Book Feature: Communication Theories in a Multicultural World

For the theory driven in our field, Communication Theories in a Multicultural World (Peter Lang, 2014), edited by Clifford Christians and Kaarle Nordenstreng, aims to loosen the Western grip in this area a bit.  The inspiration for the book came out of the textbook project of the International Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR), which goes all the way back to 1982.

Robert White,(in the book's opening overview, locates theory in the public sphere: "This conception of the public sphere prizes a communicative relation of care, concern, and nurture, especially of the less powerful and marginalized...It is a public sphere of multicultural dialogue in which all open themselves to the challenging claims of communication justice posed by different cultures with a readiness to adapt to the justice of these challenges. The contributors here tend to think of the public not as one large communicative arena, but as a multiplicity of public spheres emerging from new movements, the defense of local communities, continually redistributing the power of a feudalistic or imperial past, strong advocacy communication that seeks to make identities explicit, fostering cultural creativity. The conception of the public is characterized by awareness of the continual harmful tendencies toward concentration of communication power, especially in the realm of the material political-economic order, but also an openness to movements to challenge ideologies and encourage dissent in the face of false unity in the name of harmony,"

Table of Contents: Kaarle Nordenstreng: Preface: Toward a Better World – Robert A. White: Keeping the Public Sphere(s) Public – Brenda Dervin/Peter Shields: Talking Communicatively About Mass Communication in Communication Theories: Beyond Multiplicity, Toward Communicating – Denis McQuail: Social Scientific Theory of Communication Encounters Normativity: A Personal Memoir – Janet Wasko: Understanding the Critical Political Economy of the Media – Peter Golding/Karen Williamson: Power, Inequality, and Citizenship: The Enduring Importance of the Political Economy of Communications – Roger Bromley: Cultural Studies: Dialogue, Continuity, and Change – Michael Real/David Black: A Mutually Radicalizing Relationship: Communication Theory and Cultural Studies in the United States – Jesús Martin-Barbero: Thinking Communication in Latin America – Joseph Oládèjo Fáníran: Toward a Theory of African Communication – Keval J. Kumar: Theorizing About Communication in India: Sadharanikaran, Rasa, and Other Traditions in Rhetoric and Aesthetics – Thomas Tufte: Voice, Citizenship, and Civic Action: Challenges to Participatory Communication – Stewart M. Hoover: Media, Culture, and the Imagination of Religion – Pradip N. Thomas: Theorizing Development, Communication, and Social Change – Cees J. Hamelink: Human Rights and Communication: Reflections on a Challenging Relationship – Ruth Teer-Tomaselli/Keyan G. Tomaselli: Struggle, Vatican II, and Development Communication Practice – Paul A. Soukup, SJ: Media Ecology – Theodore L. Glasser/Isabel Awad: Journalism, Multiculturalism, and the Struggle for Solidarity – Clifford G. Christians: Media Ethics in Transnational, Gender Inclusive, and Multicultural Terms.

The book is available at Annenberg Reference HM1211.C6496.

New Reference Titles

Here are some decent new reference works in the field from three different publishers.

Encyclopedia of Health Communication, editor-in-chief Teresa L. Thompson (Sage, 2014). A three-volume work of nearly 600 articles including such topics as theories and research traditions, evaluation and assessment, cultural complexities, high risk and special populations, message design and campaigns, provider/patient interaction issues; media issues, and more. Besides the extensive index, the Appendices include a Resource Guide to key books, journals and websites pertinent to health communication.

Global Handbooks in Media and Communication Research

Wiley-Blackwell has an excellent series of handbooks in global communication. You can check out  intro matter and Table of contents for these works at Wiley Online Library (General Communication & Media Studies). (You will probably want to browse here for other online communication titles besides these, some available in full text.) At this date, the four handbooks below are at the Annenberg Library and not accessible online. 

The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications, edited by Janet Wasko, Graham Murdock, and Helena Sousa (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).

 

The Handbook of Media Audiences, edited by Virginia Nightingale
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).

The Handbook of Development Communication and Social Change, edited by Karin Gwinn Wilkins, Thomas Tufte, and Rafael Obregon
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).

  

The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy, edited by Robin Mansell and Marc Raboy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).

The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities, edited by Peter Adey, David Bissell, Kevin Hannam, Peter Merriman, and Mim Sheller (Routledge, 2014).
"Illustrates disciplinary trends and pathways, from migration studies and transport history to communications research, featuring methodological innovations and developments and conceptual histories - from feminist theory to tourist studies. It explores the dominant figures of mobility, from children to soldiers and the mobility impaired; the disparate materialities of mobility such as flows of water and waste to the vectors of viruses; key infrastructures such as logistics systems to the informal services of megacity slums, and the important mobility events around which our world turns; from going on vacation to the commute, to the catastrophic disruption of mobility systems."