how, to study face‐to‐face behavior. People construct the social world through language and interaction, he argued, so if we are to understand the social world, we must examine the act of social construction, i.e., specific behavior. His method was careful attention to details of naturally occurring contexts of
co‐presence
(when people are physically together). Interaction socially constructs meaning, even when it appears nothing noteworthy is occurring. Language and social interaction (LSI) scholars analyze the same everyday behaviors, whether or not they explicitly acknowledge Goffman's influence (→ Language and Social Interaction). The main strands of research in LSI today are all different ways of studying Goffman's interaction order (→ Conversation Analysis; Ethnography of Communication; Ethnomethodology; Language and Social Psychology).
Women's Grassroots Media
Authors: Brooten Lisa
Published: September 2017

Grassroots media are small‐scale, developed by and accessible to members of a local community or group, and conceptualized as a key tool in the process of social change (→ Community Media). They have developed out of concerns with problematic representations of women and other marginalized peoples in mainstream media, as well as limited → access to the media and political participation for marginalized groups, especially women, around the world. Women's movements worldwide have thus worked to develop grassroots media that are conceptualized and based locally and that operate very differently from mainstream commercial or state‐run media. The goals of feminist grassroots media are varied, but generally involve the desire to strengthen the self‐confidence of women and other marginalized peoples, and to empower them to challenge, change, and take charge of the media and their representations. Another increasing concern encouraging the development of grassroots media in the era of global capital is the protection and preservation of local cultures and cultural diversity.
Group Communication and Problem‐Solving
Authors: Hirokawa Randy
Published: September 2017

Interest in the relationship between group communication and group problem‐solving performance has a long and somewhat controversial history (→ Group Communication). Many trace interest in problem‐solving in the group context back to the early work of Maximilian Ringelmann (1861–1931). Ringelmann first measured the effort of a single individual working alone, then measured how much more effort was achieved by two, and then three, people working together. He found that the triad exerted the most effort, but the intriguing aspect of this finding was that the addition of each person did not increase the performance by the average effort of a single individual. Triads, for example, only exerted 2.5 times more effort than individuals working alone. In short, Ringelmann discovered aninverse relationshipbetween the number of people in a group and the magnitude of individual performance on additive tasks. This finding contradicts the notion that groups work harder than individuals, and became known as theRingelmann effect. Subsequent work carried out by Ingham and colleagues (1974) essentially replicated Ringelmann's original findings.
Gulf States: Media Systems
Authors: Richter Carola
Published: September 2017

The six Arab countries ofBahrain,Kuwait,Oman,Qatar,Saudi Arabia, and theUnited Arab Emirates(UAE) passed through similar development stages evolving comparable media systems. With the exception of Saudi Arabia, the smaller Gulf States had been British protectorates, gaining their independence only in 1971 (Kuwait in 1961). Since extensive oil production started in the 1950s, the region has been transformed from a remote area into one of the hubs of economic and technological globalization. Politically, it is still trapped between modernization and tradition. All six states are practically authoritarian, ruled by a dominating royal family despite established parliaments. Islam plays a major role in legislation and in the legitimization of the rulers. The contradiction between technological progress and political stagnation is reflected in the state‐of‐the‐art media that may be privately owned but are normally loyal to the rulers and their politics (Rugh 2004). Because of a serious lack of skilled citizens, large numbers of expatriates work in the Gulf. Not only are they considerable target audiences for the media, fostering the development of English‐language media and a pan‐Arab orientation, but media production itself depends heavily on expatriate journalists, especially Arabs.
Habituation
Authors: LaRose Robert
Published: September 2017

Habituation is a decrement in response to repeated stimuli. It is a learning mechanism through which organisms are able to filter sensory inputs from their environment and thereby allocate scarce attentional resources to only the most relevant stimuli (Siddle 1991; → Attention).
Hacktivism
Authors: Taylor Paul A.
Published: September 2017

The simplest definition of hacktivism is that it represents the conjunction of technologically knowledgeablehackingtechniques with the values and communicational strategies of politicalactivism. Whilst hacking involves the imaginative and unorthodox use of computers and their systems, hacktivism is the application of those techniques in the pursuit of political agendas frequently associated with new globalized social movements (→ Technology and Globalization). Behind these initial, relatively clear definitions, however, lie more ambiguous and less easily separated relationships between old‐style hacking and its new applications.
Health Behavior Change, Transtheoretical Model of
Authors: Velicer Wayne F.
Published: September 2017

The transtheoretical model is an integrative model of behavior change, combining key constructs from other theories. The model describes how people modify a problem behavior or acquire a positive behavior. It has been very influential in guiding the design of behavior change interventions during the last two decades. The central organizing construct of the model is the stages of change theory (→ Stages of Change Model). The model also includes a series of independent variables, the processes of change, which are 10 cognitive and behavioral activities that facilitate change, and a series of intermediate outcome measures, including the decisional balance inventory, self‐efficacy or situational temptations scale, and behavior measures (→ Health Campaigns, Communication in).
Health Belief Model
Authors: Menon Usha , Szalacha Laura
Published: September 2017

The health belief model (HBM), prodigiously researched, has enjoyed sustained popularity amid evolving social norms, theories and models, and the recent developments of advanced technology influencing health behavior change (→ Health Communication; Planned Social Change through Communication). Developed by US Public Health Service social psychologists in the 1950s, the HBM was conceptualized to model the failure of individuals to engage in disease prevention or detection programs (→ Prevention and Communication). Around 1974, and later in the 1980s, additional components (knowledge about the disease, self‐efficacy or confidence in one's ability to perform the action of interest, cues to action), such as those examining responses to diagnosed illnesses and symptoms and adherence to medical regimens, were added to the model (Janz et al. 2003; → Health Literacy).
Health Communication, Ethics in
Authors: Guttman Nurit
Published: September 2017

Ethics is at the heart of → health communication. Ethical issues are embedded in a wide array of health communication activities that aim to influence people's health‐related beliefs or behaviors. These activities include disseminating information about particular health risks, persuading people to adopt healthy lifestyles or to persuade others to adopt healthy lifestyles, and modeling healthy behaviors. Invariably, such health communication activities raise a multitude of ethical concerns, in particular because they deal with deeply held personal preferences and social values, or aim to foster social norms opposed by certain groups.
Health Communication and the Internet
Authors: Bonfadelli Heinz
Published: September 2017

The functions of modern mass media to give → information, to provide orientation, and to promote health‐related behaviors are widely recognized within the field of → health communication. The media of → television, → radio, → newspapers, and → magazines influence intentionally or unintentionally, and mass media health campaigns are used purposively and effectively to change health practices (→ Health Campaigns, Communication in). Nevertheless, the existing empirical research evidence is mixed. Content analyses (Will et al. 2005) and → cultivation effects research (Brown & Walsh‐Childers 2002), e.g., on media images of thinness and eating disorders, seem to prove many dysfunctional health effects, especially by television (→ Content Analysis, Qualitative; Content Analysis, Quantitative). Even though there is some controversy on the effects of mass media in health promotion, there is a large body of work that documents the effectiveness of mass media public health campaigns. So the → Internet as a new platform gave rise to many new hopes, especially because of its unique features like convergence, interactivity, information capacity, and global reach (→ Interactivity, Concept of).
Heterosexism and the Media
Authors: Suter Elizabeth A.
Published: September 2017

Heterosexism “refers to the belief and expectation that everyone is or should be heterosexual” and the term “heteronormativity” equates heterosexual experience with human experience, in effect “render[ing] all other forms of human sexual expression pathological, deviant, invisible, unintelligible, or written out of existence” (Yep 2002, 167). Heteronormativity provides a larger context for understanding how heterosexism influences cultural and social institutions, such as the media (→ Behavioral Norms: Perception through the Media).
Historic Key Events and the Media
Authors: Stöber Rudolf
Published: September 2017

Historic key events are genuine events with historical importance. Four factors are important to consider in this regard. (1) Historic key events have ashort and distinct duration. The event happens within a short time and it is clearly separated from later and earlier events. It is arguable whether wars and revolutions should be considered as historic key events; overall it seems best to regard them as chains of related historic key events (Wilke 1989). (2) Historic key events have a significantimpact on later times. The historical dimensions of the political, social, economic, or cultural effects are sometimes obvious when the event happens, but at other times the importance of the event becomes clearer with the passing of time, when the significance of its effects can be evaluated differently. It is easier to regard political or economic events as key events than social or cultural events. (3) Historic key events arenot primarily created for media attention. Their importance is independent of any media coverage. Even when some aspects of an event may have been planned in advance to attract media attention, its main purpose is not media effect. (4) Historic key events areambiguous and subjectivein many ways. Billy Wilder's filmOne, Two, Three(1961) started with a quote that provides a perfect illustration of the ambiguities of historic key events and media key events: “On Sunday, August 13th, 1961, the eyes of America were on the nation's capital, where Roger Maris was hitting home runs #44 and 45 against the Senators. On that same day, without any warning, the East German Communists sealed off the border between East and West Berlin. I only mention this to show the kind of people we're dealing with – real shifty!” On the one hand, the mass media cover key events; on the other hand, media routines can be used for political or other purposes (→ News Routines). The ambiguous status of a key event is due to the point of view. The above quotation illustrates that the importance of a given event may be valued very differently: some events achieve the status of a historic key event, while others remain simply key events in media coverage.
Hollywood
Authors: Horak Jan‐Christopher
Published: September 2017

Hollywood is the metaphoric, if not exactly the geographic, center of the American film, television, cable, music, and digital media industry. Ripe with symbolic meaning for media consumers across the globe, Hollywood exists almost purely in the collective imaginary, since it is neither incorporated as a city, nor definable by strict borders as a geographic location within the city of Los Angeles. Even in terms of its real geography, Hollywood was only one of several industry centers: of the major film studios, only Paramount (Melrose Ave), RKO (Cahuenga and Gower), and Columbia (Gower Street) maintained production facilities directly in Hollywood, while Universal Studios was located in the San Fernando Valley (Universal City), Warner Brothers in Burbank, 20th Century‐Fox in West Los Angeles (Westwood), and Metro‐Goldwyn‐Mayer (MGM) in Culver City. Nevertheless, millions of tourists flock each year to “Hollywood,” which has also had its ups and downs as a piece of real estate.
Hong Kong Cinema
Authors: Fung Anthony
Published: September 2017

The term “Hong Kong cinema” refers both to an industry and to a phenomenon. In its most concrete sense it denotes the cinematic productions based in the former colony and now Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. But in a larger sense it also refers to a stylistic and cultural movement, and the influence of that movement regionally and globally (→ Cinema; Popular Culture). As a cultural influence Hong Kong cinema has experienced several different stages.
Hostile Media Phenomenon
Authors: Gunther Albert C.
Published: September 2017

The hostile media effect refers to a perceptual bias in which partisans – people highly involved with an issue or interest group – tend to see media coverage of that issue or group as unfairly slanted against their own position (→ Balance; Bias in the News; Involvement with Media Content). Thus, for example, groups on opposite sides of a controversial issue, such as supporters and opponents of abortion, will each judge news stories on the abortion issue to be biased in favor of the rival point of view.
Hybridity Theories
Authors: Kraidy Marwan M.
Published: September 2017

Theories of hybridity entered international communication research at a time when the cultural imperialism thesis was ceding ground to the media globalization paradigm (→ Cultural Imperialism Theories; Globalization Theories). This has been controversial because “the idea of cultural hybridization is one of those deceptively simple‐seeming notions which turns out … to have lots of tricky connotations and theoretical implications” (Tomlinson 1999, 141). Although usage of the term hybridity acquired critical momentum in Anglophone postcolonial studies – mostly focused on the British colonization of India and its politico‐economic‐cultural aftermath, especially in the work of literary critic Homi Bhabha (1994) – the notion itself has many historical and scholarly antecedents (→ Postcolonial Theory).
Herzog, Herta
Authors: Perse Elizabeth M.
Published: September 2017

Herta Herzog is a pioneer of communication research. Her career has spanned the entire history of modern mass communication research. Her work on listeners to → radio serials was an important influence in the development of → uses and gratifications research. Herzog was born in Vienna, Austria, in August 1910, four years before World War I began. Despite the hardships of the war, she did well in an all‐female school that prepared her for entry to the University of Vienna in 1928. Herzog worked with Karl Bühler, an experimental psychologist, and joined his Institute of Psychology. The Institute was the intellectual home to several notable scholars, including → Paul F. Lazarsfeld, whom Schramm called “one of the ‘forefathers’ of modern communication scholarship” (Schramm 1997, 4).
Identification
Authors: Cohen Jonathan
Published: September 2017

Identification with media characters is a key component of viewers' propensity to become engaged (→ Transportation Theory) and involved in media content (→ Involvement with Media Content). Identification is an imaginative process that is evoked as a response to characters presented in mediated texts, whereby → audiences feel as if they are part of the world depicted by the mediated text (→ Media and Perceptions of Reality). When identifying with characters, audience members experience the events described by the plot not as external viewers, but rather from the perspective of the character with which they identify, and as if they were part of the story. Zillmann (2002) argues that because viewers often respond to characters they are obviously responding to them as witnesses (i.e., experiencing them from the outside), but this criticism is valid only if one assumes that the responses to characters are constant over time and across viewers and can take only one form. Most likely, identification and other forms of response (such as → parasocial interaction and relationships) are intertwined and people move in and out of these varying forms as they view (Wilson 1993).
Idiographic vs Nomothetic Science
Authors: Lindlof Thomas R.
Published: September 2017

For more than a century, two forms of explanation have been used in the social sciences: nomothetic and idiographic. These two kinds of explanation embody major differences in scientific logic, → research methods, and even understandings of how the world is constituted. The differences are so stark that they appear to some scholars to be unbridgeable, thereby threatening the prospect of achieving unity in the sciences. However, other scholars welcome both approaches, viewing them as complementary ways of studying and evaluating the same phenomena. At the heart of the nomothetic/idiographic debates is the question of whether the social sciences require different modes of explanation than the natural sciences. These debates persist to the present day, albeit at lesser intensity than before and with greater sophistication in the terms of the argument.
Image
Authors: Benoit William L.
Published: September 2017

One's image is a very important factor. For example, the oil industry came under fire in 2006 as profits rose along with gasoline prices. Actor and director Mel Gibson was roundly criticized for making anti‐Semitic comments while intoxicated. Athletes such as track star Justin Gatlin and cyclist Floyd Landis came under fire for alleged use of illegal performance‐enhancing drugs. First, the nature of our image influences our self‐esteem; if we believe we have created an undesirable image, that can be an embarrassing and unpleasant experience for us. Second, our image can influence our relations with others. Our reputation influences our persuasiveness; people are less likely to be persuaded by those whom they believe to have undesirable images. For us to be persuasive, our audience must believe that we are knowledgeable about our topic (expertise) and they must have faith that we will provide them with unbiased information (trustworthiness) (→ Credibility Effects; Credibility of Content). Third, others may shun us and treat us badly when they form undesirable impressions of us. It is clear that a desirable image is important to create, maintain, and repair when tarnished (→ Self‐Presentation; Image Restoration Theory).
Impression Management
Authors: Kim Eun Joo
Published: September 2017

As a fundamental interpersonal process, impression management is an important concept in any communication context. Impression management refers to the process of editing, packaging, and communicating information to control one's own images as perceived by other people. Studies have shown that people use impression management to influence others, and that it eventually affects the overall quality of one's life. Even when people have no direct reason to influence others' behaviors, people are motivated to impression‐manage for the following two reasons. First, impression management influences their own self‐esteem and reduces negative emotions. Second, it enables people to construct and maintain their private identities. Impression management has been used to define diverse interpersonal communication phenomena, including encounters between strangers, job interviews, friend relationships, romantic relationships, and doctor–patient relationships. The term “impression management” is commonly used interchangeably with → “self‐presentation,” although some studies differentiate between the two with regard to intended goal direction and authenticity. While impression management focuses on goal‐directed social activity to enhance one's own image and power, self‐presentation focuses on self‐relevant or authentic presentation (Leary & Kowalski 1990).
Information Overload
Authors: Grimshaw David J.
Published: September 2017

Information overload is a term first used in the early 1960s to indicate limits to human information handling capacity (Meier 1962) and later by Toffler (1970) as one dimension of “future shock,” by which he broadly meant too much change in too short a time. Computer communications and the → Internet have contributed to the realization of this “shock,” sometimes also referred to as “techno‐stress” (Weil & Rosen 1997). The term “information overload” has its roots in the context of computer‐mediated communications (→ Human–Computer Interaction), where it might typically be applied to an individual who receives a large number of emails per day and who experiences some difficulty in processing the volume of information. Lest one is tempted to think of information overload as a new problem, let us recall the words of T. S. Eliot (1934), “where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
Information Processing
Authors: Greene John O.
Published: September 2017

Information processing is an approach to the study of behavior which seeks to explain what people think, say, and do by describing the mental systems that give rise to those phenomena. At the heart of the information‐processing perspective is the conception of the mind as a representational system. That is, the mind is viewed as a system that (1) holds information in some form, and (2) processes (i.e., utilizes, transforms, manipulates) that information in some way in carrying out its input‐processing and behavioral‐production activities. To be more precise, the mind is viewed not as a single representational system, but as a collection of subsystems, each coding information in its own way, and each carrying out its own particular operations on that information. The basic idea, then, is to describe how information is held in one or more subsystems, and how that information is processed in those subsystems, in order to explain the perceptual, mental, and behavioral phenomena of interest. The goal of the information‐processing approach is to explain the link between what a person hears, sees, tastes, feels, and smells and what he or she thinks, says, and does.
Information Processing: Self‐Concept
Authors: Edwards Renee
Published: September 2017

Self‐concept has an important role in → information processing by facilitating the processing of self‐relevant information, enhancing retrieval of relevant information, and influencing interpretations of information. As the more comprehensive construct, “self” includes identity, relationships, roles, personality (→ Personality and Exposure to Communication; Personality Development and Communication), and the physical body, as well as notions of agency and consciousness. “Self‐concept” refers to one's personal identity or the body of knowledge that an individual holds about himself or herself, including self‐esteem or self‐evaluation. Self‐concept is complex, multifaceted, and dynamic.
Information Science
Authors: Ingwersen Peter
Published: September 2017

Information science (IS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with “facilitating the effective communication of desired information between human generator and human user” (Belkin 1978, 58). IS became established as an academic discipline with the creation of the American Society for Information Science in 1937 (now abbreviated ASIS&T) and the UK Institute of Information Scientists in 1958.
Information Seeking
Authors: Knobloch‐Westerwick Silvia
Published: September 2017

Information seeking may be considered as at the heart of much communication. It includes deliberate, intentional pursuit of further knowledge, as well as the more casual skimming of messages and accidental observations and encounters. Scholars in communication research have employed the term in a variety of contexts – for instance, interpersonal relationships, → Organizational Communication, personal health issues, mass communication, → Political Communication, or database and Internet use (→ Interpersonal Communication; Health Communication; Internet; Exposure to the Internet). The following overview is structured by these areas. An overarching methodological problem in information‐seeking research is that individuals may often be unable or not willing to report their information‐seeking behavior with the accuracy and precision required. Fortunately, new communication technologies have provided not only new forms of information seeking but also new ways to observe and measure it, for example through log files (→ Log‐File Analysis).
Information Society
Authors: Webster Frank
Published: September 2017

The designation “information society” presupposes that → Information plays a defining role in the way we live today. For many commentators it is because information is more pervasive than hitherto that it is appropriate to characterize the present as self‐evidently an information society. There is obviously more media output, more education available, more information and communications technologies about, more information occupations than before. Accordingly, it is obvious that we live in an information society. Such thinking is tautologous.
Ingratiation and Affinity Seeking
Authors: Daly John
Published: September 2017

People often try to get others to like them when initiating and intensifying romances, friendships, and even brief encounters. When they do this they are engaging in affinity seeking (→ Interpersonal Communication).
Initial Interaction
Authors: Douglas William
Published: September 2017

When people first meet, → Interaction is likely to be guided by issues associated with uncertainty and → self‐presentation. Both mutual uncertainty reduction and effective presentational management are seen to be necessary but not sufficient conditions for relational growth. Significantly, these goals may become mutually exclusive when, for example, social actors seek to hide negative or intimate aspects of the self from another, thereby remaining opaque.
Interaction
Authors: Neuman W. Russell
Published: September 2017

The terminteractionis used in diverse social‐scientific as well as natural‐scientific fields of inquiry to identify a pattern of reciprocal influence or exchange among two or more entities. In physics, scientists have identified such fundamental mechanisms as gravity and magnetism by which particles exert mutual influence on one another. In communication studies and textbooks, perhaps surprisingly, the term is found rather infrequently. While the core idea of interaction is very close to the concept of communication, a terminology of interaction tends to suggest a particular set of preferred epistemologies, methodologies, and analytical objects in communication research.
Interactivity, Concept of
Authors: Neuman W. Russell
Published: September 2017

Interactivity is a relatively new, evolving, and still elusive concept in the study of communication, most frequently associated with new digital media technologies (→ Digital Media, History of). The concept's elusiveness may result from the common use of the term to identify a loosely defined bundle of attributes rather than a single attribute or phenomenon. At its core, interactivity refers to the phenomenon of mutual adaptation, usually between a communication medium such as the Internet or a video game and a human user of that medium.
Interactivity in Reception
Authors: Lee Kwan Min
Published: September 2017

Interactivityis regarded as one of the most critical concepts in new media theories due to the increasing popularity of interactive media such as the → Internet, computer games, and computer‐mediated communication (CMC) media (→ Video Games; Human–Computer Interaction). Despite the explosion of theoretical discussions on the concept of interactivity, a precise explication of the concept is yet to be accomplished. As a result, this concept often implies different things to different people in different contexts.
Intercultural Communication in Health‐Care
Authors: Watson Bernadette M.
Published: September 2017

In the twenty‐first century mankind lives in a more multicultural environment than ever before. For many health practitioners this means they have to interact with people from different cultures. Good communication is vital to effective health‐care, so communication problems in intercultural encounters have the potential to lead to patient misdiagnosis. In such encounters health practitioners not only face the natural barriers of communicating with patients who may be unfamiliar with the health practitioners' language, but they may face an extra challenge when patients have culturally different health belief systems (→ Health Communication; Doctor–Patient Talk).
Intercultural Media Effects
Authors: Elasmar Michael G.
Published: September 2017

In the 1940s, → Paul F. Lazarsfeld defined international communication as a study of the “processes by which various cultures influence each other” (Lazarsfeld 1976, 485). The term culture has been defined in a variety of ways over the years. An all‐encompassing definition of culture was given by Kroeber: culture “is a way of habitual acting, feeling and thinking channeled by a society out of an infinite number and variety of potential ways of living” (Kroeber 1952, 136; → Culture: Definitions and Concepts).
Intercultural Media Effects
Authors: Elasmar Michael G.
Published: September 2017

In the 1940s, → Paul F. Lazarsfeld defined international communication as a study of the “processes by which various cultures influence each other” (Lazarsfeld 1976, 485). The term “culture” has been defined in a variety of ways over the years. An all‐encompassing definition of culture was given by Kroeber: culture “is a way of habitual acting, feeling and thinking channeled by a society out of an infinite number and variety of potential ways of living” (Kroeber 1952, 136; → Culture: Definitions and Concepts).
Interethnic Relationships in Families
Authors: Soliz Jordan
Published: September 2017

Historically, family scholarship has been guided by a Eurocentric perspective including the notion that families are ethnically homogeneous. Over the last few decades, a shift in social acceptance of interethnic relationships coupled with changes in national laws (e.g., a 1967 US Supreme Court ruling abolished the last legal barrier to interracial marriages) has resulted in an increase in interethnic families. Ethnic identity is a sense of affiliation with a specific ethnic group manifested in communication patterns, cultural and religious traditions, political ideologies, peer networks, or family roles (Phinney 1990). Thus, interethnic families are family systems where partners and/or children
identify
with different ethnic groups.
Intergroup Accommodative Processes
Authors: Gallois Cindy
Published: September 2017

We constantly interact with people from different social groups to our own: cultures, ethnic groups, genders, ages, occupations, organizations, even clubs (→ Intercultural and Intergroup Communication). We may wish to affiliate with another person or group, or to distinguish ourselves from them. We express this motivation through language and communication, and through our interpretation of others' communication. The main communication dimensions considered here are intergroup (versus interpersonal) and accommodation (versus nonaccommodation). The main theory describing and explaining them is → Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT: Giles 1973; see Gallois et al. 2005, for a review).
Intergroup Dimensions of Organizational Life
Authors: Callan Victor J.
Published: September 2017

Organizations are intergroup in nature in that they are collections of people working together to achieve a common set of objectives. These objectives are typically around the creation of innovative products and services that meet the needs of customers, and organizations are always searching for new ways to deliver products and services that offer better quality, more innovation, and higher value than do their competitors. Communication within and across the organization is the central means by which individual and group activities in organizations are coordinated to devise, disseminate and pursue such objectives (→ Bureaucracy and Communication; Control and Authority in Organizations).
Intermediality
Authors: Bruhn Jensen Klaus
Published: September 2017

Intermediality refers to the interconnectedness of modern media of communication. As means of expression and exchange, the different media depend on and refer to each other, both explicitly and implicitly; they interact as elements of particular communicative strategies; and they are constituents of a wider cultural environment.
International Communication
Authors: Downing John D. H.
Published: September 2017

The definition of “international communication” is constantly in flux. Whether we have in view sociologist Émile Durkheim's suggestion in his classic workElementary forms of religious life(1917) that relations between different Aboriginal tribes constituted international communication, or historians' and political scientists' studies of diplomacy among modern nation‐states, or the rush of contemporary theorizing on globalization processes and the roles of communication media within them (→ Globalization Theories), it is wise to be cautious before consecrating our assumptions as to how this field of study should be framed. In order to try to avoid that trap, this entry begins with a brief history of this research area. It will mainly focus on more recent research, which arguably has been conducted within ten categories. At the end, brief pointers will be thrown up to suggest some ongoing problems.
International News Reporting
Authors: Paterson Chris
Published: September 2017

International news reporting evolved with the advent of the telegraph in the mid‐1800s (→ Telegraph, History of). The explosion of foreign news that followed largely supported the colonial empires; it also focused on international conflicts involving them (while all but ignoring others).
International Television
Authors: Curtin Michael
Published: September 2017

During the latter half of the twentieth century, most discussions about international television tended to focus on national media systems and relations of exchange among those systems. Since the 1990s, however, television has increasingly been studied as a global phenomenon. Although national systems still figure prominently, research and policy debates now explore the ways in which television participates in broader processes of globalization (→ Globalization of the Media; Globalization Theories).
Internet
Authors: McDonald Daniel G.
Published: September 2017

The Internet is a network of computer networks. In that sense, even though the content provided can often be similar to that offered by radio or television networks (→ Radio; Radio Networks; Television; Television Networks), a more appropriate structural analogy should probably be to telephone or telegraph networks (→ Telegraph, History of). The Internet, telephone, and telegraph networks all originated as electronic means of communicating in a point‐to‐point context. In relation to content, as well, early experiments with the telephone (in the 1880s and 1890s) connected performers and audiences in multiple locations and varied content, such as sports contests, musical programs, and vaudeville shows, and provided a kind of conceptual forerunner for what was to come with radio, television, and the Internet.
Internet Law and Regulation
Authors: Eko Lyombe
Published: September 2017

The → Internet is a global network of computer networks linked by various information and telecommunication infrastructures and technologies. The Internet and the technologies that transmit its rivers of information around the globe are conceptualized and regulated by all countries of the world within the framework of their political, economic, social, and cultural systems. Each country has an attitude toward the Internet, especially those parts of the Internet within its national territory. This multiplicity of regulatory approaches to the Internet essentially transforms cyberspace into a series of interconnected jurisdictions where each country attempts to apply its rules, regulations, and culture to the networks within its territorial jurisdiction. Internet law and regulation is further complicated by the convergence of several media – information technology, telecommunications, print media, sound, still images, and motion pictures – which are regulated differently by different countries (→ Communication and Law; Convergence of Media Systems; Media Policy).
Internet Ratings Systems
Authors: Van Couvering Elizabeth
Published: September 2017

Internet ratings systems, such as those provided by Nielsen//NetRatings or comScore Media Metrix, measure and rank the popularity of different websites and are used extensively in setting online advertising rates (→ Internet; Exposure to the Internet). The three typical online metrics are
unique visitors
,
page views
, and
reach
. In theory, these are simple measures:
unique visitors
measures the number of visitors to a website (analogous to the “audience” of a television show),
page views
measures the number of times a web page has been seen, and
reach
represents the percentage of the audience who have visited the website during the period under question (typically monthly). In practice, each of these elements is subject to some controversy due to a lack of agreement about measuring methods and differing sources of data. In addition to the main variables of unique visitors, page views, and reach, ratings companies also report on the
demographic profile
(age, sex, race, location, occupation, education, income, etc.) of visitors for different websites. Ratings agencies may also report directly on the frequency and volume of advertising placed on different websites.
Internet, Technology of
Authors: Klang Mathias
Published: September 2017

Internet technology has developed in a rapid series of leaps to become one of the most fundamental communications infrastructures in modern society. When referring to the → Internet as a communication infrastructure it is important to remember that the Internet is in reality a technological base upon which a multitude of software applications rely in order to provide users with the communication tools they desire. Despite this, it is important to realize that the Internet is not a single thing. It is a name that collects a cluster of technological innovations, groups of infrastructure(s), applications, and social organizations, which we commonly refer to as the Internet. The Internet is not one innovation, but a rapid series of steps, innovations, and collaborations within the field of communication technology. In addition, the Internet as a phenomenon is constantly evolving technically.
Interorganizational Communication
Authors: Doerfel Marya L.
Published: September 2017

Interorganizational communication (IOC) emphasizes relationships organizations have with external constituents as opposed to relationships that occur internally. IOC research considers issues like information flows, information sharing, reputation, cooperation, competition, coalition building, and power. IOC theoretical developments are substantially multidisciplinary. Communication researchers often emphasize the understanding of who communicates with whom and about what. Economists and sociologists tend to see linkages in terms of some exchange with limited interest in the content of communication within that exchange. This emphasis by communication scholars reflects the assumption that interorganizational relationships are enacted by individuals' communicative actions (→ Organizational Communication).
Interpersonal Conflict
Authors: Cupach William R.
Published: September 2017

Interpersonal conflict occurs when individuals perceive their own self‐interest to be incompatible with another person's interest, and the other person's actions undermine the achievement of self‐interest. Such incompatibilities are commonplace in all kinds of interpersonal relationships, including those among friends, romantic partners, family members, and co‐workers. Ironically, the opportunities for conflict are greatest in relationships characterized by interdependency and intimate exchange, such as marriage. It is through communication that conflicts are recognized, expressed, and managed.
Interpretive Journalism
Authors: Houston Brant
Published: September 2017

Interpretive (or interpretative) journalism goes beyond the basic facts of an event or topic to provide context, analysis, and possible consequences. Interpretive journalists must have unusual familiarity with and understanding of a subject, and their work involves looking for patterns, motives, and influences that explain what they are reporting (Keller 1997).
Interview as Journalistic Form
Authors: Clayman Steven E.
Published: September 2017

Within journalism, the interview is traditionally known as a tool for gathering story material (→ News Sources), but it is also a finished news product in its own right, a basic form journalists use to package → news for public consumption. This mode of news presentation was marginal in the newspaper era, when verbatim interviews only occasionally appeared in print, but has become more prominent since the advent of broadcasting and the emergence of public affairs programs organized around live or taped interviews. In moving from the backstage to the frontstage of journalistic practice, the interview has become a key component of the public face that journalism presents to the world.
Interview, Standardized
Authors: Möhring Wiebke , Schluetz Daniela
Published: September 2017

Quantitative surveys are usually comprised of standardized interviews that are conducted using a questionnaire. The term “standardization” describes the predetermination of the course of the interviews. In a fully standardized questionnaire each respondent is presented with the same stimulus, i.e., an equal question. Therefore, the reaction (i.e., the answer) is comparable to that of another respondent. The aim of a standardized interview is to avoid disturbing factors as far as possible. Usually, however, not all bias can be eliminated, which is why one should at least try to keep it constant. In standardized quantitative surveys, this means that the wording of all questions and response items is identical for all respondents. Furthermore, the sequence of the questions is specified exactly and the social situation should be constant in every interview.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation and Volition
Authors: Hartmann Tilo
Published: September 2017

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and volition are important constructs in research on → selective exposure to media. Building on recent psychological theories of action (Gollwitzer 1990; Heckhausen & Kuhl 1985), media exposure results if a person develops an (intrinsically or extrinsically motivated) intention and invests sufficient volitional effort to carry out the intention.