Communication theory today

324 Pages·1995·55.105 MB·English

by  David Crowley, David Mitchell

Communication
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Edited by
DAVID CROWLEY &
DAVID MITCHELL
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Communication Theory Today

ComrQunication Theory Today
Edited by David Crowley
and David Mitchell
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
1994
StanfordUniversityPress
Stanford, California
©1994 PolityPressforcollection
©
Eachchapter theAuthor
OriginatingpublisherPolityPress, Cambridge
Firstpublished intheU.S.A. by
StanfordUniversityPress
PrintedinGreatBritain
ClothISBN0-8047-2348-6
PaperISBN0-8047-2347-8
LC 93-86460
Thisbookisprintedon acid-freepaper.
Contents
Notes on Contributors vii
Acknowledgements x
1 Communication in a Post-Mass Media World 1
David Crowley andDavidMitchell
Part I: Communication and the Mediation ofSocial Worlds 25
2 Social Theory and the Media 27
John B. Thompson
3 Medium Theory 50
Joshua Meyrowitz
4 A Recursive Theory of Communication 78
Klaus Krippendorff
Part II: Messages, Meanings, Discourse 105
5 Discourse and Cognition in Society 107
Teun A. van Dijk
6 Risk Communication and Public Knowledge 127
William Leiss
1 Talk, Text and History: Conversation Analysis
and Communication Theory 140
Deirdre Boden
1
vi Contents
Part III: Contingency, Reflexivity, Postmodernity 171
8 The Mode of Information and Postmodernity 173
Mark Poster
9 In the Realm ofUncertainty: The Global Village
and Capitalist Postmodernity 193
len Ang
10 By Whose Authority? Accounting for Taste
in Contemporary Popular Culture 214
James M. Collins
Part rV: Communication and Public Interests 233
1 Mass Communication and the Public Interest: Towards
Social Theory for Media Structure and Performance 235
Denis McQuail
12 Electronic Networks, Social Relations
and the Changing Structure of Knowledge 254
William Melody
13 Communication and Development 274
Majid Tehranian
Index 307
Notes on Contributors
len Ang Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies at Murdoch Uni-
versity. Author of Desperately Seeking the Audience (London: Roudedge,
1991); and Watching Dallas: Soap Operas and the Melodramatic Imagination
(London: Methuen, 1985).
Deirdre Boden Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Lancaster.
Author ofTheBusinessofTalk (Cambridge: Polity, 1994). Co-editor ofTalk
and Social Structure (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991).
James M. Collins Associate Professor of Communication and Theatre at
the University of Notre Dame. Author of Uncommon Cultures: Popular
Culture and Post-Modernism (New York: Roudedge, 1989) and Architectures
ofExcess (New York: Roudedge, 1994). Co-editor ofFilm Theory Goes to the
Movies (New York: Roudedge, 1993).
David Crowley Associate Professor of Communications at McGill Uni-
versity and a member of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Tech-
nology at the University of Toronto. Author of Understanding
Communication: The Signifying Web (New York: Gordon & Breach, 1982).
Co-editor of Communication in History (New York: Longman, 1990).
Klaus Krippendorff Professor of Communications at the University of
Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. Author of Infor-
mation Theory (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1986); and Content Analysis
(Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1980). Editor of Communication and Control in
Society (New York: Gordon & Breach, 1979) and Studies in Cybernetic
Epistemology.
viii Notes on Contributors
William Leiss Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University.
Author o(Risk andResponsibility (forthcoming, 1944) and Under Technology's
Thumb (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1990). Co-author of
Mandated Science (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1988); and Social Com-
munication in Advertising: Persons, Products and Images of Well-being (Scar-
borough: Nelson, 1990). Editor of Prospects and Problems in Risk
Communication (Waterloo: University ofWaterloo, 1989).
Denis McQuail Professor of Mass Communication at the University of
Amsterdam. Author oiMedia Performance (London/Newbury Park, Calif.:
Sage, 1992); and Mass Communication Theory (London: Sage, 1987). Co-
editor ofNew Media Politics (London: Sage, 1986). Editor ofthe European
Journal ofCommunication.
William Melody Director of the Centre for International Research on
Communication and Information Technologies (CIRCIT) in Melbourne.
Editor of The Intelligent Telecommunication Network (Melbourne: CIRCIT,
1991). Co-author oiInformation andCommunication Technologies: SocialScience
Research andTraining, vols. 1 and2 (London: Economic and SocialResearch
Council, 1986).
Joshua Meyrowitz Professor ofCommunication at the University ofNew
Hampshire. Author of No Sense ofPlace: The Impact ofElectronic Media on
Social Behavior (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
David Mitchell Assistant Professor of Communications Studies at the
University of Calgary.
Mark Poster Professor ofHistory atthe University ofCalifornia atIrvine.
Author of The Mode ofInformation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1990); and Critical Theory and Poststructuralism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Uni-
versity Press, 1989); and Foucault, Marxism andHistory (Cambridge: Polity
Press, 1984).
Majid Tehranian Professor of Communication at the University of
Hawaii at Manoa. Author of Technologies ofPower: Information Machines and
Democratic Prospects (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1990); Letters from Jerusalem
(Honolulu: Peace Institute, 1990); and Restructuring for Ethnic Peace
(Honolulu: Peace Institute, 1991). Co-editor of Restructuring for World
Peace: On the Thresholdofthe 21st Century (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton, 1992).
John B. Thompson Lecturer in Sociology and Fellow ofJesus College at the
University of Cambridge. Author of Ideology and Modern Culture (Cam-