bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Radical

S

‐Adenosyl‐
l
‐Methionine Carbon Monoxide and Cyanide Synthase
HydG
Authors: Nicolet Yvain , Fontecilla‐Camps Juan C
Published: September 2017

Crystal structures of [FeFe]‐hydrogenases have revealed complex coordination of their active site [FeFe] motif. Besides a dithiomethylamine (DTMA) ligand that bridges the two iron ions through its thiolate groups, each metal has one CN
−
and one CO terminal ligand in addition to a metal‐bridging CO. It is known that, in spite of its complexity, only three protein maturases called HydE HydF and HydG are both necessary and sufficient to assemble the hydrogenase active site. Previous work has also shown that HydF has GTPase activity and may be the scaffold where the Fe
2
(CO)
3
(CN)
2
(DTMA) unit is put together. Conversely, HydE is likely to be the site of DTMA synthesis because it is known that HydG makes the triplebonded ligands CO and CN
−
. Similar to HydE, HydG is a radical
S
‐adenosyl,
l
‐methionine (SAM) enzyme. HydG, the subject of this chapter, has
l
‐tyrosine lyase activity and, as shown by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, it cleaves this free aromatic amino acid into a
p
‐cresyl radical and dehydroglycine (DHG). In addition to the expected radical, SAM‐associated [4Fe‐4S] cluster HydG has a second [FeS]s cluster located in its
C
‐terminal domain where CO and CN
−
synthesis from DHG takes place. This cluster appears to be a regular [4Fe‐4S] cuboid unusually connected to a catalytically relevant fifth iron. We and others have investigated the catalytic mechanism of HydG and found that,
in vitro
, some DHG can be hydrolyzed to glyoxylate. It was also shown that although HydG deprived of its [FeS]s cluster cannot synthesize CO it still makes some CN
−
; this shows that the cluster is not absolutely required for the synthesis of this ligand (but it may contribute to the stability of the site where it is produced). We also found that in variants lacking the [FeS]s cluster a significant amount of formate was detected in
in vitro
experiments. Taken together, these results have allowed us to proposed a catalytic mechanism where DHG, CN
−
, and CO are made at three different active sites.
Main‐Group Rings, Chains, and Polymer Compounds
Authors: Rabanzo‐Castillo Kristel M. , Leitao Erin M.
Published: September 2017

Although research in the field of main‐group rings, chains, and polymers is a less mature area of chemistry than that of carbon‐based rings, chains, and polymers, it is currently very fertile, as evidenced by the significant increase in available monocyclic main‐group rings in the past two decades, including neutral, anionic, cationic, and radical homocycles and heterocycles. Furthermore, recent advances in main‐group polymer chemistry have been substantial with access to high‐molecular‐weight polyaminoboranes and polyphosphinoboranes enabled by efficient dehydropolymerization catalysts, as well as the production of advanced cross‐linked polysulfide materials. Facile preparation and stabilization of low coordinate main‐group centers, synthesis of new reactive main‐group precursors, and the development of new routes to link main‐group elements together have been keys in moving the field forward. The scope of main‐group complexes has increased drastically, with multiple routes available to access the compounds, enabling a wide range of derivatives possible. In addition, compared to the carbon‐based systems, main‐group compounds feature more bonding options due to the different electronics and sterics afforded by the noncarbon atom(s) and, therefore, modified reactivity. As a result, existing theories such as aromaticity are challenged when new main‐group cycles are created. In this article, the most common routes to prepare the different types of main‐group rings, chains, and polymers are summarized, along with selected classic examples and recent additions to the field from across the p‐block (Groups 13–16). Both homonuclear and heteronuclear systems are covered, and some relevant information on characterization, properties, and uses of the compounds is also included.
Alkaline Earth Catalysis
Authors: Anker Mathew D. , Hill Michael S.
Published: September 2017

Since the end of the 20th century, complexes of the alkaline earth elements have emerged as viable catalysts for a wide variety of molecular transformations. Being both earth abundant and environmentally benign, these elements hold obvious appeal as candidates for the development of future sustainable chemical technologies. Despite a history that stretches to the earliest days of main group organometallic chemistry, the factors governing the reactivity of the group 2 elements, in particular those heavier than magnesium, are only now starting to emerge. A single and effectively unchangeable 2+ oxidation state signifies that the reaction chemistry of these significantly ionic species is totally dependent on polarized heterolytic pathways for substrate bond activation. Despite this ostensible limitation, significant variability in both reaction mechanism and absolute reactivity has arisen. This article will attempt to highlight these variations through a broad survey of reaction type and substrate class.
Bad News in Medicine, Communicating
Authors: Schouten Barbara
Published: September 2017

Any information that produces a negative alteration in a person's expectations about the future can be defined as bad news (Buckman 1992). Notwithstanding that there are instances in which information is in all probability universally appraised as bad, such as the sudden diagnosis of a fatal disease, most published articles on the topic adhere to the basic assumption that bad news is subjective and depends on individual differences in personality, personal resources, cognitive appraisals, expectations, and so on.
Bakhtin, Mikhail
Authors: Anderson Donald L.
Published: September 2017

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895–1975) was a Russian philosopher, scholar, and cultural theorist who devoted his writings to the study of language and social structure as it appeared in literature. He was educated in classical studies and taught as a schoolteacher before moving to a small town in Russia to escape the social and political revolution of 1917–1918. During this time he met two colleagues, Valentin Voloshinov and Pavel Medvedev, with whom Bakhtin would study and debate politics and philosophy, and who formed the core of the “Bakhtin circle.” (The three men would inform one another's writings to such an extent that today there is continuing debate about the original authorship of many of their published volumes.) In 1929 Bakhtin completed his work
Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics
, as well as his essay “Discourse in the novel.” He later became a professor in a small college where he was little known until the 1950s and 1960s. Interest in Bakhtin spread when his major works were translated into English in the 1970s and 1980s. Bakhtin's name is now included among the most prominent social theorists of the twentieth century.
Balance
Authors: McLaughlin Greg
Published: September 2017

Balance is one of the most contested concepts in the wider academic and public debates about the role of the media in society, but the concept is particularly relevant to public service broadcasters, with the UK's → BBC being an international exemplar, for whom balance often is a specific mandate (→ Television News; Public Broadcasting Systems). While the print media claim objectivity in their routines of news gathering, reporting and editing, they are not legally required to be balanced (→ Objectivity in Reporting). The newspaper may express its institutional voice, its political worldview, in its comment and analysis pages, and it may offer space to alternative viewpoints in the interests of genuine pluralism or to broaden its readership. (→ Plurality; Partisan Press; Party–Press Parallelism). The public service broadcaster, however, has a legal obligation in many societies to be balanced and be seen to be balanced, and it is internally and externally regulated to that end. The requirement to represent or give public access to a range of opinions in public debate without favor applies especially to → news and current affairs and must be demonstrable either within a program or across the range of such program within a certain time frame (→ Media Performance).
Bandwagon Effect
Authors: Schmitt‐Beck Rüdiger
Published: September 2017

The bandwagon effect is a phenomenon of → public opinion impinging upon itself: in their political preferences people tend to follow what they perceive to be majorities in society. This implies that success breeds further success, and alternatives that appear to enjoy a broad popular backing are likely to gain even more support. The effect's metaphorical label dates from late nineteenth‐century American politics and alludes to the wagon in a parade that carries the band, and thus attracts a large audience of followers who join in to enjoy the music.
Barthes, Roland
Authors: Bolter Jay David
Published: September 2017

Roland Barthes (1915–1980) was a French philosopher, semiotician, and literary and media theorist. Over three decades, he produced articles and monographs concerned with the general problem of how different systems of communication operate. His activity spanned the periods in which authors who are identified with structuralism, and then those identified with poststructuralist and postmodernist theory, dominated critical debates in France and elsewhere. Barthes joined in these debates, often critiquing prevailing intellectual views on one hand and contemporary popular culture on the other.
BBC
Authors: Bailey Michael
Published: September 2017

The BBC started life not as a public corporation but as a private company. Formed in 1922, the early BBC operated as a cartel, consisting of several wireless manufacturers, including the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, one of the main pioneers of wireless telephony. Though it was to all intents and purposes a private enterprise, its license to broadcast in Britain was regulated by the state, under the auspices of the Post Office. A further peculiarity of British broadcasting was that, just as broadcasters required permission to broadcast, so too were the listening public required to obtain an official license for listening in.
Bi‐ and Multilingualism
Authors: Clément Richard
Published: September 2017

Approaching bilingualism and multilingualism from a communication perspective sheds light on a phenomenon which otherwise would appear static and asocial. Merriam‐Webster's online thesaurus defines
bilingualism
as “the ability to speak two languages: the frequent oral use of two languages,” and
multilingual
as “of, containing, or expressed in several languages” and “using or able to use several languages.” The apparent simplicity of these definitions is, however, deceptive for a number of reasons.
Bias in the News
Authors: Lee Tien‐Tsung
Published: September 2017

In societies with a tradition of partisan news media (→ Partisan Press), whether news organizations have a political bias in their reporting is less of a concern. In other environments where mainstream news media purport to be fair and objective, and journalists are expected to be neutral gatekeepers instead of partisan advocates (→ Advocacy Journalism; Journalists' Role Perception), whether or not the news media have a bias would receive close scrutiny from politicians, scholars, the general public, and journalists themselves. It is common for observers to perceive a political bias, which reduces their trust in the news media, and triggers their criticism of both media organizations and journalists (→ Media Production and Content).
Bias in the News
Authors: Lee Tien‐Tsung , Grimmer Kristen
Published: September 2017

In societies with a tradition of partisan news media (→ Partisan Press), whether news organizations have a political bias is less of a concern. In other environments where mainstream news media purport to be fair and objective, and journalists are expected to be neutral gatekeepers instead of partisan advocates (→ Advocacy Journalism; Journalists' Role Perception), whether the news media have a bias would receive close scrutiny from politicians, scholars, the general public, and journalists themselves. It is common for observers to perceive a political bias, which reduces their trust in the news media, and triggers their criticism of both media organizations and journalists (→ Media Production and Content).
Blogger
Authors: Heinonen Ari
Published: September 2017

A blogger is a publisher of or contributor to a weblog. Weblogs are online publications that typically present contents in inverse chronological order, time‐stamped, and with hyperlinks pointing at original sources online that bloggers refer to. Usually weblogs are conversational, so that readers' comments appear along with the bloggers' own postings (→ Internet).
Body Images in the Media
Authors: David Prabu
Published: September 2017

Visual portrayals of women in the media tend to emphasize idealized standards of thinness and beauty that are beyond the reach of most women. The systematic analysis of the body type of fashion models (Silverstein et al. 1986) provide convincing evidence that women portrayed in glamorous roles in the popular media are thinner than the average woman. Moreover, these studies report that the normative standards of thinness have increased in the last few decades.
Bolivia: Media System
Authors: Huesca Robert
Published: September 2017

The evolution of the media system in Bolivia has been shaped by the nation's particular geography, demography, culture, politics, and economy to produce a contradictory blend of innovation, richness, stagnation, and poverty. Land‐locked in South America, Bolivia is perennially one of the most impoverished and politically unstable nations in Latin America, a legacy that has negatively impacted the development of the media system. Despite this legacy and general tendency, Bolivia is also home to some of the most innovative media practices in the world, especially in the area of community radio.
Bollywood
Authors: Mishra Vijay
Published: September 2017

When a descriptor becomes more than its immediate signified – the concept that it refers to directly – we begin to feel that there is something special, something rather unusual about it. Such a descriptor is “Bollywood.” The word refers to a film industry situated in Mumbai/Bombay (the slash here is important because without its colonial name, “Bollywood” cannot be generated).
Brands
Authors: Sheehan Kim Bartel
Published: September 2017

In the late 1800s, a brand was a tool used to identify ownership. Cattle ranches placed their brands on their cattle, and biscuit manufacturers burned their brands onto the barrels containing their products. As manufacturing processes improved throughout the Industrial Revolution, brands became a way for parity products to differentiate themselves (Pope 1983).
Brazil: Media System
Authors: Marques de Melo José
Published: September 2017

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, surpassed only by Russia, China, the USA, and Canada. It has over 191 million people, the largest Portuguese‐speaking population in the world. Independent since 1822, Brazil suffered in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from several military and authoritarian regimes, and became a republican democracy again in 1988, with a president as head of the government, being elected every four years. One of the world's developing nations, Brazil maintains both modern territories, inhabited by the wealthier classes, and traditional spaces, which are associated with impoverished social segments. Fittingly, the country's media system reproduces these polar oppositions. It is shaped by the coexistence of industrial products (high tech), in demand within its consumer society, and craft arts, which circulate in the marginalized communities.
Broadcast Talk
Authors: Clayman Steven E.
Published: September 2017

Most radio and television programming encompasses talk in some form, but the term
broadcast talk
is usually understood as a specific category of programming in contrast to both fictional entertainment and traditional news. It refers to various programming genres that are broadly informational, to some extent nonscripted, and organized around processes of interaction (→ Narrative News Story). Although some are ad hoc events produced independently (e.g., campaign debates, town meetings), most are regularly scheduled programs produced by broadcasters themselves (e.g., news interviews, celebrity talk shows, radio call‐in shows). Each genre involves some combination of public figures, media professionals, and ordinary people as interactional participants.
Big Data Analysis
Authors: Freelon Deen
Published: September 2017

The term “big data” lacks a single widely agreed‐upon referent. Commercial interests often define such datasets according to “the three Vs” – velocity, variety, and volume (Laney 2001) – but velocity is less relevant for communication researchers, who generally do not require real‐time data processing capabilities. This invites the question of how much variety and volume are required for a dataset to qualify as “big,” which has no context‐independent answer. This in turn suggests that the key characteristic of big datasets is not size or variety per se, but rather tractability. In other words, from an analytical perspective, big data is data whose magnitude and complexity pose challenges for established data management practices. Because established practices differ widely between disciplines, more specific definitions (e.g., those that stipulate minimum dataset sizes) should be viewed with skepticism. The current definition implies that a particular discipline's threshold for “big” will increase over time as methodological best practices solidify and catch up to data availability and computing power (→ Research Methods). This has indeed proven to be the case (Jacobs 2009). This entry focuses on those aspects of big data as defined above that are most relevant to the analysis of communication data.
Labor Unions in the Media
Authors: McKercher Catherine
Published: September 2017

Labor unions have been a feature on the world's media landscape for close to two centuries. Depending on the era and the locale, they have certified the skills of content providers and production workers, bargained collectively for wages and benefits, trained and disciplined members of the craft, and fought with employers and the state over freedom of expression, workplace health and safety, protection of intellectual property, and access to information. In general, they have attracted relatively little scholarly attention. Nonetheless, they have had a significant impact on media institutions and on the societies in which they operate.
Language and the Internet
Authors: Herring Susan C.
Published: September 2017

Language and (or “on”) the → Internet refers to human language (or language intended to be human‐like, such as the linguistic output of artificial intelligence agents) produced and displayed through computer‐mediated communication (CMC) systems that are mostly text based and mostly reciprocally interactive, such as email, listserv lists, newsgroups, chat, instant messaging, text messaging via mobile phones (SMS), blogs, and wikis. The term “Internet language” is somewhat of a misnomer, in that some of this communication takes place on intranets and some is mediated by mobile technologies, rather than by the global networked infrastructure known as the Internet per se (→ Internet, Technology of). “Internet” is used here in an extended sense to include these related communication technologies. Variant terms for Internet language include computer‐mediated language, computer‐mediated discourse, online discourse, and electronic discourse (→ Technologically Mediated Discourse). All of these are intended to distinguish language‐ and discourse‐related phenomena as a focus of interest from the broader phenomenon of computer‐mediated communication, of which they form a part.
L
asswell,
H
arold
D
.
Authors: Hardt Hanno
Published: September 2017

Harold Dwight Lasswell (1902–1978), American political scientist with a specific interest in the symbolic aspects of politics (→ Political Communication; Symbolic Politics), is considered one of the founders of mass communication research in the United States. Although his wide‐ranging and prolific writings on theoretical and methodological issues regarding politics, personality, and culture remained rather peripheral to communication research, his approach to the effects of mass communication (→ Media Effects) helped define and strengthen a quantitative approach to questions concerning media and communication in the political arena (→ Quantitative Methodology). Lasswell studied at the University of Chicago with George Herbert Mead, Robert E. Park, and Charles Merriam, while being influenced by John Dewey and American → pragmatism. He also taught at Chicago (1922–1938) and served as chief of the Experimental Division for the Study of War Time Communications at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, during World War II before joining the Yale law school (1946–1970).
Latina Feminist Media Studies
Authors: Valdivia Angharad N.
Published: September 2017

Latina feminist media studies addresses the intersectional themes of gender, ethnicity, nation, and media in relation to that recently constructed category of Latina/os, i.e., a segment of the US population of Latin American origin (→ Identity Politics). As such, this category both differs from, and overlaps with, “Latin American,” as many US Latinas experience transnational lives through personal travel and migration, enduring family and community connections, and media consumption of both US and Latin American cultural forms. In media studies, there is a strong corpus of research about this subject, with a range of scholarship from Chicano and Puerto Rican studies of film and performance. Falling between “black/Afro‐American media studies” (→ Black Feminist Media Studies) and “media studies” (which tends to center on whiteness), Latina feminist media studies explores the production, consumption, content, and effects of media from perspectives that foreground gender and ethnicity (→ Feminist Media Studies, Transnational).
Le Monde Diplomatique
Authors: Harvey Nicolas
Published: September 2017

Le Monde Diplomatique
(
LMD
) is a French monthly → Newspaper created in 1954 by Hubert Beuve‐Méry, then editor of the Parisian newspaper of record,
Le Monde
. It is large format and typically runs to 32 pages, including color artistic photographs and art reproduction. It offers feature and political analysis articles, mostly of one to two pages in length. Sometimes a particular issue will contain a cluster of articles on the same issue or country, running to several pages. It also has short book review pages, mostly of nonfiction, but always including at least one or two novels, generally by global southern authors.
Learning Organizations
Authors: Iverson Joel O.
Published: September 2017

A learning organization is most simply described as an organization in which learning has become a part of the → organizational culture. As Lehr and Rice (2002, 1062) state, “organizational learning is most often treated as an extended process through which organizations grow, change, adapt, and improve to remain viable.” Interest in learning organizations can be tracked to the early interests in → organizational change processes, organizational culture, and organizational improvement.
Legitimacy Gap Theory
Authors: Langer Roy
Published: September 2017

Sethi (1975) defined a “legitimacy gap” as an expectancy gap indicating a discrepancy between an organization's actions and society's expectations of this organization. Legitimacy gaps can threaten an organization's image and reputation, and ultimately its existence as a legitimate member of the business community and society (Bridges 2004; → Corporate Reputation; Organizational Image). Hence, legitimacy theory asserts that organizations avoid conflicts and ensure that they operate within the boundaries and norms of their respective societies, so their activities are perceived as legitimate (Sethi 1977). While legitimacy has been frequently studied in sociology, organizational studies, and political science, Heath (2001) asserts that legitimacy gap theory will play a more important role in → Organizational Communication due to an increased focus on dialogue and relationship management between organizations and their stakeholders (→ Stakeholder Theory).
Lerner, Daniel
Authors: Shah Hemant
Published: September 2017

Daniel Lerner (1917–1980) was the author of
The passing of traditional society: Modernizing the Middle East
(1958), a study of Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey that provided the first comprehensive statement of the role of mass communication in the process of modernization for postcolonial countries (→ Egypt: Media System; Iran: Media System; Postcolonial Theory). The general theory posited a model of societal transformation for poor countries made possible by embracing western manufacturing technology, political structures, values, and systems of mass communication. In Lerner's model, increasing urbanization led to the growth of mass media (as people demanded news and information) and literacy (as more and more schools were built), which in turn resulted in greater public participation in economic activity and politics. Lerner maintained that mass communication was the key factor in helping traditional societies to become modern (→ Media Effects; Modernization). Lerner theorized that radio, television, magazines, and newspapers were important catalysts of the modernization process (→ Development Communication; Development Communication: Middle East; Radio for Development; Television for Development). The mass media provided information about the modern west and vicarious experiences of modern lifestyles to audiences in the postcolonial world. Audience members with highly empathic personalities – those who could easily imagine themselves in different circumstances – would begin to think and behave in ways that helped transform their countries from traditional societies to modern ones modeled primarily on the United States. Empathy, a key psychosocial factor in the modernization, is perhaps Lerner's key contribution to the area of development communication (→ Empathy Theory).
Licensing of Journalists
Authors: Mendel Toby
Published: September 2017

For the purposes of this entry, licensing of journalists is understood to mean a system whereby individuals are required to apply to an external authority for permission to practice journalism, which permission may be refused or revoked. Closely related to licensing are regimes whereby journalists are required to belong to a certain professional association, such as a journalists' syndicate, and where such associations may refuse or revoke membership (→ Journalism; Journalism: Legal Situation).
Limited Capacity Model
Authors: Lang Annie
Published: September 2017

The limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP) is the most recent version of a data‐driven model (→ Models of Communication) that tries to explain how human beings process all types of mediated messages (A. Lang 2000, 2006a, 2006b; → Information Processing). This model differs from the vast majority of communication theories in a number of ways.
Linguistic Pragmatics
Authors: Cooren François
Published: September 2017

The origin of linguistic pragmatics as a discipline can be traced back to an article “How to make our ideas clear,” by Charles Sanders Peirce in 1878. In this essay, the founder of semiotics, the science of signs, presented a general principle of inquiry, which was later identified by William James as the first formulation of “pragmatism.” Although Peirce did not use the term per se in his original piece, it is in this essay that he presented the thesis according to which the meaning of a concept or statement is to be found in all its possible
practical
bearings. Although this thesis had a tremendous influence on key philosophers such as William James and John Dewey, creating as a result the American philosophical movement called “pragmatism,” the influence that is of interest regarding its linguistic dimension is the one it exerted on Charles W. Morris (1901–1979).
Listening
Authors: King Paul E.
Published: September 2017

It was the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus who first observed that nature had provided two ears but one tongue that we might hear from others twice as much as we speak. While the wisdom and practical values of listening have been understood throughout history, attempts to study listening as a social science and to include listening instruction in curricula are relatively recent phenomena, gaining some popularity with the early work of Ralph Nichols, including his groundbreaking text
Are you listening?
(Nichols & Stevens 1957). Nichols and Stevens describe an early study conducted by Paul Rankin that divided the act of communication into four distinct behaviors: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. In this survey, listening was used more extensively than the other communicative modes. Similarly, Shannon and Weaver's (1949) model of communication included the receiver as an independent component in the communication process (→ Models of Communication). Possibly due to the focus of this early work, listening was reified as distinct and unique, functioning independently of other communicative behaviors.
Literary Journalism
Authors: Bennett Bridget
Published: September 2017

Literary journalism is a form of writing characterized by a particular aesthetic self‐consciousness more usually associated with literary creativity than with fact‐driven journalism. While conventional descriptions of journalism stress objectivity and clarity (→ Objectivity in Reporting), descriptions of literary journalism often focus on qualities more usually associated with literary texts. Literary journalism aims to combine a desire to present information objectively with one to do it stylishly, therefore giving it a different kind of impact to the regular fare of newspapers. Some argue that one of its characteristics is that the quality of its craft means that it will be still read in years to come, whereas much journalism has, and is intended to have, a short shelf life.
Lobbying
Authors: Berger Bruce K.
Published: September 2017

Lobbyingis a strategic process through which groups and organizations carry out activities intended to influence policymakers and the formation of laws and regulations. In the nineteenth century, the term described how agents of interest groups gathered in the lobbies and hallways of the US Capitol in Washington and US state capitols to advocate with legislators during meeting breaks. This kind of face‐to‐face advocacy between representatives of interest groups and policymakers constituted the act of lobbying. Today, lobbying is often seen to include many other communication strategies and tactics, ranging from presentations of research reports and committee testimony, to media relations activities, issue advertisements, grassroots campaigns, and even litigation.
Log‐File Analysis
Authors: Jansen Bernard J. , Spink Amanda H.
Published: September 2017

Log‐file analysis uses the records stored in the transaction logs of information retrieval systems, web → search engines, and websites to offer valuable understanding of the interactions between these systems and people. This understanding informs system design, interface development, and information architecture. Log files (or transaction logs) are an unobtrusive and relatively easily method of recording significant amounts of usage data on a considerable number of users at low cost.
Magazine, History of
Authors: King Andrew
Published: September 2017

A “magazine” is a type of periodical characterized by entertaining and miscellaneous matter written by more than one author, often with illustrations. It is usually distinguished from a newspaper by containing less news coverage and by a lower frequency (weekly, monthly, or less). In the nineteenth century magazines were distinguished from reviews or quarterlies by an emphasis on light entertainment, and by the inclusion of → fiction. From around 1910 the term “little magazines” came to denote low‐circulation periodicals produced by and for the avant‐garde. Since the twentieth century, “magazine” has been used above all to denote entertainment periodicals with a high visual content.
Mainstreaming
Authors: Morgan Michael
Published: September 2017

A corollary of cultivation theory, the concept of “mainstreaming” implies that heavy television viewing contributes to an erosion of differences in people's perspectives that stem from other factors and influences. It is based on the argument that television serves as the primary common storyteller for an otherwise heterogeneous population. As the source of the most broadly shared images and messages in history, television represents the mainstream of the common symbolic environment into which children are born and in which we all live out our lives. From the perspective of cultivation analysis (→ Cultivation Effects; Cultivation Theory), television provides a relatively restricted set of choices for a virtually unrestricted variety of interests and → publics; programs designed for broad and diverse groups are watched across social and demographic boundaries. People who otherwise have little in common besides television are brought into the same dominant mainstream by cumulative heavy viewing (→ Audience).
Marketing: Communication Tools
Authors: Nelson Richard Alan
Published: September 2017

For the sponsoring organization, the role of marketing communications includes distributing information, promoting image and reputation, creating and stabilizing product and service demand, emphasizing features and benefits, providing competitive differentiation, generating sales leads, ensuring customer retention and loyalty, and motivating staff. To accomplish these and other objectives, there are many marketing communication tools available. They include advertising, direct marketing and relationship marketing, sponsorship, event marketing, sales promotion, public relations, and other, alternative strategies. Contemporary media are the most commonly utilized “vehicles” to get the message out, including print, broadcast, outdoor, digital, direct, online, and other technologies. Historically, markets were largely places one could barter or trade commodities with another individual. Amazingly, Ancient Egypt survived for thousands of years without money, the structure of their society being based on provisions for the workers in return for support of the ruling dynasty and religious temples. Only later did specie or currency came into existence as a commonly accepted and convenient measure of utility or wealth – most evident during the relatively peaceful years of the Roman Empire now called the Pax Romana. European society in post‐Roman times largely devolved into feudalism, under which workers were restricted from travel and tied to the land. Industrialism was a significant change because it broke the choke‐hold of localism, bringing with it the expansion of the middle class as an important market. Barter still existed, of course, but residents of emerging cities now labored for money rather than products. Those that made or controlled products could sell more distantly, over time creating intermediaries (such as wholesalers, distributors, and retailers). The growth of river and oceanic trade, development of canals, construction of railroads, and other improvements contributed to more capitalistic societies.
Meaning
Authors: Jensen Klaus Bruhn
Published: September 2017

The title of a widely influential 1923 volume,
The meaning of meaning
(Ogden & Richards 1989), suggested the difficulty of capturing the complex connotations of the concept of meaning. The contents of the volume, authored by a linguist and a literary critic, with appendices by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski and medical doctor F. G. Crookshank, underscored the interdisciplinary roots and relevance of the concept. Meaning applies to issues of perception, cognition, and interaction across the natural, human, and social sciences. In contemporary communication research, meaning is perhaps most commonly associated with humanistic perspectives on the texts of communication and their interpretation by culturally specific audiences. If → information denotes a social scientific conception of those specific differences which communication makes in later events,
meaning
refers to the cumulative and unitary experience that humans derive from participating in processes of communication.
Measurement Theory
Authors: Weaver Stephanie Sargent
Published: September 2017

Thinking about measurement brings to mind an old adage, “If it exists, it is measurable.” However, in research, we tend to go beyond that adage, saying “If it exists, it must be measurable” (Leedy & Ormrod 2014). Most researchers will likely agree that measurement is a pillar of social and behavioral sciences research (Guilford 1954).
Media Campaigns and Perceptions of Reality
Authors: Rimal Rajiv N.
Published: September 2017

Humans act, at least partly, on the basis of how they think others expect them to act. This means that humans have the capacity to know what others think or expect them to do. Some researchers have argued that understanding what others think is essential to social life and that successful human relationships depend on our ability to read the minds of others (Gavita 2005; → Symbolic Interaction). How good are we, though, at knowing what others think or expect us to do? Data show that there is often a negative correlation between our perceived ability to know what others are thinking and what they are actually thinking (Davis & Kraus 1997). In other words, those who are more confident about their ability to know what others are thinking are, in fact, less accurate, compared to those who are less confident. Accuracy, however, may not be important in this context because what we choose to do usually depends on our perceptions more strongly than on objective reality (→ Media and Perceptions of Reality; Social Perception).
Media Democracy
Authors: Jarren Otfried
Published: September 2017

The term “media democracy” insinuates that the media and mediated communication are of central relevance for modern democracies due to their decisive influence on (or consequences for) political institutions (macro level) and political actors (meso level) as well as individual citizens (micro level). Theoretically associated with the media democracy concept is the notion of a “media society.” This idea implies that traditional mass media, as well as the new online media, are pervading all spheres of society and social life and have thus become the central precondition of exchanges and interactions among individuals and organizations of society (Jarren & Donges 2006; → Mediatization of Society).
Media Democracy Movement
Authors: Jensen Robert
Published: September 2017

For a political system to be democratic – for ordinary people to have a meaningful role in the formation of public policy – an active citizenry must have the means to communicate their views about ideas and issues, among themselves and to political leaders. In a period of unprecedented advances in communication technology – more ways for more people to send more information ever more rapidly to others – one might assume that such changes mean more democracy. The post‐World War II experience in the United States suggests that such an assumption is unwarranted. The increased capacity for communication does not automatically deepen democracy, and can in fact be an obstacle to attempts to deepen democracy when elite‐run economic institutions have a dominant role in the development and deployment of technology, and when other social and cultural forces work to undermine active public involvement.
Media Effects
Authors: Kepplinger Hans Mathias
Published: September 2017

The concept “mass media” is a collective term that stands for a broad variety of print media like → Newspapers, →  magazines, →  books and electronic media like → Radio, → Television, and the → Internet. The concept “newspaper,” in turn, comprises daily and weekly newspapers, and “magazines” publications like news magazines, fashion magazines, sports magazines, etc. All mass media offer different features – news analysis, → news, →  editorials, commercial messages, and so on – and deal with a broad variety of topics – including domestic and foreign politics, economy, arts, sports. Some mass media present only visual information (printed media), some only acoustic information (radio), some primarily moving images (TV, movies), while some present them all (Internet).
Media Effects: Direct and Indirect Effects
Authors: Kepplinger Hans Mathias
Published: September 2017

The term “indirect effects” denotes the consequences of direct effects on individuals who are not exposed to media content. According to Seymour‐Ure (1974, 22), “a primary [= direct] effect takes place when the person affected has himself been involved directly in the communication process. A secondary [= indirect] effect takes place when individuals or groups not involved in the communication process are affected by changes in individuals who are.” The concept of indirect effects extends the effect of the mass media beyond the users and to nonusers in two ways. Individuals exposed to media content spread information and opinion provided by the mass media, as far as they transmit them unchanged (→ Opinion Leader). Such individuals may also transform the information and opinion provided by the mass media into action, as far as their action is predictable on the basis of media coverage (→ Priming Theory; Appraisal Theory).
Media Effects, History of
Authors: Esser Frank
Published: September 2017

The established history of media effects research is characterized by a series of phases marked by fundamental paradigm shifts (see McQuail 1977, 72–74; 2005, 457–462; Lowery & DeFleur 1983, 22–29; Severin & Tankard 2001, 262–268; Baran & Davis 2006, 8–17). Each of these phases is associated with particular concepts, researchers, studies, and historical circumstances that influenced ideological development regarding media effects (→ Communication as a Field and Discipline).
Media Effects Models: Elaborated Models
Authors: Perse Elizabeth M.
Published: September 2017

The study of media effects has driven mass communication research for most of the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries. Scholars have developed, tested, and supported various theories of → media effects. The key to this research is uncovering the explanation for the way mass media exposure translates into effects. Over the history of our field, the study of media effects has been driven by generalized views about how media effects occur. These general views serve the field as models, or simplified representations of the media effects process. Different models about media effects place different weight on either media content or the audience in providing the central explanation of media effects. Moreover, different models focus on different variables as central to understanding media effects (→ Media Effects, History of).
Media Events and Pseudo‐Events
Authors: Scherer Helmut
Published: September 2017

The terms “pseudo‐event” and “media event” refer to the phenomenon that in modern societies many events are created with the sole aim of getting media coverage, or rather that events are staged in a way that lends itself to media coverage.
Media and Group Representations
Authors: Mastro Dana
Published: September 2017

Research examining the influence of media exposure on audience members has long revealed that both the frequency and the nature of messages play a role in determining the outcomes of exposure. Consequently, documenting the manner in which different groups are represented in the media (alongside the rate of these depictions) is critical to understanding the possible implications for consumers, as exposure may be associated with the formation and application of group‐based cognitions (→ Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs, Media Effects on; Media and Perceptions of Reality).
Media History
Authors: Allan Stuart
Published: September 2017

Media history as a concept in its own right possesses a relatively recent lineage. In the early decades of the twentieth century, when references to “the media” – newspapers, magazines, cinema, radio, and the like – were entering popular parlance, university academics tended to be rather skeptical about whether these institutions were important enough to warrant scholarly attention. Historians, in particular, were inclined to be dismissive. Matters would gradually improve over the course of the century, due to a number of factors (several of which will be identified below). Even today, however, media history continues to occupy a contested terrain between the principal disciplines informing its development, namely media studies (broadly inclusive of communication, cultural, and journalism studies) and history.
Media Literacy
Authors: Livingstone Sonia , van der Graaf Shenja
Published: September 2017

Media literacy has been defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages across a variety of contexts” (Christ & Potter 1998, 7). This definition, produced by the USA's 1992 National Leadership Conference on Media Literacy, is widely accepted, although many competing conceptions exist. However, media literacy research and associated educational initiatives and communication policy reflect enduring tensions between educationalists and technologists, policymakers and critical scholars (→ Critical Theory), defenders of high culture and defenders of public morals (Potter 2004). Media literacy is associated more specifically with audiovisual literacy, digital literacy, advertising literacy, Internet literacy, film literacy, visual literacy, → health literacy etc., each reflecting the range of media forms that demand, or assume, knowledge about media on the part of the → audience or → public. In recent years “media literacy” has also become a shorthand way of pointing to the array of policies and initiatives designed to bridge the gap between what people know about the changing media environment and what they need to know in order to meet certain policy goals.
Media Logic
Authors: Mazzoleni Gianpietro
Published: September 2017

Altheide and Snow (1979) were the first to use the term “media logic” to identify the specific frame of reference of the production of media culture in general and of the news in particular. They define media logic as a way of seeing and interpreting social affairs. Elements of this form of communication include the various media and the formats used by them. Formats consist, in part, in how material is organized, the style in which it is presented, the focus or emphasis, and the grammar of media communication (Altheide & Snow 1979). The underlying idea is that of a dominant form, a representation of reality, and content definitions to which media producers conform (→ Media and Perceptions of Reality). By identifying these “formats” it is possible to better understand what lies behind the process of media production. According to Altheide (1985), formats are also relevant to issues of the social influence of the media, for they affect the perception of reality acquired from the media.
Media Management
Authors: Küng Lucy
Published: September 2017

The core task of media management is to build a bridge between the general theoretical disciplines of management and the specificities of the media industry. Media management is, however, neither a clearly defined nor a cohesive field but rather a loose agglomeration of work by researchers from various scientific fields. The syllabi from the rash of media management courses that have sprung up over the past decade all over the world exhibit very few commonalities, and an enormously diverse range of theories, topics, and core readings. Notable is that very few of these courses stem from management or business schools. The majority come from mass communications and journalism or economics institutions (Küng 2007).