bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Domestication of Technology
Authors: Hartmann Maren
Published: September 2017

The domestication of technology is an approach within the area of media appropriation studies. It describes the process of media (technology) adoption in everyday life, and especially within households. It outlines several dimensions of this dynamic adoption process in the context of the household as a
moral economy
and through the concept of the
double articulation
of media as technology. Two major strands of the domestication approach have been developed, only one of which is clearly within the field of media and communication studies. The other is located in the field of social studies of technology (e.g., Lie & Sorensen 1997). Other fields have come to the forefront in recent years (e.g., design research).
Drama in Media Content
Authors: Scodari Christine
Published: September 2017

On the terrain of popular communication are cultural artifacts with a potential to entertain, inform, or persuade. Accordingly, dramatic media content has been investigated by way of five interdependent perspectives: (1) genre (→ Film Genres), (2) medium, (3) narrative, (4) ideology, and (5) → meaning. Especially with regard to film and → television, this generic designation has been fluid, with shifting parameters and a tendency toward what Altman (1999) and others have called “genre mixing.” Television awards and DVD sellers may broadly distinguish drama from comedy, but scholars often treat what might otherwise be considered sub‐genres of drama as genres in their own right. So, any scripted, narrative program or film that is not comedy, and which cannot be neatly classified under another, more specific brand such as Western, soap opera, film noir, melodrama, science fiction, action, or suspense/thriller, is designated simply as a drama. For instance, television features medical, legal, crime/espionage, political, and teen dramas, among others.
E‐Commerce
Authors: Steinfield Charles
Published: September 2017

Throughout history, innovations in communication technology have been associated with important developments in the manner in which people and organizations engage in economic exchanges of goods and services (Beniger 1986; → Information Society). In the past several decades, communication technology researchers have examined the social and economic implications of the use of computer networks as a medium for supporting commercial exchange, an activity that is broadly termed
electronic or e‐commerce
.
Economies of Scale in Media Markets
Authors: Bourreau Marc
Published: September 2017

Since Samuelson (1958), the economic literature has considered that production in the media industries (films, TV programs, music, etc.) is characterized by high fixed costs and economies of scale. For instance, the costs of creating a TV program are high, but the incremental cost of physical distribution to an additional consumer is very low or even nil. Broadcast television should therefore exhibit large economies of scale.
Educational Communication
Authors: Rubin Rebecca B.
Published: September 2017

Educational communication is an umbrella term that encompasses all speaking, listening, and relational constructs and concepts that relate to learning. In the past, researchers have been interested in characteristics of teachers that enhance or hinder learning; student characteristics that increase or inhibit learning; teaching strategies that augment learning; how best to give criticism of student writing and speeches; how best to evaluate student work; how public speaking is best taught; and what should be taught in speech communication and media curricula (Staton‐Spicer & Wulff 1984). More recent work has expanded to the effects of media on children, child development processes, and the use of pedagogical methods and newer technologies to facilitate classroom or distance education (Waldeck et al. 2001). This essay includes discussion of some of the major and fairly consistent lines of research and findings that have emerged over the years.
Educational Media
Authors: Fisch Shalom M.
Published: September 2017

The idea of using mass media for educational purposes is by no means a new one. Books, songs, games: all of these are forms of media that have served as effective educational tools for centuries. In the case of electronic media, however, many discussions of the media's impact on children focus only on negative effects, such as the influences of violent media (→ Violence as Media Content, Effects of). However, such discussions do not, by any means, comprise the entire range of media effects. Just as negative media content can give rise to negative effects, positive media content can – and does – give rise to positive effects as well.
Egypt: Media System
Authors: Richter Carola
Published: September 2017

Egypt occupies a leading political and cultural role in the Arab world as the region's most populous state, with 83 million inhabitants. Until 1914, Egypt officially belonged to the Ottoman Empire. However, British economic and geopolitical interests in the region turned Egypt into a semi‐colony from 1882 to 1952. The ongoing struggle for independence culminated in the Free Officers Revolution in 1952, which established a nationalist regime. Islam plays a minor but visible role in official politics and legislation. Despite Egypt formally being a parliamentary democracy, the authoritarian president pulls the political strings.
Embedded Journalists
Authors: Mosdell Nick
Published: September 2017

The concept of journalists accompanying troops into combat is not new, but the scale and manner of media operations on the battlefield transformed in the 2003 Iraq war. The change in terminology from → “war correspondent” to “embedded journalist” gave rise to debates among media, military, and other commentators about the implications for the coverage of current and future conflicts (→ Conflict as Media Content).
Empathy Theory
Authors: Zillmann Dolf
Published: September 2017

Empathy is a social → emotion. It comes in response to bearing witness to the emotions of others, usually persons but also other beings thought capable of experiencing emotions. Prototypically, an empathic reaction is evoked by the immediate observation of others' acute emotions, and it manifests itself in an emotional experience that the witness believes to have some degree of similarity with the witnessed emotions.
Endorsement
Authors: Gaziano Cecilie
Published: September 2017

Newspapers report → political news and may also attempt to influence voting decisions through editorial endorsements, that is, formally stated support of political candidates or parties (→ Election Campaign Communication). In countries following the US and British system of organizing newsrooms, the news media have separate news and editorial staffs and pages, although it is not unusual for a news editor to sit on the editorial board. In other news systems, e.g., in most continental European countries, it is quite common that the same individual journalists who cover the news might also write editorials about the same events (Esser 1998). Nevertheless, in all systems the editorial goal is to give meaning and context to news and complex issues, whereas news reporting seeks to be impartial (→ Balance; Objectivity in Reporting). Many newspapers try to present a range of viewpoints in the editorial pages, such as letters to the editor and opinion columns from various sources, including the → Public. The editorial staffers meet to discuss and vote on positions; however, publishers sometimes overrule them. The larger the newspaper, the easier it is to maintain separation of news and opinion. Other media endorse less frequently than newspapers.
English‐Only Movements
Authors: Barker Valerie E.
Published: September 2017

English‐only movements seek to establish English as the official language of a nation, part of a nation, or a colony. As such (as with other dominant languages), English acts as a communicator of social identity (→ Personality Development and Communication) and a vehicle of culture and economic power (→ Power in Intergroup Settings). Although proponents of English‐only cite concerns about the erosion of English as a primary language, English is often seen as a language of wider communication, a world language, the language of globalization, and of the Internet. Underlying these descriptors is the notion of English as somehow “neutral” and non‐threatening to multilingualism. Historically though, English either spread to or was imposed on minorities, indigenous populations and colonized peoples. This occurred first under English monarchies and the British Empire, exemplified by its imposition upon the Scots, Welsh, and Irish as well as its use almost exclusively in education systems of far‐flung colonies like India and Africa. In the USA, Native Americans were systematically punished for non‐English use and their children educated in boarding schools in order to diminish indigenous languages. Recently, English has come to be considered a “lingua franca” largely because of the number of English speakers (native and non‐native) in the EU and because of USA corporate dominance globally (→ Media Conglomerates). Thus, among those of “Anglo‐Saxon” origin especially, English has served as a tool for maintaining the proverbial upper hand and consequently possesses high linguistic vitality (→ Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Communication).
Escapism
Authors: Klimmt Christoph
Published: September 2017

Escapism was introduced as an explanation for people's use of entertainment media in the 1950s. The tremendous popularity of entertainment programming in radio and, especially at the beginning of the 1960s, in television inspired communication researchers to discuss the reasons why mass audiences felt attracted to these programs and what consequences should be expected from this development (→ Audience). Escapism – a Latin‐based term that could be translated as “tendency to evade one's current situation or environment” – was elaborated as an important motivation of entertainment consumption (→ Enjoyment/Entertainment Seeking; Selective Exposure). The concept centers on the assumption that diversion and distraction from real‐life circumstances are desires felt by many individuals in many situations, and that entertainment media can serve the purpose of diversion very effectively. The most influential reflection on escapism was authored by Katz and Foulkes (1962). Their work exemplifies that escapism theory and research was dedicated both to motivational determinants of entertainment use and implications of escapist media consumption for the individual and society at large.
Ethnicity and Exposure to Communication
Authors: Wilkin Holley A.
Published: September 2017

We live in an increasingly diverse world, not only in terms of ethnic heritage, but also in the forms of communication available. With so many information resources to choose from, how do we make sure that communication campaigns reach target audiences? Ethnicity is often implicated in the formation of knowledge gaps, in which certain portions of the population receive and gain knowledge through the media at a faster rate than others, creating a difference between information “haves” and “have‐nots” (→ Knowledge Gap Effects). As a result, the issue of ethnicity and exposure to communication becomes particularly important when trying to ensure equal access to → Information pertinent to life in the twenty‐first century.
Ethnography of Communication
Authors: Carbaugh Donal
Published: September 2017

What are the means of communication used by people when they conduct their everyday lives; and what meanings does this communication have for them? These are central questions guiding the ethnography of communication. The ethnography of communication is an approach, a perspective, and a method for studying culturally distinctive means and meanings of communication. The approach has been used to produce hundreds of research reports about locally patterned practices of communication, and has focused attention primarily on the situated uses of language. It has also been productively applied to various other means and media of communication including oral and printed literature, broadcast media, writing systems, various gestural dynamics, silence, visual signs, the Internet, and so on.
Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Communication
Authors: Bourhis Richard Y.
Published: September 2017

The vitality of language communities can affect the quality of intergroup communication between speakers of contrasting language groups. This is the case where accent, dialect, and language not only provide important cues for the categorization of speakers, but also serve as salient dimensions of ethnic identity. Vitality is defined as “that which makes a group likely to behave as a distinctive and collective entity within the intergroup setting” (Giles et al. 1977, 308; → Collective Action and Communication). The more vitality an ethnolinguistic group enjoys, the more it will be able to use its own language so as to survive and thrive as a collective entity.
Ethnomethodology
Authors: Raymond Geoffrey
Published: September 2017

Harold Garfinkel introduced the term “ethnomethodology” (by analogy to “ethnoscience”) in the 1950s and 1960s and gave the approach its fullest explication in his widely influential
Studies in ethnomethodology
(1967). Ethnomethodology consists of the effort to discover and analyze generic practices –
methods –
found across different occasions by which people in concert with one another deal with the concrete particularities of their circumstances and actions. Though initially misrepresented and trivialized in some corners (owing to a range of factors, including the chaotic state of social theory in the 1960s and, to a lesser extent, Garfinkel's complex writing style), ethnomethodology is now widely recognized as having provided a radically transformed basis for a science of social life. Garfinkel's theoretical writings furnished social scientists a powerful alternative approach to a core set of issues that underpin any social theory: the organization of social action; the social constitution of knowledge; and how two or more people develop and sustain a shared – or intersubjective – grasp of the world and each other's actions (Heritage 1984). Garfinkel laid out his profoundly novel approach to social life in series of papers that involved studies of mundane settings (such as record keeping, jurors' methods for making decisions, and the like) and reports on the results of his now famous breaching experiments.
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.
European Court of Human Rights
Authors: Kozlowski Dan V.
Published: September 2017

The European Court of Human Rights, established by and solely responsible for interpreting the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention), is arguably the most developed and respected international court. Its caseload has swelled in the past two decades thanks in part to its growing legitimacy and to the Council of Europe's expansion since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Court delivered 36 judgments in the 1960s and 1970s. By comparison, it issued 1,560 judgments in 2006. The Court is increasingly seen as a legitimate influence with a vital role to play in protecting individual freedom throughout Europe (→ Communication Law and Policy: Europe).
Evolutionary Theory
Authors: Schwab Frank
Published: September 2017

While social sciences of the twentieth century could be characterized by endeavors to “de‐biologize” human nature, evolutionary thinking has become increasingly presentable in scientific rationale. The most influential approach utilizing evolutionary theory to answer questions in respect of communication is evolutionary psychology (EP). EP (or Darwinian psychology) is focused on how evolution has shaped human mental architecture. EP is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain mental traits (cognitive architecture) as adaptations, i.e., as functional products of natural or sexual selection. This approach introduces the functional way of thinking about biological mechanisms to the field of psychology.
Excellence Theory in Public Relations
Authors: Grunig James E.
Published: September 2017

The excellence theory is a general theory of public relations that resulted from a 15‐year study of best practices in communication management funded by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation. Three books were published from the research (J. E. Grunig 1992; Dozier et al. 1995; L. A. Grunig et al. 2002). This general theory incorporates a number of middle‐range theories of → Public Relations, including theories of publics, public relations and strategic management, models of public relations, evaluation of public relations, employee communication, public relations roles, gender, diversity, power, activism, ethics and social responsibility, and global public relations (→ Public Relations Evaluation). The theory was tested through survey research of heads of public relations, CEOs, and employees in 327 organizations (corporations, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and associations) in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom (→ Survey; Interview). The survey research was followed by qualitative interviews with heads of public relations, other public relations practitioners, and CEOs in 25 organizations with the highest and lowest scores on a scale of excellence produced by statistical analysis of the survey data (→ Interview, Qualitative).
Exemplification and Exemplars, Effects of
Authors: Daschmann Gregor
Published: September 2017

The term “exemplification effect” describes the influence of illustrating and aggregating case descriptions in media presentations on the recipients' perceptions of issues. Aggregating case descriptions emerges whenever media coverage presents any kind of generalizing claim about natural or social phenomena and an arbitrarily selected sample of single cases to illustrate the issue at hand. General claims (e.g., “growing poverty in society”) often are supported by presenting quantitative information (so‐called “base‐rate information”) about a large number of cases (e.g., statistics about poverty; → Statistics, Descriptive).
Expectancy Violation
Authors: Guerrero Laura K.
Published: September 2017

People have expectations about how others should and will act in a given situation. Some expectations are based on personal knowledge about an individual, relationship, or situation. Other expectations are based on rules of social and cultural appropriateness. When a communicator's behavior deviates from these expectations, an
expectancy violation
has occurred.
Experimental Design
Authors: Weaver James B.
Published: September 2017

Experimental design provides the logical architecture for scientific research examining causal relationships. Most people intuitively recognize causal relationships. It is not uncommon to hear, for instance, that increased time studying caused an improved test grade, that a “sweet tooth” enabled a friend's weight gain, or that traffic congestion instigated a “road rage” incident. The tendency to attribute causality, often spontaneously, in commonsense explanations of everyday behaviors punctuates both private and public discourse and appears a distinctively human characteristic (Frey et al. 2000).
Exposure to Communication Content
Authors: Vorderer Peter
Published: September 2017

“Exposure to communication content” describes one of the most recent areas of specialization within the communication discipline. It is located at the intersection of → Media Effects research and audience research, two academic traditions that have remained relatively separate. Over the past half a century, the well‐established tradition of media effects research has revealed a rather complex and increasingly differentiated view of the individual and social processes that underlie and accompany notable changes in people's thinking, feeling, and behavior, caused by exposure to media content. The more recent work in this area has considered not only psychological mechanisms that manifest themselves in people's minds or behaviors some time
after
they have been exposed to communication content, but has also studied what happens
while
those individuals or groups are responding to media content or immediately after doing so. Book titles like
Selective exposure to communication
(Zillmann & Bryant 1985) or
Responding to the screen
(Bryant & Zillmann 1991) seem to indicate this trend and demonstrate that media effects research has become more involved with psychological
processes
rather than only with the end result. Conceptual and theoretical differentiations have also evolved, e.g., various attempts to distinguish between short‐ and long‐term effects, or between their cognitive, affective, and behavioral manifestations (→ Affects and Media Exposure; Media Effects Duration). But, despite multiple conceptual differentiations in this area of research, which also include distinctions between observations and explanations of effects at psychological (micro) versus sociological (macro) levels of analysis, media effects research maintains its focus on the consequences of exposure to media rather than on exposure itself. Meanwhile, the work focusing on “exposure” itself and on the individual and social processes that accompany exposure has outgrown the more traditional lines of research on media effects by simultaneously expanding its scope and differentiating its levels of analysis.
Exposure to Communication Content
Authors: Vorderer Peter , Reinecke Leonard
Published: September 2017

“Exposure to communication content” describes one of the most recent areas of specialization within the communication discipline. It is located at the intersection of → media effects research and audience research, two academic traditions that have remained relatively separate. Over the past half a century, the well‐established tradition of media effects research has revealed a rather complex and increasingly differentiated view of the individual and social processes that underlie and accompany notable changes in people's thinking, feeling, and behavior, caused by exposure to media content. The more recent work in this area has not only considered psychological mechanisms that manifest themselves in people's minds or behaviors some time
after
they have been exposed to communication content, but also studied what happens
while
those individuals or groups are responding to media content or immediately after doing so. Book titles like
Selective exposure to communication
(Zillmann & Bryant 1985) or
Responding to the screen
(Bryant & Zillmann 1991) seem to indicate this trend and demonstrate that media effects research has become more involved with psychological
processes
rather than only with the end result. Conceptual and theoretical differentiations have also evolved, e.g., various attempts to distinguish between short‐ and long‐term effects, or between their cognitive, affective, and behavioral manifestations (→ Affects and Media Exposure; Media Effects Duration). But, despite multiple conceptual differentiations in this area of research, which also include distinctions between observations and explanations of effects at psychological (micro) versus sociological (macro) levels of analysis, media effects research maintains its focus on the consequences of exposure to media rather than on exposure itself. Meanwhile, the work focusing on “exposure” itself and on the individual and social processes that accompany exposure has outgrown the more traditional lines of research on media effects by simultaneously expanding its scope and differentiating its levels of analysis.
Exposure to the Internet
Authors: Lunn Robert J. , Suman Michael W.
Published: September 2017

How has the spread of the → Internet been studied and explained? Numerous studies have established that the spread of Internet access follows an S‐shaped curve. What is not well understood is the factors responsible for different levels of Internet access among different countries (→ Digital Divide; Media Use, International Comparison of). Many theories of the diffusion of innovations, such as the Bass model, are oriented toward individual factors, such as perceived need (Bass 1969; → Diffusion of Information and Innovation; Media Use by Social Variable). The inadequacy of this theoretical stance becomes readily apparent when we consider that cultures exhibiting low levels of gender empowerment deny Internet access to half of their populations. Thus, adoption of the Internet is affected by factors beyond simple exposure to the technology. What are the theoretical and methodological problems with the current approach to cross‐country studies of the Internet diffusion process?
Exposure to the Internet
Authors: Lunn Robert J. , Suman Michael W.
Published: September 2017

How has the spread of the → Internet been studied and explained? Numerous studies have established that the diffusion of Internet access follows an S‐shaped curve. What is not well understood is the factors responsible for different levels of Internet access among different countries (→ Digital Divide; Media Use, International Comparison of). Many theories of the diffusion of innovations, such as the Bass model, focus on individual factors, such as perceived need (Bass 1969; → Diffusion of Information and Innovation; Media Use by Social Variable). The inadequacy of this theoretical stance becomes readily apparent when we consider that cultures exhibiting low levels of gender empowerment deny Internet access to half of their populations. This example of the influence of culture also illustrates that adoption of the Internet is affected by factors beyond simple exposure to the technology. What are the theoretical and methodological problems with the current approach to cross‐country studies of the Internet diffusion process?
Exposure to News
Authors: Unz Dagmar C.
Published: September 2017

In democratic societies “being informed” is regarded as part of the citizen's duty in order to form a political opinion and to participate in political life. The media, on the one hand, play a major role in the transmission of information about current events, and they are thought to be very influential. To fulfill its democratic responsibilities, the audience, on the other hand, is expected to consume news with a high level of attention in order to get detailed information, to learn as much as possible. Corresponding to these expectations, television is the principal source of information about current events for most people, and getting the news belongs to their daily routines. Research indicates that the acceptance of the civic duty to be informed is correlated with the frequency of news consumption (Poindexter & McCombs 2001).
Exposure to Print Media
Authors: Möhring Wiebke , Schneider Beate
Published: September 2017

The term “print media” can be defined in different ways. In its broadest sense the term is used for a whole range of publications that can be subdivided into two main categories in terms of their format and content: media published at regular intervals such as → newspapers and → magazines, and media for one‐time publication such as → books in their different genres (→ fiction, nonfiction, and textbooks). For the purpose of this entry, we will narrow down the definition of print media and concentrate on the periodically published mass media newspaper and magazine and their use, with a focus on dailies.
Exposure to Television
Authors: Hasebrink Uwe
Published: September 2017

Research on exposure to → Television builds a large and heterogeneous field with one common denominator. Studies of television viewing try to provide evidence on the question: What do people do with television? Exposure to television has developed as a major research field since we cannot understand television as a medium of public communication without considering those who actually watch it. In particular, the television industry has an existential interest in finding out how many people watch its programs; it is exactly this kind of audience data that it can sell to the → advertising industry (→ Media Economics). But even beyond this economic interest, information on exposure to television is a necessary condition for any statement on the role of television in people's everyday lives and on potential social and individual consequences of television (→ Exposure to Communication Content; Audience Research).
Extra‐Media Data
Authors: Donsbach Wolfgang
Published: September 2017

The term “extra‐media data” describes a methodological approach to assessing the quality of media content. The phrase was coined in the early 1970s by Swedish scholar Karl Erik Rosengren (1970) during a controversy about the criteria needed to assess bias in the news. Scandinavian researchers Galtung and Ruge (1965) had criticized the coverage of foreign countries in the Norwegian press for highlighting certain news factors and thus creating a distorted picture of these countries. The researchers' conclusion was based exclusively on the occurrence of news factors like personalization and negativism (→ News Values). Rosengren instead suggested that researchers should evaluate the performance of news media by comparing their coverage to external, primarily statistical indicators. In his own study Rosengren investigated how newspapers in three different countries covered parliamentary elections in countries around the world. He then related the coverage to information about the countries and about the respective elections as listed in contemporary archives. By doing this, he was able to compare media coverage of the events with their “objective” news value according to, e.g., country size, GNP, or whether an election brought about a new majority.
Encoding‐Decoding
Authors: Miller Toby
Published: September 2017

Encoding and decoding have been key concepts in communication for over fifty years, in keeping with the idea that language is a → code that needs to be cracked, and that the way it is received is as significant as the way that it is conceived. The connections of → linguistics to communication more generally have frequently deployed a message model: a sentence is given → meaning by the person uttering it, then interpreted and given new meaning by the person hearing it (Gleason 1961). Encoding‐decoding has been used to explain different styles of learning, via numerous studies of dyslexia, for example (Pernet et al. 2009; → Learning and Communication), and to transcend linguistics by focusing on the affect of encoders as they speak or gesture (Pell et al. 2009; → Gestures and Kinesics). Its most prominent place, however, is in media and → cultural studies, where it has been used to integrate the analysis of texts, producers, technologies, and audiences by thinking of them as coeval participants in the making of meaning (→ Speech Codes Theory).
Encoding‐Decoding
Authors: Miller Toby
Published: September 2017

Encoding and decoding have been key concepts in communication for over fifty years, in keeping with the idea that language is a → code that needs to be cracked, and that the way it is received is as significant as the way that it is conceived. The connections of → linguistics to communication more generally have frequently deployed a message model: a sentence is given → meaning by the person uttering it, then interpreted and given new meaning by the person hearing it (Gleason 1961). Encoding‐decoding has been used to explain different styles of learning, via numerous studies of dyslexia, for example (Pernet et al. 2009; → Learning and Communication). It has transcended linguistics by focusing on the effect of encoders as they speak or gesture (Pell et al. 2009; → Gestures and Kinesics). Its most prominent place, however, is in media and → cultural studies, where it has been used to integrate the analysis of texts, producers, technologies, and audiences by thinking of them as coeval participants in the making of meaning (→ Speech Codes Theory).
Facial Expressions
Authors: Manusov Valerie
Published: September 2017

When people use cues other than words to communicate, they often think first of facial expressions. Facial expressions involve movements of the face that change dynamically in the course of an interaction. People also use more static facial features (e.g., eye color, shape of nose) as part of the communication process. Both facial expressions and static face cues are considered here.
Factor Analysis
Authors: Fahr Andreas
Published: September 2017

Factor analysis is a data analysis procedure that aims at extracting a small number of factors from a large number of items, that is, from variables. The extracted few factors should be able to describe and explain the core characteristics of a phenomenon, without the loss of too much information. Hence, factors show the essence of a large amount of measured items.
Fair Trial and Freedom of the Press
Authors: Park Ahran
Published: September 2017

Fair trial and freedom of the press concerns how to balance the right of a free press and the defendant's right to a fair trial. News reporting on judicial proceedings helps the public understand the legal procedure better and contributes to the public's right to know about the working of the justice system (→ Right to Know). The media play an important watchdog role in monitoring the administration of justice (→ Freedom of the Press, Concept of). However, the news media sometimes misrepresent court trials and mislead viewers and readers (→ Yellow Journalism). This kind of inaccurate media coverage might affect jurors or judges in such a way as to prejudice their supposedly impartial judgment.
False Consensus
Authors: Ostman Ronald E.
Published: September 2017

False consensus is the inaccurate perception that our own beliefs are similar to those of others, when in fact they are not similar (Ross et al. 1977), and the tendency to see our behavioral choices and judgments as common and situationally appropriate, while viewing alternative responses as uncommon, deviant, and/or inappropriate (Mullen et al. 1985; Bosveld et al. 1994). Overestimation inaccuracies and deviance perceptions are based on a social judgment projection that opinions, beliefs, values, traits, and behaviors like one's own are more prevalent than they in fact are. This “egocentric self‐anchor” or tendency to overestimate inaccuracies apparently exists even when the individual's attribute is in the minority (Sanders & Mullen 1983; → Social Judgment Theory; Social Perception).
Family Decision‐Making
Authors: Sparks Lisa
Published: September 2017

The family is a complex unit comprised of individuals with varied cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics and abilities that can greatly affect family decision‐making across an individual's life‐span. “Decision‐making” describes the process by which families make choices, judgments, and ultimately come to conclusions that guide behaviors. Family decision‐making implies that more than one member's input and agreement is involved (Scanzoni & Polonko 1980). The decision‐making process is centered on core communication processes involved in creating shared meaning. In the decision‐making process, families can acknowledge the differences among members and negotiate their needs for closeness and independence (Baxter & Montgomery 1996).
Fandom
Authors: Merskin Debra
Published: September 2017

A fan is someone who is more than an ordinary, occasional → Television viewer, → book reader, → Internet user, music listener, or movie‐goer (→ Cinema). The etymology of “fan” is the Latin word
fanaticus
, which is also the source of the word fanatic. Bielby et al. (1999, 35) state, while being a consumer of a medium is one thing, “to be a ‘fan,’ however, is to participate in a range of activities that extend beyond the private act of viewing and reflects an enhanced emotional involvement” with the narrative.
Fear Induction through Media Content
Authors: Sparks Glenn G.
Published: September 2017

The capacity for media messages to induce fear has been the object of scholarly inquiry since at least the 1930s when the Payne Fund Studies launched the first systematic effort to study the impact of media on children and adolescents. As part of that effort, Herbert Blumer (1933) found that 93 percent of the children who participated in his study reported that they had been scared by something seen in a motion picture. Some scholars maintain that, taken together, the Payne Fund Studies introduced the “legacy of fear,” a phrase used to describe the main attitude that audiences had to media content at that time. Despite the prevalence of fright reactions to media indicated by Blumer's finding, there was little research on this topic for nearly 50 years. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of media‐induced fear certainly manifested itself repeatedly over that 50‐year period (→ Media Effects, History of).
Feminist Media Studies, Transnational
Authors: Hegde Radha S.
Published: September 2017

Transnational feminist media studies, an emergent area of scholarship, is both a critical intervention and a response to the challenges posed by globalization (→ Globalization of the Media; Globalization Theories). The transborder movement of capital, commodities, images, and people has set in motion a range of social and political issues, affecting multiple aspects of lived experience. Globalization reproduces gender and sexuality in ways that demand academic attention. Media systems, forms of representation, and communication practices serve as key points from which to unravel the complexity of global configurations. The rubric of the transnational enables feminist scholars to revise and rethink theoretical frames in media studies and produce critical, alternative accounts of globalization. Key aspects of globalization, detailed below, serve as impetus and set the agenda for transnational feminist media scholarship.
Feminization of Media Content
Authors: Dorer Johanna
Published: September 2017

The term “feminization” tends to be used in communication studies in two basic ways. On the one hand, it describes any increases in the proportion of women working in a particular media profession. On the other, it refers to a process in which communication norms, values, and behaviors coded as “masculine” are becoming gradually modified, if not replaced, by others associated with the “feminine.” Some communication researchers use the notion of feminization to refer, for example, not only to increases in the number of women working in particular media but also to what they regard as a trend toward media organizations gradually acquiring a “feminine image,” i.e., undergoing a shift toward norms and values coded as feminine, with their attendant lower professional status (→ Femininity and Feminine Values; Gender and Journalism).
Fictional Media Content
Authors: Keightley Emily
Published: September 2017

Media content takes many forms and is differentiated by → code and convention, → Genre and technology. The term “content” refers to the nature of the representations that are communicated by media genres and technologies rather than the medium in which they are carried. Fictional media content is one such classificatory grouping, signaling a similarity in the nature of the content on the basis of its intended relationship to a given reality, regardless of the specific media genre or technology in which the content is conveyed. This type of media content has received varying degrees of academic attention in communication, media, and cultural disciplines (→ Media Production and Content).
Film as Popular Culture
Authors: Galician Mary‐Lou , Natharius David
Published: September 2017

In the relatively short time since their invention at the end of the nineteenth century, movies have rapidly evolved from a temporary novelty to the most dominant visual form of modern popular culture worldwide. Unlike the print mass media (→ Book; Newspaper; Magazine), which require literate audiences, or even → Radio, which requires audiences who understand the originating language, film is an almost universal language of moving visuals that was immediately embraced and popularized not only in the US, but also around the world.
Film Production
Authors: Sergi Gianluca
Published: September 2017

The term “film production” has routinely been used as a way to indicate the stage in the making of a movie where actual filming takes place. While this usage is shared by both the public and filmmakers, it is somewhat misleading in that it draws attention to just one aspect of filmmaking at the expense of a fuller understanding both of the different stages of production and of the key relationships at the heart of the filmmaking process (→ Collective Action and Communication).
Film Theory
Authors: Buckland Warren
Published: September 2017

Film theory is a form of speculative thought that aims to make visible the underlying structures and absent causes that confer order and intelligibility upon films. These structures and causes, while not observable in themselves, are made visible by theory. The ultimate objective of film theory is to construct models of film's nonobservable underlying structures.
Financial Communication
Authors: Hutchins Holly R.
Published: September 2017

Financial communication entails all of the strategies, tactics, and tools used to share financial data and recommendations with investors and other interested parties. Around the world, companies need strong, proactive financial communication competencies to successfully help shape the evolution of capital markets for themselves and their industries. In return, companies likely will see the benefits in stock price and operating performance.
France: Media System
Authors: Maarek Philippe J.
Published: September 2017

In its 543,965 square kilometers and some overseas dependencies, France has a population of 63 million. Currently under its Fifth Republic, a semi‐presidential, semi‐parliamentary political system, and a founding member of the European Union, it is a democracy of long standing. As early as 1789, freedom of speech was one of the main claims of the French Revolution, with its famous article 11: “Freedom of speech and opinions is one of the most precious Human Rights; any citizen may then freely speak, write, print, unless he has to answer for an abuse of that freedom in the specific cases determined by Law.” Nevertheless, the French media system's independence from the state came only at the end of the twentieth century. As a consequence, nowadays, the French media system is sometimes still unbalanced by its new freedom.
Freedom of Communication
Authors: Winston Brian
Published: September 2017

The
annaliste
historian Fernand Braudel asserts that dealing with the concept of liberty, “in all its connotations including ‘taking liberties,’” is the distinguishing mark of western civilization, the socio‐political problem that most persistently occurs from the fifth century to the present. The liberty to communicate, to impart and receive information of all kinds, is at the heart of the western idea of liberty. “This process has never been peaceful; yet it is one of the secrets that explains Europe's progress” (Braudel 1993). The struggle for the practice of free “mass” communication began with the emergence of newspapers in the seventeenth century, but the press freedoms gained over the next 300 years have been limited to print (→ Newspaper, History of; Freedom of the Press, Concept of). Even in the west, a media‐blind right of free expression has never been established, and newer media from film through broadcasting and beyond have been subject to the imposition, or the attempted imposition, of specific controls.
Freedom of the Press, Concept of
Authors: Russomanno Joseph
Published: September 2017

Virtually since the dawn of civilization and the establishment of authority‐wielding institutions, what people can say and write has been challenged. There is a universal impulse to control expression, particularly statements or opinions contrary to the views, policies, or dogma of those in power (→ Censorship). As is typical within repressive regimes, a justification for the suppression (though not expressed publicly) is the desire to preserve power. This desire to control information continued up to and through the era of the modern press. The phenomenon is not restricted to authoritarian nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Even liberal‐minded countries, such as the United States, that provide for some kind of speech and/or press freedom have histories of not only struggling with the interpretation and implementation of freedom of expression, but also histories of speech and press suppression (→ Freedom of Communication; Freedom of Information).
Friendship and Peer Interaction
Authors: Rawlins William K.
Published: September 2017

Friendship refers to a broad category of interpersonal relationships communicatively accomplished with peers and characterized by voluntary, reciprocated, nonromantic affection and good will. These relationships range in depth and duration from superficial, transitory bonds developed from situational associations, such as residential, educational, or workplace proximity, to profoundly dedicated lifelong attachments spanning time and distance.
Frustration Aggression Theory
Authors: Grimm Jürgen
Published: September 2017

Frustration is defined as a state that sets in if a goal‐oriented act is delayed or thwarted. The instigation remains even though the chances of realization are constrained by interfering influences. Under these frustrating conditions aggressive behavior is stimulated to an extent that corresponds with the intensity of the instigation and the degree of blockage of goal attainment. Aggression is defined as the deliberate violation of an organism or an organism substitute. It is primarily directed toward the cause of frustration, but may be redirected toward any other people or objects. The inhibition of aggressive behavior represents in itself a factor of frustration and can reinforce aggressive tendencies.
Gatekeeping
Authors: Wanta Wayne
Published: September 2017

Sociologist Kurt Lewin first used the termgatekeepingto describe how food purchasing habits of a population affected social change. After noting that not everyone had the same impact on which foods a population ate, he used “gatekeeping” to refer to those who transport, buy, and prepare food items because they acted as gates, allowing certain items to pass while holding back others.
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Media Studies
Authors: Lee Anita Chi‐Kwan
Published: September 2017

The subject of this entry is the field of study that examines the representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people in the media. GLBT media studies employ theories and methods from the relatively new field of GLBT and queer studies that started to appear in academia at the beginning of the 1990s. It is concerned with how the sexual identity categories of “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “transgender,” “queer,” and “straight” are constructed in the media; how minority sexualities are represented; and why they are so represented. “Queer media,” “queer representation,” “queer media representation,” and “queer cultural production” are terms frequently used in the field.