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Communication Theories for Everyday Life
John R. Baldwin, Illinois State University
Stephen D. Perry, Illinois State University
Mary Anne Moffitt, Illinois State University

ISBN-10: 0205348068
ISBN-13: 9780205348060

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Copyright: 2004
Format: Paper; 432 pp
Published: 10/08/2003

Suggested retail price: $92.00
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Communication Theories for Everyday Life introduces students to the complexities of theories in communication studies, mass communication, and public relations, emphasizing their connection to everyday life.

With chapters written by a variety of authors, each a specialist in his or her own field, this introductory communication theory book includes scientific, humanistic, and critical theories that explain various forms of communication. Instead of utilizing a “theory-a-day” approach, this text cuts across content areas and clusters related theories, making them easier for students to process and apply to real-life situations. The book provides a context to show the interrelationships among theories. Communication Theories for Everyday Life also addresses theories in emerging areas and growing fields, such as media research, organizational communication, and computer-mediated communication, while still featuring the traditional theories that always have defined the field.

  • Contextualizes theory with an initial chapter in each of the main content areas that introduces the theories and research in the field, showing students how the theories developed.
  • Features new theories and subject areas not present in most traditional communication theory textbooks, including new interactive technologies, feminist scholarship, British cultural studies, semiotics, postmodernism, and critical race theory.
  • Emphasizes the application of some theories across many subject areas through headings in the form of questions that encourage students to process material and explore for themselves how theories and content apply to their lives.
  • Uses case study chapters that demonstrate to students how each subject area would use theory to solve or understand issues in everyday life (Chs. 11, 18, & 24).
  • Reviews theories for the three main genres of communication—communication studies, mass communication, and public relations—with balanced coverage, examining the unique contributions each area has made to the field of communication as a whole.
  • Includes a detailed glossary, discussion questions for each chapter, and an index to provide students with additional learning aids.
  • Is designed so that it can be tailored to classes with differing communication foci, allowing instructors to emphasize specific sections or chapters of the text as needed.

Each chapter concludes with a summary, discussion questions, and suggested readings.

Preface.


About the editors.


About the authors.

I. INTRODUCTION.

1. Introduction to Communication Theories.

What is Communication?

What Does Communication Do?

What Is a Theory?

How Do Scholars Construct Theories?

How Can I Know if a Theory is “Good”?

2. Assumptions Behind Communication Theories—Reality, Knowledge, & Values.

How Should I Understand the World Around Me?

Are There Any Shortcuts I Can Take to Understand These Assumptions?

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?—The Two Dimensions and the Two Debates.

3. Research in Communication.

What is Research?

Why Should I Read (or Do) Research?

What Terms Do I Need to Know to Understand Research?

How Do We Build Deductive Theory?

How Do We Build Inductive Theory?

How Do I Conduct (or Understand) Quantitative Research?

How Do I Conduct (or Understand) Qualitative Research?

II. COMMUNICATION STUDIES.

4. Introduction and History of Communication Studies Research: Models and Messages.

How Did the Study of Communication Studies Develop?

How Does Communication Take Place? Meaning and Models.

5. Classical Rhetorical Theories.

Where and When Did Classical Rhetoric Exist?

Who Were the Classical Theorists?

What Were the Key Assumptions of Classical Rhetorical Theory?

What Was the Content of Classical Messages?

What Were the Classical Canons of Rhetoric?

6. Contemporary Rhetorical Theory.

When Classical Rhetoric Fails, What Will We Do?

How Does Rhetoric Actually Change My “Reality”?

How Can Language Help Me to Challenge Unequal Power Structures?

7. Theories of Interpersonal Communication.

How Can I Make Sense of What She Said?

Who Were the Classical Theorists?

How Can I Look Good to Them?

How Can I Have Better Relationships?

Is Communication Always Positive in a Relationship?

8. Theories of Small Group Communication.

How Do Small Groups Form and Grow?

How Do Groups Act?: Symbolic Convergence Theory.

How Can My Group Make Better Decisions?:

How Can My Group Make Bad Decisions?: Groupthink.

Why Do Groups Function As They Do?: Structuration Theory.

9. Theories of Persuasion.

Why Should I Even Study Persuasion?

What Is Persuasive Communication? What Characteristics Will Help Me Be More Likely to Persuade Someone?

How Can I Change Other People's Attitudes?

How Can I Get Others to Do What I Want Them to Do?

10. Theories of Culture and Intercultural Communication.

Why Do We Sometimes Have Problems in Our Intercultural Interaction?

How Can I Be a Better Intercultural Communicator?

Help! How Can I Adjust to This New Culture?

How Should I Communicate Within My Group or With People from Other Groups?

Is It Really Just Ignorance, or Is It Prejudice?

11. The Real World: A Case Study.

Can Intercultural Theory Prescribe Ways to Mend Racial Division?

Have You Ever Really Wanted to Know What Someone Else Was Thinking?

Do You Really Know It All, or Are You Just Acting Like It?

Can This Story Have an Alternate Ending?

III. MASS COMMUNICATION.

12. Introduction and History of Mass Communication.

What Is the Role of Media in Shaping Information?

How Do Media Serve as Windows to the World?

When did Mass Communication Theory Get Started?

Have Scholars Ever Changed Their Minds About Media Theory?

Does the Media Affect Me, or Am I Affected by My Own Decisions?

Are Limited Effects Approaches Simply Too Limited?

13. Media Use and the Selective Individual.

What Influences Your Opinions and Decisions?

When Do We Really Need the Media?

De Peoples Personal Traits Modify How Media Affect Them?

How Difficult Is It to Change Peoples Attitudes?

14. Media—A Tool to Meet Our Needs.

What Are the Functions of the Media in Society?

How Do We Make Our Media Selections?

Did the Media Make Me Do It?

How Can I Get Happy?

What Might I Learn?

How Do We Learn About New Things?

How Much Do You Learn from Observation?

15. Media (Side-)Effects.

Will the Media Only Affect Me if Im Passive?

Do the Media Make Us More Aggressive?

What Will Kids Learn About Sex and Sexuality?

How Do Media Influence Voters?

What about the Gradual Changes TV Brings?

Can Television Be Addictive?

Are We Susceptible to Any Effects of Music?

In What Ways Do Television and Other Media Contribute Positive Effects?

16. Technology and Social Change: The Interactive Media Environment.

What Are the Characteristics of New Communication Technology?

How Can Theories of Interpersonal Communication Inform Our Knowledge of CMC?

How Do CMC and Traditional Mass Media Compare?

How Do Mass Communication Theories Inform Our Knowledge of CMC?

17. Critical Theories of How Media Shape Culture, Values, and Perspectives.

Who Controls the Media and Whom Do They Benefit?—Marx Applied to Media.

Is Popular Culture Really So Bad?—Modifying Marxism for Media Research.

Is There Anything New to Say About Reality and Power?

How Does the U.S. Media System Alter the Application of Cultural Theory?

18. Case Study: Application Mass Communication.

How Did the Attacks Alter Your Media Use?

How Did the Media Emphasis on the Attacks Influence Our View of the World?

IV. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS.

19. Organizational Communication.

What Is the History of Organizational Communication as an Academic Field?

What Is an Organization?

Why Should We Study Organizational Communication?

What Is Organizational Communication?

What Are the Most Important Organizational Theoretical Perspectives?

20. Introduction and History of Public Relations Research.

What Is the Legacy of Public Relations? A Profession Finds Its Truth.

What Are the Important Definitions of Campaigns?

What Are the Important Models and Theories Explaining Public Relations?

21. Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating the Campaign.

How do Theory and Research Help Plan a Campaign?

No More “Shooting from the Hip”—What Is a Systematic and Ethical Approach to Campaigns?

So, How Exactly Do You Structure a Campaign

What Theories Can Drive Effective Campaigns?

How Do Health and Safety Campaigns Exemplify

Campaign Communication?

22. Campaign Message Design.

What Is the History of Campaign Message Design?

What Theories Can Best Explain the Influence of Message Design?

How Can Messages Be Created to Match the Audience?

23. Building Organizational Relationships and Integrated Marketing.

How Are Organizational Relationships Similar to Personal Relationships?

What Theories Explain the Balance of Power Between the Organization and Its Populations?

Exactly How Can Relationship Marketing be Accomplished by an Organization?

How Is Integrated Marketing Related to Relationship Management?

Where Is the Theory?

Are There Advantages to Integrated Marketing Communication?

24. The Bridgestone/Firestone Recall Image Crisis: A Case Study.

What Led to the Crisis at Bridgestone/Firestone?

Where Did the Company Go Wrong in Its Response to the Crisis?

Whom Did the Crisis Affect?

What Public Relations Strategies Could Bridgestone/Firestone Have Used to Recover from the Crisis?

What Happened that Led to the Crisis Response for Ford?

What Was Bridgestone/Firestones Crisis Response?

Glossary of terms.

Index.

Communication Theories for Everyday Life introduces readers to the complexities of theories in communication studies, mass communication, and public relations, emphasizing their connection to everyday life. Instead of utilizing a “theory-a-day” approach, this text cuts across content areas and clusters related theories, making them easier for readers to process and apply to real-life situations. Communication Theories for Everyday Life also addresses theories in emerging areas and growing fields, such as media research, organizational communication, and computer-mediated communication, while still featuring the traditional theories that always have defined the field.

Features:

  • Contextualizes theory with an introductory chapter in each of the main content areas that introduces the theories and research in the field, showing students how the theories developed.
  • Features new theories and subject areas not present in most traditional communication theory textbooks, including new interactive technologies, feminist scholarship, British cultural studies, semiotics, postmodernism, and critical race theory.
  • Emphasizes the application of some theories across many subject areas through headings in the form of questions that encourage students to process material and explore for themselves how theories and content apply to their lives.
  • Uses case-study chapters that demonstrate to students how each subject area would use theory to solve or understand issues in everyday life.
  • Reviews theories for the three main genres of communication - communication studies, mass communication, and public relations - with balanced coverage, examining the unique contributions each area has made to the field of communication as a whole. Page 1 of 1

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