bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Balance
Authors: McLaughlin Greg 
Published: September 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The term
media performance
has a broad reference to the assessment of mass media according to a range of evaluative criteria and primarily employing “objective” methods. In practice most attention has been given to the
product
of mass media, its
content
as sent and received (→ Media Production and Content). The criteria applied are mainly derived either from professional goals and standards or from considerations of the → public interest as specified in certain evaluative concepts (→ Standards of News). The methods are mainly those of the social sciences, aiming to be systematic, reliable, and leading to some degree of generalization (→ Research Methods). We are thus speaking of a particular field of media research with several different aims and purposes (→ Communication as a Field and Discipline). Apart from general description, these purposes include the wish to improve the media in some way, to support a line of criticism of media, to explain variations in quality of performance, and to identify causal factors.
Media Planning
Authors: Smit Edith , Moorman Marjolein , Neijens Peter 
Published: September 2017

Media are a crucial part of any advertising campaign. Selecting the most effective media gets the advertising message across to the intended target group. Media are also the most expensive part of advertising campaigns. In a typical media campaign, the media costs account for 80–85 percent of the advertising budget (Kelley & Juggenheimer 2003). In deciding how to allocate the advertising media budget, we have to ask several questions: How many people of the target group do we want to reach? How many times do we want to reach them? Within what time frame do we want to make contact? Which contexts are most suitable to get our message across? These questions refer to four key topics in media planning: reach, frequency, timing, and context (→ Advertisement Campaign Management; Advertising Strategies).
Media Policy
Authors: Napoli Philip M. 
Published: September 2017

Media policy involves policymaking – and the associated policy research – directed at a wide range of substantive issues and technological contexts, and employing a diverse array of theoretical and methodological perspectives. It is important to note, however, that in the communications field there are a large number of somewhat indistinct policy arenas that overlap with the media policy field, each employing distinctive terminologies and each reflecting somewhat different (and in some cases, broader) areas of emphasis. These affiliated policy arenas range from telecommunications policy (→ Telecommunications: Law and Policy) to communications policy to information policy to cultural policy.