Handbook of Communication History

The latest volume in the ICA Handbook Series, The Handbook of Communication History, as well as the ICA interest group, Communication History formed as recently as 2007, reflects the growing attention of scholars in the field to the history of communication history and research. Edited by Peter Simonson, Janice Peck, Robert T. Craig, and John Johkson, Jr., The Handbook "addresses central ideas, social practices, and media of communication as they have developed across time, cultures, and world geographical regions. It attends to both the varieties of communication in world history and the historical investigation of those forms in communication and media studies. The Handbook editors view communication as encompassing patterns, processes, and performances of social interaction, symbolic production, material exchange, institutional formation, social praxis, and discourse. As such, the history of communication cuts across social, cultural, intellectual, political, technological, institutional, and economic history."--publisher's description

The title is available in Annenberg Reference at P90. H2933 2012.

January journal roundup

A few end of year 2007 special issues to point out:

The fourth issue of Social Semiotics (Volume 17, December 2007) is heavily devoted to Michael Jackson (Framing Michael Jackson: Celebrity on Trial) exploring "many questions about celebrity scandal, cultural performance and identity, intersecting with ideas about race, gender and sexuality," according to Jenny Kitzinger and Sujata Moorti in the issue's Introduction.

Communication Research and the Study of Surveillance is the topic of The Communication Review (Volume 10, Number 4, 2007), edited by Kelly Gates and Shoshana Magnet.

Paul J. Lavrakas edits Public Opinion Quarterly's (Volume 71, Number 5, 2007) special issue titled: Cell Phone Numbers and Telephone Surveying in the U.S. While the issue focuses on the use of cell phones in surveys, it leads off with a historical piece on two of the most influential researchers on survey methods with telephones, Warren Mitofsky and Joseph Waksberg.

The Journal of Mass Media Ethics, which explores questions of media morality, devotes a special issue (Volume 22, Number 7, 2007) to the question, "Who Is a Journalist?" Edited by Wendy Wyatt, the issue features an interesting article on the role of "fake news" (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report) in media criticism, among others.

And while not a theme issue, Comm history buffs should check out Critical Studies in Media Communication's (Volume 24, Number 5, 2007) Critical Forum which is devoted to Daniel Czitrom's Media and the American Mind with short pieces by Jack Lule, Sue Curry Jansen, David Park, Jefferson Pooley, and Peter Simonson, followed by a response to the contributors from Czitrom himself.

Tribute Essays in Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media Honoring BEA Anniversay

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Broadcast Education Association, its official journal, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, has been honoring research pioneers in broadcasting in a series of tribute essays beginning in Volume 49, Issue 2 (2005) and culminating in the 50th anniversary year (2006) in Volume 50, Issue 4. Now that the last tribute has appeared in the latest issue of JOBEM, I thought I'd take the opportunity to feature the whole list, in case you missed the series or parts of it. The listings are in volume and issue order. Essays are relatively brief, no more than 8 pages, and include a brief bibliography.

Volume 49:
William Stephenson: Traveling an Unorthodox Path to Mass Communication Discovery, by Stuart Esrock

Erik Barnouw (1908-2001): Broadcasting's Premier Historian, by Christopher Sterling, et al.

Teacher-Scholar Herbert Zettl: Applied Educational Ideas, by Lawrence J. Mullen

Volume 50:
Jennings Bryant: The "Compleat" Scholar, by Susan Thompson

Maxwell McCombs: Agenda-Setting Explorer, by William R. Davie and T. Michael Maher

Sydney W. Head (1913-1991): Remembering the Founder of Modern Broadcasting Studies, by Christopher Sterling, et al.

Rethinking Marshall McLuhan: Reflections on a Media Terrorist, by Donald A. Fishman

Understanding Electronic Media Audiences: The Pioneering Research of Alan M. Rubin, by Paul M. Haridakis and Evonne H. Whitmore

Vernon A. Stone: Newsman and Educator, by Rod G. Gelatt

Sorry, no online access to this journal. You have to come to the ASC library.

ADDENDUM OF 6/7/07!
For those of you reading this far down...actually the last issue of the Research Pioneer Tribute series is Volume 51, Number 1 (2007) and features three more pioneers! They are: Jannette Dates: A Lifelong Commitment to Teaching, Scholarship, and Service, by Cristina Pieraccini;
Lynne Schafer Gross: Extraordinary Role Model, by Elizabeth Leebron; and Scholar, Historian, Individualist: John Michael Kittross, by William G. Covintonr, Jr.