Communication Theory: (Sage Benchmarks in Communication)

The nature of communication has been argued about since the beginning of Western culture and the debate still rages in academic circles as to what actually constitutes communication. Currently, many definitions of communication are used to conceptualize the processes by which people navigate and assign meaning. Communication is also understood as the exchanging of understanding. This set of four volumes provides a range of essays both canonical in, and at the cutting edge of, communication theory. The essays included represent communication theory in a fashion cognisant with the breadth of communication - theories from humanities as well as from social sciences - that takes place in the universe. The collection is thematic, dealing with intra-individual, interpersonal, organization (group-level) and macroscopic (society-level) approaches across the volumes.

Table of Contents:
VOLUME I: THE PROCESSING OF COMMUNICATION ON THE INTRA-INDIVIDUAL LEVEL General Approaches Symbolic Interaction: An approach to human communication - Herbert Blumer Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The case of public moral argument - Walter R. Fisher Ideology and Communication Theory - Stuart Hall The Model of Language as Organon (A) - B hler Karl Pragma-Dialectical Theory of Argumentation - Frans van Eemeren Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm - Robert M. Entman Focussing On The Message A Cognitive Approach to Human Communication: An action assembly theory - John O. Greene The Logic of Message Design: Individual differences in reasoning about communication - Barbara O′Keefe An Approach to the Study of Communicative Acts - Theodore M. Newcomb Focussing On The Recipient Attitudes and Cognitive Organization - Fritz Heider The Principle of Congruity in the Prediction of Attitude Change - Charles E. Osgood and Percy H. Tannenbaum Actions and Attitudes: The theory of cognitive dissonance - Joel Cooper, Robert Mirabile, and Steven Scher Attribution and Communication - Alan L. Sillars Social Judgement Theory - Donald Granberg Focussing On The Effects An Overview of Persuability Research - Carl I. Hovland and Irving L. Janis The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice - Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman VOLUME II: COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PEOPLE Focussing On The Communicator Communicating Under Uncertainty - Charles R. Berger The Diffusion of an Innovation among Physicians - James Coleman, Elihu Katz and Herbert Menzel Notes on a Natural History of Fads - Rolf Meyersohn and Elihu Katz Prognosis versus Diagnosis. Two different categories underlying doctor-patient consultation - Peter Schulz Focussing On The Message Reciprocal Concessions Procedure for Inducing Compliance: The door-in-the-face technique - Robert B. Cialdini, Joyce E. Vincent, Stephen K. Lewis, José Catalan, Diane Wheeler and Betty Lee Darby Compliance Without Pressure: The foot-in-the-door technique - Jonathan L. Freedman and Scott C. Fraser The Contribution of Speech Act Theory to the Analysis of Conversation: How pre-sequences work - Francois Cooren Relationships as Dialogues - Leslie A. Baxter Focussing On The Recipient To Think or Not To Think: Exploring two routes to persuasion - Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo, Alan J. Strathman and Joseph R. Priester The Heuristic-Systematic Model of Social Information Processing - Alexander Todorov, Shelly Chaiken and Marlone D. Henderson Dimensions of Compliance-Gaining Strategies: A dimensional analysis - Gerald Marwell and David R. Schmitt Problematic Integration Theory - Austin Babrow Resistance to Persuasion Conferred by Active and Passive Prior Refutation of the Same and Alternative Counterarguments - William J. McGuire From Intentions to Actions: A theory of planned behavior - Icek Ajzen Focussing On The Effects Nonverbal Expectancy Violations: Model elaboration and application to immediacy behaviors - Judee K. Burgoon and Jerold L. Hale Dialogical Wisdom, Communicative Practice, and Organizational Life - J. Kevin Barge and Martin Little Toward a Theory of Family Communication - Ascan F. Koerner and Mary Anne Fitzpatrick Interpersonal Effects in Computer-Mediated Interaction: A relational perspective - Joseph B. Walther VOLUME III: COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS AND GROUP Focussing On The Communicator The Two-Step Flow of Communication: An up-to-date report on an hypothesis - Elihu Katz The Influentials: Back to the concept of opinion leaders? - Gabriel Weimann Structuration Theory as an Ontology for Communication Research - Stephen P. Banks and Patricia Riley The Evolution and Current Status of the Functional perspective on Communication in Decision-Making and Problem-Solving Groups - Dennis Gouran, Randy Hirokawa, Kelly Julian and Geoff Leatham Focussing On The Message Notes Towards a Description of Social Representations - Serge Moscovici Perspectives on Group Argument: A critical review of persuasive arguments theory and an alternative structural view - Renée A. Meyers and David R. Seibold Critical Theory - Stanley Deetz The Communicational Basis of Organization: Between the conversation and the text - James R. Taylor, Francois Cooren, Nicole Giroux and Daniel Robichaud Focussing On The Recipient Opinion Spirals, Silent and Otherwise: Applying small-group research to public opinion phenomena - Vincent Price and Scott Allen Collective Mind in Organizations: Heedful interrelating on flight decks - Karl E. Weick and Karlene H. Roberts The Obstinate Audience: The influence process from the point of view of social communication - Raymond A. Bauer The Network Level of Analysis - Peter R. Monge Focussing On The Effects Gossip and Scandal - Max Gluckman The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior - Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner Communication in Interpersonal Relationships: Social penetration processes - Dalmas A. Taylor and Irwin Altman Group-Decision Making as a Structurational Process - Marshall Scott Poole, David R. Seibold and Robert D. McPhee VOLUME IV: MASS COMMUNICATION Focussing On The Communicator Objectivity as Strategic Ritual: An examination of Newmen′s notions of objectivity - Gaye Tuchman Social Control in the Newsroom: A functional analysis - Warren Breed Focussing On The Message Up And Down With Ecology - The "Issue-Attention Cycle" - Anthony Downs International News: Intra and extra media data - Karl Erik Rosengren Instrumental Actualization: A theory of mediated conflicts - Hans M. Kepplinger, Hans-Bernd Brosius and Joachim F. Staab Information Theory and Mass Communication - Wilbur Schramm Theoretical Foundations of Campaigns - William J. McGuire Focussing On The Recipient Consensus and Mass Communication - Louis Wirth The Role of Theory in Uses and Gratifications Studies - Jay G. Blumler Exposure to Political Content in Newspapers: The impact of cognitive dissonance on readers′ selectivity - Wolfgang Donsbach The Theory of Public Opinion: The concept of the spiral of silence - Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann Media Priming Effects: Accessibility, association, and activation - David Domke, Dhavan V. Shah and Daniel B. Wackman Focussing On The Effects Communication and Social Change - Bruce H.Westley Information, Values, and Opinion - John Zaller Living with Television: The dynamics of the cultivation process - George Gerbner, Larry Gross, Michael Morgan and Nancy Signorielli Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action - Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton Mass Media and Differential Growth in Knowledge - Philipp J. Tichenor, George A. Donohue and Clarice N. Olien Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change - Albert Bandura

About the Author :
Peter J. Schulz is Professor for Sign and Communication Theories and Health Communication at the School of Communication Sciences at the University of Lugano. He also is the director of the Institute of Communication and Health, also at the University of Lugano. He currently holds several research grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation. His main research interests are in the field of doctor-patient communication, in particular in knowledge translation, in risk communication as well as in communication theories. Among his publications are E. Steins Theorie der Person (Alber Verlag, Freiburg, M nchen, 1994), Introduction into Anthropology (State University Novosibirsk, 1996), Freundschaft und Selbstliebe bei Platon und Aristoteles (Alber Verlag, Freiburg, M nchen 2002), Geschichte und Vorgeschichte der modernen Subjektivität, with Reto L. Fetz and Roland Hagenb chle (2 vol. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1998), Manipulation and Ideologies in the 20th century, together with Louis de Saussure (John Benjamins, 2005). He also is the author of more than 80 journal articles and book chapters.