Communication as ...: Perspectives on Theory

Communication As...Perspectives on Theory is a collection of 27 essays by leading thinkers in the field of communication theory. Each author in the volume has chosen a particular stance on communication and forwarded it as a primary or essential way of viewing communication with decided benefits over other views. The chapters in the book are brief, argumentative, and forceful; together they explore the wide range of theorizing about communication, cutting across all lines of traditional divisions in the field.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Making 1. Relationality - Celeste M. Condit 2. Ritual - Eric W. Rothenbuhler 3. Transcendence - Gregory J. Shepherd 4. Constructive - Katherine Miller 5. A Practice - Robert T. Craig Part II: Materializing 6. Collective Memory - Carole Blair 7. Vision - Cara A. Finnegan 8. Embodiment - Carolyn Marvin 9. Raced - Judith N. Martin & Thomas K. Nakayama 10. Social Identity - Jake Harwood 11. Techne - Jonathan Sterne Part III: Contextualizing 12. Dialogue - Leslie A. Baxter 13. Autoethnography - Arthur P. Bochner & Carolyn S. Ellis 14. Storytelling - Eric E. Peterson & Kristin M. Langellier 15. Complex Organizing - James R. Taylor 16. Structuring - David R. Seibold & Karen Kroman Myers Part IV: Politicizing 17. Political Participation - Todd Kelshaw 18. Deliberation - John Gastil 19. Diffusion - James W. Dearing 20. Social Influence - Frank Boster 21. Rational Argument - Robert C. Rowland 22. Counterpublic - Daniel C. Brouwer Part V: Questioning 23. Dissemination - John Durham Peters 24. Articulation - Jennifer Daryl Slack 25. Translation - Ted Striphas 26. Communicability - Briankle G. Chang 27. Failure - Jeffrey St. John Index About the Editors About the Contributors

About the Author :
Gregory J. Shepherd (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is Professor and Dean of the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University.  His primary scholarly interests are in communication theory and American pragmatism.  He is a winner of the Central States Communication Association Outstanding Young Teacher Award, as well as a W. T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.  He is co-editor (with Eric Rothenbuhler) of Communication and Community (2001, LEA), and in addition to chapters in various edited volumes, his work has appeared in Communication Monographs, Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Communication Yearbook, Communication Studies, Southern Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Journal of Social Psychology, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Research and Development in Education, and other scholarly publications. Jeffrey St. John (Ph.D., University of Washington) is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University. His published work includes essays on legal argument, critical rhetoric, the construction of self at sites of public controversy, and the reception of contested terms— including "tolerance" and "civility"— in public culture. He teaches undergraduate courses in public advocacy, free speech, communication theory, and political rhetoric, and graduate courses in communication theory and public deliberation. His current research projects include a mapping of the rhetorical geography of "moral values" voting patterns (with his colleague Jerry Miller) and a study of mimesis and public memory in contemporary fiction. Ted Striphas (Ph.D., University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, 2002) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University.  His primary research interests include media historiography, cultural studies, Marxism, and communication theory.  At present he is at work on a cultural history of the U.S. book industry tentatively entitled, Equipment for Living: Everyday Book Culture in the Making.  He also is co-editor (with Kembrew McLeod) of a forthcoming special issue of the journal Cultural Studies on the politics of intellectual properties.  His work has appeared in, among other places, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Cultural Studies, The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Social Epistemology, and Television and New Media. He is a 2004 recipient of the Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association.

Review :
"Communication as… is an excellent way to introduce students to various perspectives in the discipline. It makes the point that there is no right or wrong way to study communication but that the different perspectives are all legitimate and useful."   --Sonja K. Foss, University of Colorado at Denver "These shorter, more informal discussions of the implications of certain metaphors and analogies for communication theory will be very useful for stimulating critical thinking and generating interesting classroom discussions." --Bradford "J" Hall, University of New Mexico "This book provides incomparably unique and original perspectives explained by core scholars in their fields."