bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Consolidation of Media Markets
Authors: Winseck Dwayne
Published: September 2017

Consolidation refers to the expansion of media firms through mergers and acquisitions. Formally, it is distinct from the concentration of media markets, although the terms are often used interchangeably. To some observers, consolidation responds to the growth of new television networks and cable and satellite channels – e.g., MTV, HBO, ESPN, CNN, Fox News, Canal 1, A&E, Al Jazeera – and the splintering of audiences into niche markets (→ Television Networks; Cable Television; Satellite Television; Audience Segmentation; Arab Satellite TV News). Even the grip of the → Hollywood majors – Columbia, → Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros – over US and international film audiences appears to be slipping, with their share of the US market tumbling from 85 percent in 1994 to 66 percent in 2004. Throw into this mix the → Internet's endless websites, downloading services, social networking sites and innumerable blogs, and the idea of media concentration seems anachronistic. As Benjamin Compaine (2001) states, “the democracy of the marketplace may be flawed but it is … getting better, not worse.”
Consonance of Media Content
Authors: Fröhlich Romy
Published: September 2017

The mass media are an important, if not the most important, factor in the development of free opinion in democracies. That is to say that the media have a specific democratic responsibility (McQuail 1987, 117–118). It is no wonder that, apart from freedom of speech, free journalism, and a free media system, thediversity of mediais seen as being the most important condition for the emergence and progression of democracies (→ Concentration in Media Systems). A heterogeneous media structure is also seen as being an important condition for the development of a diverse and pluralistic media content, representing a balanced diversity of viewpoints on political issues and opinions (→ Plurality). This again is conceived as an important condition in the development of a diverse and pluralistic → public opinion and sound comprehension by citizens of political coherences and procedures in democracies.
Construction of Reality through the News
Authors: Heider Don
Published: September 2017

Between the local newspaper, radio updates, the evening television newscasts and now updates via the → Internet, your PDA or your cell phone, → news seems ubiquitous. But where does news come from? How does what you read and hear and view get to the point of being published or broadcast? Fundamentally, news is a construction, and the nature of that construction is important to how we shape our view of the symbolic and mediated reality of the world (→ Reality and Media Reality; Constructivism). So how are those symbols created and recognized, and what role do the mediators, the news producers, play in shaping how we think about the world around us?
Corporate and Organizational Identity
Authors: Christensen Lars Thøger
Published: September 2017

Identity is one of the most prominent issues of contemporary organizations. Like individuals, organizations increasingly talk about “having” identities, seeking identities, expressing identities, and even changing identities. And the emphasis on identity is not idle talk. Having become an arena of managerial attention and concern, identity‐related activities consume a growing amount of organizational resources and involve a wide variety of disciplines and practices across the organizational spectrum.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: Bartlett Jennifer L.
Published: September 2017

While there is no clear consensus on what corporate social responsibility (CSR) means, a widely held definition is that CSR encompasses “the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point of time” (Carroll 1979, 500). The rationale for the corporate social responsibility of a firm to society has shifted from the purely economic toward a broader conceptualization that includes the role of the stakeholder (→ Stakeholder Theory). Whereas the classical notion of an organization's social responsibilities centered on short‐term profit making (Friedman 1970), the alternative view focuses on an organization's reciprocal relationship with a range of stakeholders in society (Freeman 1984). Hence Sethi's suggestion (1979, 66) that corporate behavior should be congruent with the prevailing norms in society. Whetten et al. bring the stakeholder into sharp focus in their view of CSR as “societal expectations of corporate behavior: a behavior that is alleged by a stakeholder to be expected by society or morally required and is therefore justifiably demanded of business” (2002, 374).
Cost and Revenue Structures in the Media
Authors: Martin Hugh J.
Published: September 2017

Media rely on different combinations of revenue from consumers and advertisers to pay production costs and earn a profit. Reliance on either revenue source is determined by the characteristics of the media good, and by consumer and advertiser demand for the good. Consumers select media products that meet needs such as entertainment or information for decision‐making. Advertisers in turn select media that reach potential customers for the advertised products (→ Markets of the Media; Media Economics; Economies of Scale in Media Markets).
Course Organization Programs in Education
Authors: Yaros Ronald A.
Published: September 2017

Software programs and computer systems for organizing courses continue to grow in popularity and can be divided into two categories. The first category includes “standalone” computer hardware and software that is obtained by an institution and used onsite to deliver course‐related content (intranet; → Computers and Display Programs in Education). The second category is a server environment capable of delivering content to anyone anywhere in the world via the world wide web (→ Internet). Physical absence no longer prevents students from participating in an educational experience. A 2005 survey of 2,200 colleges by the Sloan Consortium reported that nearly 3.2 million students took at least one online course in the fall of 2005, up from 2.3 million in 2004 (Carnevale 2006). Such programs can reach students who are physically or geographically unable to attend school. Some distance learners can interact with teachers and their peers on a daily basis (→ Distance Education).
Credibility Effects
Authors: Jackob Nikolaus
Published: September 2017

The importance of credibility in human communication had already been recognized long before modern communication research emerged as a scientific discipline. For ancient rhetoricians like Aristotle or Cicero it was self‐evident that the credibility of a communicator had an important impact on the persuasiveness of his performance (→ Rhetorical Studies; Rhetoric, Greek). At the beginning of the twentieth century credibility became a central concept in communication research, first in → propaganda, later in other areas such as → advertising or → political communication. Today, the field of research is quite complex: different research traditions have bred a considerable number of definitions, operationalizations, and findings. Three major models of credibility can be distinguished: the source model, the recipient model, and the experience model. Modern research has come to the conclusion that there is no linear relationship between the credibility of a communication source and the effectiveness of its persuasive efforts. The magnitude as well as the persistence of credibility effects depend on several intervening variables (→ Journalists, Credibility of; Credibility of Content).
Cultural Products as Tradable Services
Authors: Wilkinson Kenton T.
Published: September 2017

In the communication field, the term “cultural product” refers to media artifacts such as → books, → Newspapers, → magazines, recorded music, films, → Television programs, and related audiovisual materials. “Cultural product” succinctly conveys the juxtaposition that renders these artifacts controversial: they express cultural values of societies that produce them, yet are economic goods created, distributed, and engaged by → audiences under market conditions (→ Culture Industries; Music Industry; Markets of the Media). Because of their power to influence a society's aesthetic and ideological environments, as well as its economy, the exchange of cultural products across political, cultural, and linguistic boundaries can be quite sensitive. Efforts to promote cultural products' creation and dissemination – and also to control their importation and circulation – have been undertaken by a variety of organizations in diverse contexts (Hesmondhalgh 2007). Historically this has involved less developed nations restricting importation of cultural products from more developed nations, although despite moves toward free trade, more developed nations have resisted cultural imports from their peers.
Cultural Studies
Authors: Grossberg Lawrence
Published: September 2017

Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary project that emerged in the mid‐twentieth century. It has had a significant presence in the field of communication since the late 1970s, as well as in other humanities and social sciences (→ Communication and Media Studies, History since 1968). Cultural studies is concerned with the place of culture in social change; it often starts by describing the ways discourses and other cultural practices are produced within, circulate through, and operate in the everyday life of human beings and the institutions of society in specific contexts. Its interest is in opening up new avenues for social and political change
Culture: Definitions and Concepts
Authors: Cobley Paul
Published: September 2017

Since at least the nineteenth century, culture has been one of the most difficult, richly connotative concepts to define. While it is widely accepted that its roots are to be found in the Latin verb
colere
, among whose associated meanings is “to cultivate,” this has been all but forgotten in ordinary language. Being a web of meaning in which social life is suspended, culture most commonly goes unnoticed, and requires detailed inquiry, or what the anthropologist Clifford Geertz (borrowing from the philosopher, Gilbert Ryle) called “thick description.” Geertz used Ryle's example of two boys in a room, rapidly contracting their right eyelids: is this a wink, a twitch, a deliberate message, to someone in particular, coded, without cognizance of the rest of the company? These and other preparatory questions have to be addressed before any analysis can reach an understanding of the “piled‐up structures of inferences and implications” (Geertz 1993, 7) that characterize communications in any culture. Culture, thus, can be said to consist of all the structures and processes of → meaning in which communication takes place.
Culture Industries
Authors: Elavsky C. Michael
Published: September 2017

The study of the culture industries has become increasingly more complex in the field of communications in light of the ways in which expanding research into their organization, activities, and logics connects with questions and arguments concerning culture, commercialism, and social control. Largely originating in Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer'sThe Dialectic of Enlightenment(1944), the term “culture industry” was initially utilized to critique the proliferation of commercial mass culture and what the authors perceived as the increasingly routinized techniques employed in the processes of cultural production (→ Critical Theory).
Cumulative Media Effects
Authors: Fan David
Published: September 2017

The proportion of people adopting an idea in society is the cumulative effect of all types of communication both interpersonal and through the mass media. Before widespread adoption, the idea spreads through social networks of limited size, with network members exchanging information in an interpersonal format that can range from face‐to‐face discussions to electronic communications including social media (→ Facebook) and blogs (→ Blogger) on the Internet. In interpersonal communications, information senders expect responses from receivers. Ideas spread more rapidly if their adopters are more vocal, more influential, and have the other traits that → Rogers (2003) ascribes to innovators and to early adopters for the diffusion of innovations (→ Diffusion of Information and Innovation).
Cybernetics
Authors: Krippendorff Klaus
Published: September 2017

Heron of Alexandria (first century
ad
) was the first chronicler of a peculiar mechanism capable of holding the flame of oil lamps steady. Later, similar mechanisms were found in water clocks. In the eighteenth century, they reappeared in the regulator of Watt's steam engine, which drove industrial production. Since 1910, engineers have called them servomechanisms. Norbert Wiener (1948, 1950), mathematician at MIT, realized that the theory underlying them had far wider applications, linked them to communication, and called the study of these phenomena “cybernetics … the science of control and communication in the animal and the machine” (→ Communication: History of the Idea). He derived “cybernetics” from the Greek
kybernetes
or “steersman.” Before him, Ampere had used the word to designate a science of government, without, however, developing the idea.
Carey, James
Authors: Packer Jeremy
Published: September 2017

James Carey was an American communication scholar who died in 2006. It is difficult to pinpoint his most important and lasting contribution to the field of communication as so many sub‐fields would like to claim him as their own. Was Carey the founder of a uniquely American → cultural studies, the United States' most prominent journalism educator and theorist, an eminent historian of communication technologies, a media ecologist, or an eminent member in a long tradition of religious communication scholars? Prominent scholars have answered each question in the affirmative. Such a breadth of admirers and adherents is testament not only to the power of his scholarship, but to his ability to inspire, nurture, and mentor an equally wide‐ranging cohort of graduate students.
Decision‐Making Processes in Organizations
Authors: Poole Marshall Scott , Ahmed Iftekhar
Published: September 2017

Organizational decision‐making is a primary process in organizations. It has been the subject of much research, and numerous prescriptive frameworks have been advanced. A facile analogy with individual decision‐making makes organizational decision processes seem relatively straightforward, but research has shown it to be complex and problematic.
Design Theory
Authors: Aakhus Mark
Published: September 2017

A central puzzle that people face is how to make possible communication that is otherwise difficult, impossible, or unimagined. Communication design is a response to this puzzle. It happens when there is an intervention into some ongoing activity through the invention of techniques, devices, or procedures. Such interventions redesign interactivity and thus shape the possibilities for communication. Design is evident in the choices made about how people in relationships, groups, organizations, and communities will speak to and interact with each other. The purpose of design theory is to open up the intentional design of communication as an object of inquiry in order to advance knowledge about communication.
Determination Theory in Public Relations
Authors: Raupp Juliana
Published: September 2017

Studies under the heading of determination theory focus on the question of how media content is produced (→ Media Production and Content). The main assumption is that news releases and other public relations material play a critical role in news‐gathering activities.
Deutsche Welle
Authors: Volkmer Ingrid
Published: September 2017

Deutsche Welle (DW) is a German news and information broadcasting channel that explicitly targets a worldwide audience. DW cannot be received within Germany.
Development Communication, Planning of
Authors: Storey J. Douglas
Published: September 2017

Effective development communication programs require a clearly defined strategy with specific goals established in advance. Communication goals may range from relatively short‐term changes in individual behavior (for example, improving health or environmental practices) to relatively long‐term changes in social or structural conditions (for example, increased economic opportunity, increased gender equity, improved environmental quality). Goals must align with → audience or stakeholder needs and achieving this match usually requires the involvement of stakeholders in the program planning stage, if not all stages of program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation (→ Stakeholder Theory). Unlike many other types of communication programs, development communication demands greater attention to social structural factors (Wilkins 2000) because change typically is sought at the societal level, not just the individual level. Also, longer‐term and macro‐structural changes usually require greater attention to self‐sustainability of communication activities, engaging whole communities and organizations (not just individuals) and creating mechanisms for ongoing participation by and coordination among stakeholder groups at multiple levels of social organization from the international and national level to the local and community level (→ Participatory Communication).
Development, Geometry of
Authors: Shah Hemant , Wilkins Karin Gwinn
Published: September 2017

Geometries of development refer to the spaces, shapes, and arrangements underlying the idea and practice of development. Similar to a classic definition of “geometry” as a physical arrangement of forms, discourses of development describe the arrangement of various actors within a global system. As used within development discourse, geometries of development describe the relationship among three elements: spaces, key points, and vectors. Boundaries demarcate the “edges” of various kinds of spatially based actors in a global system – such as nation‐states, regions, and transnational configurations. Points refer to key institutional sites where development policies and programs are formulated and implemented, such as government ministries and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), but also where policy may be resignified and resisted (e.g., social movements, nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], local governing bodies). Vectors are linkages among institutional and spatial actors characterized by directions of the flow of resources and benefits and by the strengths of the exercise of power. These relationships help create divisions of various kinds among actors and determine the overall shape of the structure of development. Thus, in the geometry of development framework, structural shape is somewhat contingent and fluid, created by the spatial boundaries and coordinates of actors in a global system. Further, the structural shape is characterized by hierarchically arranged actors whose places are formed historically by the vectoral relationships among those actors.
Development Institutions
Authors: Groshek Jacob , Seth Kiran
Published: September 2017

Development institutions are organizational bodies whose primary goals are to improve conditions in regions that have historically lacked basic levels of physical services and socio‐political rights. Many of these bodies engage communication for development strategies.
Diffusion of Information and Innovation
Authors: Dearing James W. , Kim Do Kyun
Published: September 2017

Diffusion
is a multifaceted perspective about social change in which people, innovations, and the media environment affect how rapidly change occurs. Scholars dating back at least to the German social philosopher Georg Simmel and the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde theorized about imitative behavior at the level of small groups and within communities, and the relation between these micro‐level processes to macro‐level social change. In the 100 years since, researchers have tended to conceptualize diffusion either at the macro sociological level of sector, system, national, or state change (Dearing et al. 2006), the social psychological or communicative level of local relationships and how those linkages affect adoption patterns as in the classic studies by Katz & Lazarsfeld (1955) and by Rogers & Kincaid (1981), or the psychological level of how individuals perceive innovations in the form of a codified set of pros and cons (Manning et al. 1995). Beginning in the 1960s, diffusion concepts have been operationalized and used to purposively spread pro‐social innovations through → development communication in Colombia, Pakistan, Brazil, Nigeria, India, Finland, Korea, Tanzania, Bolivia, and Vietnam (see, e.g., Puska et al. 1986).
Digital Divide
Authors: Ball‐Rokeach Sandra J. , Jung Joo‐Young
Published: September 2017

“The digital divide” terminology is often used in policy discourse to refer simply to access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). It is a misnomer in at least two ways. First, it suggests that there is something new and different about the particular information and communication inequalities that surround digital technologies, whereas it is just the most recent case of inequality spawned by the advent of new ICTs (→ Information and Communication Technology, Development of). Hence, we should include a historical perspective in our examination of communication technologies and inequality (see, e.g., Marvin 1988). Second, it is the definite article
the
in “the digital divide” that falsely suggests a single dimension dividing people into haves and have‐nots when it comes to ICTs.
Digital divides
are better conceived as occurring at multiple levels of analysis and as a multidimensional phenomenon (Norris 2001).
Direct‐to‐Consumer Advertising
Authors: Verhoef Peter C. , Hoekstra Janny C.
Published: September 2017

Marketing communication is often equated with mass → advertising using media such as → television, → radio, and print (→ Marketing). This is often referred to as above‐the‐line advertising. Besides these media, organizations can also use more directly targeted media, which include direct mail, telephone, email, mobile messaging, interactive consumer websites, online banners, → social media, etc. (→ Electronic Mail). This is referred to as below‐the‐line advertising or direct‐to‐consumer advertising. Spending on below‐the‐line advertising exceeds above‐the‐line advertising by 35% in the US (Winterberry Group 2011). Moreover, below‐the‐line advertising spending increases by 5.8 percent per year, while spending on above‐the‐line advertising decreases by 1.7 percent. These figures emphasize the importance of below‐the‐line advertising.
Discourse Analysis
Authors: Scheufele Bertram
Published: September 2017

Like qualitative content analysis and → Grounded Theory, discourse analysis can be conceived as a qualitative empirical method of analyzing mostly recorded human communication (→ Content Analysis, Qualitative). The term itself was first introduced to the public by Zellig Harris in the early 1950s, but used rather unsystematically. In general terms, discourse analysis serves for analyzing written or spoken language use within a society or in public – like public discourse about abortion in Germany and the United States or like the anti‐Semitism discourse in postwar Austria. As one can tell from issues like abortion or racism, discourse analysis quite often implies a normative element. For instance, the critical discourse approach (e.g., Ruth Wodak, Teun A. van Dijk) asks about social hierarchies by studying language as a form of social practice. This approach is thus convinced that social and political domination is reproduced by speech, talk, and discourse.
Discourse Comprehension
Authors: Ellis Donald G.
Published: September 2017

Discourse comprehension is the act of interpreting a written or spoken message by integrating the incoming information into the memory or knowledge structures of the interpreter. As such it involves building meaning from both small and extended segments of language including conversations, articles, novels, and so on.
Discursive Psychology
Authors: te Molder Hedwig
Published: September 2017

Discursive psychology examines how psychological issues are made relevant and put to use in everyday talk. Unlike traditional psychological perspectives, discursive psychology does not approach the question of what psychology comprises and explains from an analyst's perspective. Instead the focus is on how psychological characteristics are made available, ascribed, and resisted by people
themselves
, as part of the social actions performed in and through talk.
Dissent in Organizations
Authors: Kassing Jeffrey W.
Published: September 2017

Employee dissent occurs when employees express their disagreement or contradictory opinions about workplace policies and practices to various audiences. The most notable and obvious cases of dissent occur when employees engage in whistleblowing by dissenting to industry regulatory bodies, the media, or both. However, not all employees feel the need to voice their concerns in this manner. Rather, employees often express their dissent within organizations either directly to their supervisors, often referred to as upward dissent, or to their co‐workers, known as lateral dissent. Additionally, employees may choose to speak with family and nonwork friends about their concerns, by engaging in displaced dissent (Kassing 1997, 1998).
Distribution
Authors: Bates Benjamin J.
Published: September 2017

Communication requires the distribution of information from its creator to audiences, through some medium (→ Diffusion of Information and Innovation). This may occur in simple ways, such as talking (→ Interpersonal Communication), through broadcast networks (→ Radio; Television), or through the production and physical distributions of fixed forms such as → newspapers or → books. Distribution systems can be thought of as networks connecting senders and receivers, with structural limitations that can impact on what information can be sent, and to whom. It is the “channel” in Shannon and Weaver's information theory model (1963; → Models of Communication; Communication Networks). While the concept of distributing information can be broadly applied, the characteristics and economics of distribution are of particular importance to mass communication, where the economic and technological features of distribution systems influence the definition of media and their markets (→ Markets of the Media). Media can be defined and differentiated, in fact, as specific distribution technologies for information. Media markets can be defined in part by the reach and scope of a particular distribution system for a media good or service. And the viability and function of media and markets depend on the economics of particular distribution systems.
Diversity in the Workplace
Authors: Allen Brenda J.
Published: September 2017

Diversity has become an important topic in workplaces around the world, as nations experience changes in demographics. Many countries are adjusting to increases in numbers of nontraditional workers, especially women, older persons, and people with disabilities. Meanwhile, due to global economics, industrialized areas are witnessing influxes of skilled and unskilled migrants seeking employment (→ Migration and Immigration) (Cheney & Barnett 2005). Also, multinational corporations are setting up subsidiaries in foreign locations, where local workers interact with co‐workers and executives from the companies' headquarters (→ Communication Networks; Meeting Technologies; Network Organizations through Communication Technology; Technology and Globalization). Thus, people from diverse places with diverse expertise, experience, and expectations are encountering one another at work, where they confront differences in value systems, language skills, and communication styles. As organizations accommodate these workers, they also must serve diverse clientele/consumers in various cultural and geographic contexts.
Election Surveys
Authors: Petersen Thomas
Published: September 2017

Election research has played a decisive part in the development of the methods of → survey research from the beginning. More than market and media research, election research has awoken, in a special way, the curiosity and the ambition of researchers, and thus strongly affected empirical social research. It is significant that the breakthroughs of both the modern method of the representative survey and of empirical methods in communication research are connected with studies in electoral choice (→ Research Methods).
Emotion
Authors: Burleson Brant R. , Rack Jessica J.
Published: September 2017

Emotion is a core part of human experience and, as such, plays a central role in numerous aspects of human communication. Contemporary communication research examines how emotion influences various communication processes and outcomes, how different aspects of communication influence diverse emotional states, and the multiple ways in which emotional states are expressed during the course of interactions.
Emotion and Discourse
Authors: Bloch Charlotte
Published: September 2017

Human emotionality is an ongoing stream that pervades every aspect of social life, talk, conversation, and discourse. Emotions are appraisals of situations; they have somatic bodily characteristics and their expressions can take nonverbal forms (facial, vocal, posture; → emotion). Theoretical approaches to the emotional dimensions of discourse are found within three traditions of research: psychology of emotions, sociology of emotions, and psycho‐ and socio‐linguistics. Although Charles Darwin's pioneering work in this field emphasized that different emotions are expressed in particular ways on a vocal level as well as a facial level, the vocal level has been rather ignored, both in classical psychological works (Tomkins 1963) and in the later development of this field. The same tendency has characterized the development of psycholinguistic research.
Emotional Arousal Theory
Authors: Zillmann Dolf
Published: September 2017

Arousal is commonly construed as the experience of restlessness, excitation, and agitation. It manifests itself in heightened overt and covert bodily activities that create a readiness for action (→ Physical Effects of Media Content). Acute states of such arousal characterize all vital emotions, and the subjective experience of these acute states is part and parcel of all strong feelings. Emotional arousal is consequently seen as an essential component of such experiences as pleasure and displeasure, sadness and happiness, love and hate, despair and elation, gaiety and dejection, rage and exultation, exhilaration and grief, frustration and triumph, merriment and fear, anger and joy, and so on (→ emotion).
Entertainment Education
Authors: Cody Michael J. , Sabido Miguel
Published: September 2017

Entertainment education is defined as the “process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members' knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, shift social norms, and change over behavior” (Singhal & Rogers 2004, 5). Parables, fables, and morality plays have been used for centuries not only to entertain but also to transmit knowledge of history, culture, values, and life lessons. Modern entertainment education includes designing a campaign strategy that incorporates radio and television dramas, talk programs, comedies, music, → animation, participatory theatre, interactive websites, and → video games, largely to promote health and social issues (Singhal et al. 2004; → Drama in Media Content; Broadcast Talk; Situation Comedies).
Environment and Social Interaction
Authors: Patterson Miles L.
Published: September 2017

Every face‐to‐face interaction occurs in a specific location. It is typically assumed that the course of particular interactions is a direct product of the individuals involved and their relationships to one another. Nevertheless, the surrounding environment has a critical influence on patterns of interaction (Oishi & Graham 2010; Patterson & Quadflieg 2015).
Environmental Communication
Authors: Griffin Robert J. , Dunwoody Sharon
Published: September 2017

“Environmental communication” refers to communication about the natural environment and ecosystem, commonly focusing on the relationships that human beings and their institutions maintain with the nonhuman natural environment. Much of this communication, historically, has been generated by concern about various environmental problems and issues (global warming, energy, smog, extinction of species, land uses, population growth, water quality, to name but a handful). Some messages, such as Rachel Carson's popular and controversial book
Silent Spring
, published in the early 1960s, which revealed the dangerous side effects of pesticides, have been credited with spurring public concern and major policy changes. However, there has also been a strong thread in literature and storytelling in many cultures that urges people, often through descriptive imagery, to appreciate beauty and harmony in nature (or, in some cases, to fear nature). Sometimes, of course, nature description has also been a vehicle for teaching social and ethical values and ecological principles and for alerting people to environmental issues (e.g., Henry David Thoreau's
Walden
and Aldo Leopold's
A Sand County Almanac
).
Ethics of Media Content
Authors: Plaisance Patrick Lee
Published: September 2017

Questions of media ethics address the way media practitioners – journalists, public relations (PR) representatives, bloggers, technical support staff – resolve various types of dilemmas they face, as well as the value judgments that media audiences make regarding media content and performance. What does it mean to be “responsible” as a media professional? How should journalists balance the need for sensitivity with their mission to convey accurate, comprehensive depictions of events? What should a PR practitioner do when the interests of a business client conflict with professional values of public service and transparency? How do newspaper readers and television viewers expect news organizations to minimize potential harm to people without sanitizing the news? These are examples of key questions that concern media ethicists. As such questions make clear, ethics generally is not concerned with defining “right” and “wrong,” which is the subject of the broader field of moral philosophy. Instead, ethics provides tools to help navigate “gray” areas in which conflicting or competing solutions may be legitimately argued. The purpose of ethics, then, is not to provide clear‐cut answers regarding what constitutes good behavior or the “right” thing to do, but to enable people to resolve conflicts and dilemmas by asking the right questions based on the promotion and prioritization of key ethical principles and values.
Ethnic Journalism
Authors: Lazarte‐Morales Anahí
Published: September 2017

Ethnic journalism is the practice of journalism by, for, and about ethnic groups. Because ethnicity is a historical and relational construction (Jackson & Garner 1998), the interplay of power and difference is central to the ways scholarly research defines ethnic media. Ethnic journalism relates to how difference is recreated and connected to the social, political, and economic participation of ethnic groups. Ethnicity is a membership formulated around a shared history, religion, cultural ancestry, geographical region, race, or language, which generates a sense of belonging among particular groups. By this definition, all news media are ethnic. What sets ethnic journalism apart as a distinct category is the involvement of ethnically differentiated groups living within a dominant culture. The literature on ethnic media and journalism maintains conceptualizations of ethnicity marked by contexts of disenfranchisement and limited access to media production (→ Access to the Media).
Ethnic Media and their Influence
Authors: Appiah Osei
Published: September 2017

Ethnic media are media vehicles (e.g., specific programs, publications, promotional pieces) that carry culturally relevant messages designed for and targeted to a particular ethnic group. Studies have demonstrated the rapid growth and success of ethnic media in North America and throughout the world (Deuze 2006; Gross 2006; Ojo 2006). In the past, media planners were guided by the assumption that they could capture ethnic minority audiences using the same general messages and mainstream media that appealed to majority audiences (Askey 1995). However, given the current extent, growth rates, and buying power of ethnic minority members' media use patterns, and better understanding of this, there has been a greater effort to target ethnic minorities with culturally relevant media and messages (→ Ethnicity and Exposure to Communication). In fact, research suggests that ethnic media rather than mainstream media may be the most effective way to reach and persuade minority groups (La Ferle & Lee 2005).
Ethos and Rhetoric
Authors: Hyde Michael J.
Published: September 2017

Ethos, commonly translated as “ethics” and “moral character,” is a fundamental term in the history of the western rhetorical tradition. For “who does not know,” writes the ancient Greek philosopher and rhetorician Isocrates, “that words carry greater conviction when spoken by men of good repute than when spoken by men who live under a cloud, and that the argument which is made by a man's life has more weight than that which is furnished by words?” (Isocrates 1982, 278; → Rhetoric, Greek). Ethos is both a legitimating source for and a praiseworthy effect of the ethical practice of the orator's art. Heeding the call of public service as a person of “good repute,” the orator's presence and rhetorical competence are a “showing‐forth” (
epideixis
) of a “principled self” that instructs the moral consciousness and actions of others and thereby serves as a possible catalyst for them to do the same for the good of their community.
Experiment, Field
Authors: Weaver James B.
Published: September 2017

Research utilizing experimentation is increasingly being conducted in venues outside the research laboratory (→ Experiment, Laboratory; Experimental Design). Such projects, when they involve the manipulation of an independent variable in realistic circumstances, are called “field experiments.” Natural experiments, involving research conducted in realistic circumstances where the researcherdoes notmanipulate the independent variable, are discussed elsewhere (→ Experiment, Natural).
Fairness Doctrine
Authors: Youm Kyu Ho
Published: September 2017

The Fairness Doctrine, from its inception in the 1940s to its demise in the 1980s, epitomizes American broadcast law in flux. In adopting the broadcast policy, the → Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States intended broadcast licensees to make reasonable effort to discuss controversial issues
and
to do it fairly by affording equal treatment to conflicting viewpoints. But the doctrine was abolished in 1987 by the Reagan administration, which thought it had outlived its usefulness (→ United States of America: Media System; Radio Broadcasting, Regulation of; Television Broadcasting, Regulation of).
False Uniqueness
Authors: Ostman Ronald E.
Published: September 2017

A person expresses false uniqueness, an inaccurate social comparison, when that individual perceives that differences between his or her own attitudes, abilities, and behaviors and those of others are larger than they really are (Suls & Wan 1987). This difference is thought especially prevalent when one's own behavior is desirable and the individual estimates the prevalence of others exhibiting, or willing to exhibit, the same or similar behaviors (Monin & Norton 2003) (→ Pluralistic Ignorance; Pluralistic Ignorance and Ideological Biases). The result is an underestimate of how common one's desirable attributes and successful behaviors are in relation to those of others and one essentially casts oneself in the role of “better than thou.”
Feedback Processes in Organizations
Authors: Waldron Vincent R.
Published: September 2017

Engineers have linked the concepts of feedback and enhanced performance since the time of the industrial revolution, but the term “feedback” was coined only in 1948 by cybernetic theorist Norbert Weiner. In this early work, feedback was a
signal
which indicated a discrepancy between the
goal
of a system and its current state (→ Cybernetics). Based on feedback, systems could recalibrate and improve performance. Research on the concept expanded rapidly as managers came to believe that effectively communicated feedback could increase the motivation and performance of individual employees. Given this understanding, researchers worked to understand the psychological mechanisms people used to encode performance signals and adjust their work output. However, by the 1980s, it became obvious that the cybernetic model was only modestly successful in accounting for the complexity of human feedback processes. Further progress would come when researchers addressed such neglected factors as the linguistic qualities of feedback messages, relational and cultural context, interactivity, and the construction of meaning (Cusella 1987; Fairhurst 2001).
Feminine Mystique
Authors: Bradley Patricia
Published: September 2017

The 1963 publication ofThe feminine mystiqueby Betty Friedan (1921–2006) is certainly linked to, and sometimes considered the starting date of, the second wave of feminism in the US. Despite a lackluster “launch” by its publisher, the book quickly became a brisk seller in its hardback edition and went on to sell 1.5 million copies when it was issued in paperback a year later. The book remains available after a dozen republications, including one in 2001, more than forty years after it first appeared. Its title, a phrase that Friedan coined, has come to represent the accumulation of expectations attached to women, especially those that are dissonant and conflicting. Friedan called this liminal status, wherein women are dissatisfied but cannot quite identify why, as “the problem that has no name.”
Feminist Communication Ethics
Authors: Steiner Linda
Published: September 2017

Feminist ethics is concerned with how people can live together with others in healthy, productive ways and how we can build social or political structures to support this. As a way of thinking and acting that is fundamentally transformative and concerned with human good, feminism is itself normative. Its resistance to codification and preference for contextualization mean that its applications for communication and media are implied, rather than explicit; feminist philosophers, especially ethicists, rarely focus on media per se. Nonetheless, feminist ethics – derived from feminist insights and theories – is highly relevant to communication and media, as practices and as subjects of research (→ Ethics in Journalism; Ethics of Media Content).
Feminist Communication Ethics
Authors: Steiner Linda
Published: September 2017

Feminist ethics is concerned with how people can live together with others in healthy, productive ways and how we can build social or political structures to support this. As a way of thinking and acting that is fundamentally transformative and concerned with human good, feminism is itself normative. Its resistance to codification and preference for contextualization mean that its applications for communication and media are implied, rather than explicit; feminist philosophers, especially ethicists, rarely focus on media per se. Nonetheless, ethics derived from feminist insights and theories is highly relevant to communication and media, as practices and as subjects of research (→ Ethics in Journalism; Ethics of Media Content).
Festinger, Leon
Authors: Donsbach Wolfgang
Published: September 2017

Leon Festinger was one of the most important figures in modern psychology and contributed several theories that are still important today for our understanding of the communication process, particularly the individual's exposure to communication and processes of opinion formation and judgment (→ Cognitive Dissonance Theory; Exposure to Communication Content; Social Comparison Theory). Born in 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, as the son of Russian immigrants, Festinger received his first training in psychology at the University of Iowa under the famous German‐born social psychologist Kurt Lewin. After World War II he followed Lewin as an assistant professor to the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, in a group of other avant‐garde psychologists, Lewin and Festinger developed the standards for modern experiment‐based research on perception and group dynamics. It was during his time at MIT that Festinger authored his theory of informal social communication (1950), in which he described the influence of group pressure on the individual's attitudes and behaviors.
Fiction
Authors: Ryan Marie‐Laure
Published: September 2017

Fiction is intuitively understood and widely used, both in the public at large and among specialists of literary theory, to refer to a representation not committed to the truth. Yet, the concept is as difficult to define technically as it is easy to recognize. Unlike lies, fiction is not deceptive, and unlike honest error, it is not mistaken (→ Fantasy–Reality Distinction).
Framing Effects
Authors: Scheufele Dietram A.
Published: September 2017

There is no single commonly accepted definition of framing in the field of communication. In fact, political communication scholars have offered a variety of conceptual and operational approaches to framing that all differ with respect to their underlying assumptions, the way they define frames and framing, their operational definitions, and very often also the criterion variables.
Framing of the News
Authors: Pan Zhongdang
Published: September 2017

Framing of news has become a lively interdisciplinary research area in recent years. The sprawling growth of this research area has its roots both in the intellectual ferment spurred by the “linguistic turn” of social theories and political practices in the era of mediated politics. Although the extant framing studies vary in precise conceptual definitions and theoretical foci, one can find some general agreements; that is, framing is a process of social actors using symbolic means to structure the social world (Reese 2001).
Freedom of Information
Authors: Halstuk Martin E.
Published: September 2017

At the dawn of the twenty‐first century, dozens of nations that had newly adopted democracy joined the world's established democracies in experiencing a sea change in governance with the rise of transparency. This global movement is grounded in the accountability principle that, in an open and free society, citizens have a right of access to government‐held information, so they can hold government responsible for its actions and make informed decisions pertaining to self‐rule. As of 2009, a public right of access to the vast stores of information gathered by governmental administrative bodies has been created in at least 72 nations under the general rubric of “freedom of information” (or FOI) laws. From 2000 to 2009 alone, 37 nations passed FOI laws (→ Communication and Law).
Functional Analysis
Authors: Kunczik Michael
Published: September 2017

Functionalism regards society as an interdependent and self‐regulating social system tending toward equilibrium. The goal of functional analysis is to establish to what extent the parts (subsystems) contribute to the functioning of the system as a whole (→ Systems Theory).
Flow Theory
Authors: Kalch Anja , Bilandzic Helena
Published: September 2017

Flow is a state sustained by intrinsic motivation that describes the desirable experience of being completely immersed in an activity (→ Involvement with Media Content), during which other stimuli present in the surroundings are not attended to (Csikszentmihalyi 1988).
Facebook
Authors: Matheson Donald
Published: September 2017

Facebook is the world's largest social networking service (SNS; → Social Media). Launched in 2004, it quickly extended beyond a network linking students at Harvard University into a vast site where personal relationships are performed and aspects of commercial and public life carried out.