Constructing the Self in a Mediated World

In today's world, identities are no longer built solely within communities of family, neighbourhood, school and work - the media plays an important role in formulating our identities or constructions of self. This volume brings together the usually segregated areas of interpersonal and mass communication, and also incorporates work from sociology, psychology and women's studies. Each contributor examines our understanding of self both within a specific context of mediated culture and within a specific theoretical framework, such as critical theory, social constructionism and feminism.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION The Self and Mediated Communication - Debra Grodin and Thomas R Lindlof PART TWO: SELF AND MEDIA CONTENT All Consuming Selves - Wendy Simonds Self-Help Literature and Women′s Identities Terms of Enmeshment - Suzanna Danuta Walters The Cultural Construction of the Mother/Daughter Relationship PART THREE: SELF AND MEDIA PARTICIPATION Desperately Seeking Strategies - Mary Ellen Brown Reading in the Postmodern `Gilt by Association′ - Patricia Priest Talk Show Participants′ Televisually Enhanced Status and Self-Esteem Mediating Cultural Selves - Donal Carbaugh Soviet and American Cultures in a Televised `Spacebridge′ Constructions of Self and Other in the Experience of Rap Music - Timothy Simpson PART FOUR: RELATIONAL SELVES AND THE MEDIATED CONTEXT Technology and the Self - Kenneth J Gergen From the Essential to the Sublime Therapy and Identity Construction in a Postmodern World - Sheila McNamee Parallel Lives - Sherry Turkle Working on Identity in Virtual Space PART FIVE: THE MEDIATED SELF AND INQUIRY Seeking a Path of Least Resistance - Thomas R Lindlof and Autumn Grubb-Swetnam The Self Becoming Method The Nature of the Individual in Communication Research - James A Anderson and Gerald R Schoening

About the Author :
Thomas R. Lindlof is a Professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. He received his B.A. from the University of Florida, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the University of Kentucky faculty, he served on the faculty at the Pennsylvania State University. His research and graduate teaching are focused on the cultural analysis of mediated communication, media audience theory and research, social uses of communication technology, and interpretive research methods. His research has appeared in numerous scholarly outlets, including Communication Research, the Journal of Communication, the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journalism Quarterly, Journalism Studies, the Journal of Media and Religion, the Social Science Computer Review, and Communication Yearbook. He has served as the editor of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, and currently serves on the editorial boards of four journals. He has written or edited five books. His latest book, Hollywood under Siege: Martin Scorsese, the Religious Right, and the Culture Wars, was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2008.