Perception is an ambiguous term and is used in many different ways, at least in the field of communication. Perhaps this is understandable given that communication is a diverse field that draws on concepts from a number of disciplines. Thus, in reading communication literature, one might encounter terms such as precept, perceptual field, or perceptual
Variations in preferences for media content highlight the importance of how the diversity of the viewing audience affects exposure and responses to media content. Among the limitless ways in which audience members may differ, the personality characteristics of the viewer provide a vast and diverse means of predicting individuals’ uses of, preferences for, and reactions
Playing is always communication. It does not matter whether a child interacts in solitary play with a pretend object, whether a group of children is engaged in role-play, or whether an online community meets at a virtual playground, as in the massively multi-player online games (MMOGs). Each form of playing is communication. Some fields of
Environmental Science Careers Background Environmental science careers have expanded rapidly in the last 35 years, and just about everybody expects that growth to continue for some years. Of course, the reasons behind this success are often disquieting, if not ominous. Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are affecting millions of people throughout the United States. Wildlife
Fashion Careers Background Clothing has been worn by people of all cultures since prehistoric times; its basic function was to protect the body from the elements. Clothing styles have been influenced by well-known people, religion, tradition, art, science, and more recently, the media. Archaeologists have found no clothing from early periods before the Stone Age.
Fire Fighting Careers Background Fire kills more Americans than all natural disasters combined. The United States had an average of 3,932 deaths a year from 1996 to 2005, according to the National Fire Data Center of the U.S. Fire Administration. Civilian injuries averaged 20,919 a year during this time span. (Note: These statistics do not
Film Careers Background In the Woody Allen film Annie Hall, Allen tells Diane Keaton, “A relationship is like a shark . . . if it doesn’t keep swimming, it dies.” This could also serve as a good metaphor for the film industry. For over 100 years, the film industry has avoided many deaths by moving
Food Processing Careers Background As a fundamental human need, food always has played a central part in our lives. Our ancestors lived or died according to their ability to grow food, to hunt for food, or to fight for food. People have always sought out new food sources, and throughout history people have identified the
Foreign Trade Careers Background Foreign trade is the exchange of goods and services between nations. It has been an important part of national economies for centuries, helping domestic industries grow to serve foreign customers and allowing people to enjoy goods produced outside their own country. The ingredients for two favorites in the United States, coffee
Government Careers Background George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and our nation’s other founders had an amazing amount of foresight in the structuring of the United States government. Politicians’ attitudes, beliefs, and sensibilities have changed, but through it all, the structure of the U.S. government has endured. This endurance is no small feat when you
Grocery Store Careers Background Family celebrations and traditions across the world have one thing in common—food. From a simple breakfast to a home-style Sunday dinner, food is a key ingredient in everyday life as well as the special days of the year. Grandma’s pumpkin pie, Aunt Edith’s banana salad, and Uncle Hubert’s holiday ham are
Health Care Careers Background The origins of medicine began with prehistoric people who believed that diseases were derived from supernatural powers. To destroy the evil spirits, they performed trephining, which involved cutting a hole in the victim’s skull to release the spirit. Skulls have been found in which the trephine hole has healed, demonstrating that
Home Furnishing Careers Background The home furnishings industry consists of three general areas: interior design, furniture, and silverware and other craftware items. While most of today’s furnishings are designed to be practical and comfortable, many also achieve a unique level of style and beauty. In general, home furnishings can be seen from four different perspectives:
The nuclear family is one type of conjugal, or marriage-based, family, consisting of a husband, wife, and their children who reside together. Characteristics of the nuclear family that set it apart from some other family types is that it contains only two generations and that it contains a married couple. A single-parent family is considered
Although efforts toward a cross-cultural definition of family are beset by difficulty and disagreement, in anthropological writings, different congregations of kin and affines (i.e., people related through marriage) have been labeled as specific forms of family, changing as new theories of kinship, marriage, or gender have been developed. It has been shown that great social
The scholarly writings of 20th-century American philosopher Marvin Farber owed a great deal to the field of anthropology and the theory of evolution in both their scientific and conceptual ramifications. For him, humankind is a recent and fragile species on planet Earth. From the cosmic perspective, he argued that our species has no meaning or
The Fayoum is a region located 60 km southwest of Cairo and contains archaeological remains from the past 12,000 years. Its most prominent feature is the Birket el-Qarun (Lake Moeris), the only freshwater lake in Egypt, covering an area of 215 km, whose numerous crocodiles during Pharaonic times gave rise to the local crocodile cults
In the beginning of “the people,” the commensality and feasting had birthed a social mechanism, a central theme in our evolving society. Within cultures, the hearth symbolizes “welcome.” A feast is a celebration with foods, perhaps served only for the occasion, in unique and sacred containers. There may be gift giving either with or without
Feminism has been defined as a belief that women have been treated unfairly in society and that the situation should be rectified. This definition encompasses the two major aspects of feminism: It is a body of social theory that seeks to explain the universality of women’s subordinate status, and it is a social movement acting
Biologically, fertility is the ability to reproduce and bear children. The term also refers to the fertility of land, animals, and plants. Culturally, the concept of fertility is conceptualized and articulated in various ways. Fertility has been the subject of both anthropological and historical studies. Anthropologists, archaeologists, and ethnologists have long been interested in the
Feuding is a series of revenge-based killings that not only result in the loss of human life but also contribute to the disruption of the social order. There are five essential elements to feuding: (1) Kinship groups are involved; (2) homicides take place; (3) the killings occur as revenge for a perceived injustice or affront
German philosopher Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach is noted for his materialistic philosophy of human existence. Born in Bavaria, Feuerbach was raised as a Lutheran in a traditional Catholic state. Influenced by devout and resolved parents, Feuerbach’s scholastic terms at the gymnasium in Ansbach provided the basis for exploring his interests in scripture and pious attitude, which
The various ways anthropologists conduct research in naturalistic settings, or in the field, are called field methods. They include participation in social life and various forms of observation. Anthropology relies on field methods as its ultimate source of information. Research in the field, known as fieldwork, involves collecting primary data on humans, other primates, and
Perhaps because so much adult education takes place outside the boundaries of formal educational institutions, sociologists have devoted less scholarly attention to adult education than they have to most other kinds of schooling. There is little agreement on the boundaries of adult education and no clear consensus on a definition that specifies what is included
If we consider deviance as a breach of expectations, then any organization or occupation is likely to provide distinct opportunities for legal and/or ethical violations. College and university faculty members are professionals employed within the occupational context of higher education. Thus, the opportunities for deviance available to them derive from their roles in professional disciplines
The bell curve, also known as the normal distribution, provides a foundation for the majority of statistical procedures currently used in sociology. It can be thought of as a histogram of a continuous variable, but with such fine distinctions between outcomes that it is not possible to differentiate individual bars, so that the histogram appears
The term bilingual education is used to refer to a variety of different language programs in schools with different goals and methods. These programs range from those that transition minority language students to the majority language as quickly as possible, to programs that build or maintain high level proficiency in a second language through teaching
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas stands as the most significant Supreme Court decision in the history of American education, as well as one of the most important statements on racial equality and the relationship between various levels of American government. A half century later, the impacts and implications of Brown
In 1991, Minnesota passed the first charter school law in the United States, allowing state funds to support schools that operate autonomously from the public educational system. The charter school idea caught on quickly, with 40 states and the District of Columbia passing charter school laws between 1991 and 2006. By fall 2005, there were
The distant predecessors of colleges and universities go back in the West to the Greek academies of the fourth and fifth centuries BCE. In these academies, young men from the governing classes studied rhetoric and philosophy (and “lesser” subjects) as training for public life (Marrou 1982). In the East, the roots of higher education go
Although American community colleges (formerly known as junior colleges) have existed since the late nineteenth century, little sociological attention has been paid to these institutions until recently. The conceptual frameworks that do exist highlight the juxtaposition of the community college’s function of expanding access to higher education while also limiting opportunity for many students. In
Critical pedagogy challenges both students and teachers to channel their experiences of oppression into educating and empowering marginalized peoples. Critical pedagogues approach education as a process of social, cultural, political, and individual transformation, where social equity can be nourished or social inequity perpetuated. According to critical pedagogues, notions defining rational classification of people into categories
One of the central goals of sociological studies of education has been to understand the role of schools in society. Do schools promote equal opportunity? Do schools help to recreate social stratification? In American society, where the ideology of meritocracy has taken root, American social science researchers have been pre occupied with issues of mobility
Photojournalism means reporting visually. Yet this simple definition belies the complexity of a professional media practice whose mission remains constant, while the means of fulfilling that mission and the degree to which one believes it can be fulfilled shift along with technology, culture, and perception. The defining characteristic of photojournalism is visual portrayal, with contextualizing
The development of picture magazines is a twentieth-century phenomenon, aided by print technologies that offered quality reproduction of photographs in large numbers and in a short time, like rotogravure, which had yielded high quality reproduction using a single plate for type and photo since 1910. Earlier, photographs had been used for wood-engraved illustrations in many
There have been many disputes over the definition of portraits and some of them have ended up in court (in Alabama in 1863, for instance, and in New South Wales in 1944). A compromise definition is advisable, steering between the dangers of vacuousness, on the one side, and of excluding many images that are commonly
Posters are visual means of communicating messages to large public audiences. A poster is a printed mass media product. Although graffiti and murals are predecessors of posters, they do not qualify as posters, since one of the defining criteria for a poster is its mass reproducibility. While graffiti and murals exist only as single objects
Printing, strictly defined, is the process by which ink is transferred from a prepared matrix to another surface; prints are the material objects that bear the ink transferred by this process. From the mid-fifteenth century until the early nineteenth century in the west, a printing press powered by hand was most commonly used to effect
There is no more difficult concept to clearly define than that of propaganda. Countless books and learned essays have grappled with a definition of this persuasive practice that would encompass all of its many manifestations. The difficulty in arriving at a definition that satisfies all aspects of this particular type of persuasive behavior is compounded
From its very beginnings, photography was understood and experienced in terms of its capacity for realism. “It is not merely the likeness which is precious . . . but the sense of nearness involved in the thing . . . the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever,” wrote Elizabeth
The French film theorist Christian Metz coined the term “scopic regime” in The imaginary signifier (1982, 1st pub.1975) to distinguish the cinema from the theatre: “what defines the specifically cinematic scopic regime is not so much the distance kept . . . as the absence of the object seen” (1982, 61). Because of the cinematic
The sign, in terms first articulated by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), the Swiss linguist, has come to serve as the basic unit of approaches to communication that focus on meaning-making relations rather than on the effectiveness of senders’ communication of intended messages to designated receivers. Semiotic approaches have been taken up by general communication studies
Sign systems mediate the interactions between agents and their worlds. In Peirce’s (1992, 1998) terms, an agent is a first. The principle of “firstness” refers to the property of existing in the world independently of other entities. Firstness entails relative autonomy: a first always encounters and interacts with something else that enables its autonomy to
Information scanning concerns information acquisition from routine patterns of exposure to mediated and interpersonal sources. The essential idea is that even when individuals are not actively seeking information on a specific topic, routine use of media and interactions with other people yield exposures to information that affect knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. For many issues and
In the context of information seeking through mass media use, the concept of informational utility has been developed to predict which information items an individual will attend to and which will be ignored. The concept of utility of information emerged in the discussion about cognitive dissonance, and related predictions were corroborated in a few empirical
Interactivity is regarded as one of the most critical concepts in new media theories due to the increasing popularity of interactive media such as the Internet, computer games, and computer-mediated communication (CMC) media. Despite the explosion of theoretical discussions on the concept of interactivity, a precise explication of the concept is yet to be accomplished.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and volition are important constructs in research on selective exposure to media. Building on recent psychological theories of action (Gollwitzer 1990; Heckhausen & Kuhl 1985), media exposure results if a person develops an (intrinsically or extrinsically motivated) intention and invests sufficient volitional effort to carry out the intention. A general aspiration
Involvement is included in numerous theories and empirical studies of information processing, persuasion, advertising, knowledge acquisition, and other media effects. It is mainly linked with or defined as more elaborative, self-determined, active, and in-depth acting with and processing of media content. In origin, involvement is rooted in three major research traditions. In the work of
The Islamic Republic of Iran (population approx. 67,500,000 in 2004; adult literacy rate 77.1 percent) was established as a result of Iran’s revolution in 1979. The political system blends republican elements (i.e., regular parliamentary and presidential elections) with the idea of the “government of the Islamic jurist” (velayat-e faqih), developed during the 1960s and 1970s
Israel, a young democracy, established in 1948, with a 120-member unicameral parliament elected officially every four years in universal, proportional, nationwide elections, is located in the Middle East, along the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. It lies at the junction of three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The term “media equation” means that media equal real life. It implies that people process technology-mediated experiences in the same way as they would do nonmediated experiences, because an “individual’s interactions with computers, television, and new media are fundamentally social and natural, just like interaction in real life” (Reeves & Nass 1996, 5). In 1996
The terms “pseudo-event” and “media event” refer to the phenomenon that in modern societies many events are created with the sole aim of getting media coverage, or rather that events are staged in a way that lends itself to media coverage. Boorstin (1961) created the term “pseudo-event”. He sees pseudo-events as “synthetic news.” They do
Mass media content is created for audience consumption. Without at least a small audience, the communication process remains unilateral and incomplete. Despite its relevance for media production, regulation, and marketing, data on media use is systematically collected only in a few (mostly western) countries of the world. Hence the international comparison of media use patterns
Cosmetology Careers Background From a new summer hairdo to a milk and honey facial, from a leg waxing to an eyebrow plucking, cosmetologists provide a wide range of beauty and health services. Back when a shave and a haircut were two bits, men spent their lunch hours relaxing in hydraulic barber chairs for hot, aromatic
Dance Careers Background Dance is one of the oldest of the arts. Anthropologists believe the first formal dances were probably symbolic dances performed by early tribal societies as part of ritual ceremonies held to ask spirits or gods for success in hunting or in battle. Some anthropologists think that dancing and music originally came from
Defense Careers Background From simple rocks to sophisticated satellite surveillance systems, people have always sought ways to defend themselves and to protect their territory and to promote their interests. The development of weapons, tools, vehicles, and strategies, both defensive and offensive, plays a crucial role in the safety and welfare, as well as the economic
Dental Careers Background Although modern dentistry dates back only to the 1700s, archeologists have provided evidence of dental treatment from thousands of years ago. The ancient Egyptians treated toothache and swollen gums in the 16th century BC. The Greek physician Aesculapius was the first recorded supporter of tooth extraction around 1250 BC, and Hippocrates wrote
Geoscience Careers Background Curiosity about the physical world inspired the development of the earth sciences, sometimes called geosciences. The earth sciences include geography, geology, geophysics, meteorology, and oceanography. Geography dates to the dawn of history, when investigations and explanations of the world first began. In ancient Greece, Aristotle had the audacity to suggest that the
Education Careers Background American colonists first began establishing elementary schools for their children in the early 17th century. These schools were private, and only the wealthiest families could afford to enroll students in them. The main purpose of these early schools was to teach the students religion due to its major role in colonial life.
Electronics Careers Background The electronics industry is composed of organizations involved in the manufacture, design and development, assembly, and servicing of electronic equipment and components. Together, these organizations offer a wide variety of products that frequently have only one thing in common: They depend upon electronic technology to operate. Electronics is one of the fastest
Energy Careers Background For most of human history, fire was the main source of energy. Wood, charcoal, then coal provided fuel for fire. Over the years, however, people have acquired a more sophisticated knowledge of fuels and energy. This has resulted in the development of atomic energy, as well as new methods of accessing, storing
Engineering Careers Background A lot of brainpower goes into engineering—a lot of knowledge, creativity, thoughtfulness, and pure hard work. Humankind has been “engineering,” so to speak, since we realized we had opposable thumbs that we could use to handle tools. And from that point on we began our ceaseless quest to make, to build, to
Entrepreneur Careers Background Have you ever baby-sat neighborhood kids? Mowed a lawn or two in the summer? Run a lemonade stand? Then you already know something about being an entrepreneur. You’ve set your own hours, named your prices, and earned money. The entrepreneurial spirit has long been strong in kids and teens; this is evident
Evolutionary epistemology considers the scientific processes and bounds of knowledge, with an emphasis on natural selection as the crucial source of sensate cognition by which organisms adapt to their environments. This mode of naturalistic epistemology contrasts significantly with the traditional transcendant formulation, which presupposes no particular format of knowledge. The traditional approach traces to Plato
The obvious as well as the ideal place from which to begin a consideration both of social Darwinism and of evolutionary ethics is the work of Charles Darwin and the ideas he developed and presented in On the Origin of Species (1859), which advocates both of social Darwinism and of evolutionary ethics have tried to
Ontology is that branch of philosophy that asks what exists. Traditionally, this has been understood to mean what kinds of things exist in general, but in recent times, it has also been applied to mean what objects a scientific theory requires to actually exist if it is to explain the phenomena. We must therefore ask
Excavation is one of the most commonly known and used techniques of archaeological investigation. It involves the systematic removal of data from the ground. Excavation provides the most complete evidence for human activity during a particular period and how these activities changed over time. There are many approaches to excavation, but at its most basic
Exobiology is the scientific search for life-forms existing elsewhere in this universe, whereas exoevolution involves speculating on the adaptive histories of organisms on other worlds. It is not generally known that, at least once in his life, Charles Darwin envisioned the existence of plants and animals on another world. In 1836, having returned to a
From the Greek evxoZ + yapco (“out” + “to marry”), exogamy is the marital rule according to which the spouse must be sought outside the social group (e.g. kindred, totem, royal) one belongs to. It is the opposite of endogamy. The explanation of exogamy has been a major concern for anthropologists. In addition, as it
Extinction is a word commonly associated with undesirable, catastrophic loss of entire populations or species. However, extinction is as much a part of the cycle of life on Earth as is evolution. Indeed, extinction and evolution together form the cycle responsible for the ever-increasing complexity of life on Earth. From the earliest evidence in the
Human skeletal remains of Late Pleistocene antiquity were recovered from several caves and open-air sites in Sri Lanka during the last half of the 20th century. Fa Hien Cave is one of the largest on this island nation and is situated in the southwestern lowland wet zone of Katutara District, Sabaragamuva Province. In 1968, human
Brian Fagan (b. 1936) is arguably one of the world’s most influential archaeologists, in that he has reached thousands of archaeology students through his college level archaeology textbooks and millions of nonarchaeologists through dozens of popular archaeology books and articles. The son of a publisher, Brian Murray Fagan was born in Birmingham, England. After 2
Extended families, more so than nuclear families, are characterized by great variation in type and form. The term extended family is usually applied to family systems where the ideal is for multiple generations to live together, so that a man and his wife live with the families of their married sons (or daughters in a
Family life has undergone dramatic change in recent decades, especially in relation to family structure. Marked increases in union dissolution and nonmarital childbearing have resulted in a growing number of children living apart from one of their parents. Most non-resident parents are fathers but with resident fathers becoming one of the fastest rising family forms
Same sex marriage refers to a union by two people of the same sex that is legally sanctioned by the state, where identical rights and responsibilities are afforded same sex and heterosexual married couples. The term ‘‘gay marriage’’ is popularly used to refer to same sex partner ships or cohabiting relationships that are formally registered
A growing interest in old siblings reflects the potential increase in their importance at a time when union dissolution is high and birth rates low. For many subjects, a definition merely begins the story. In the case of older siblings, defining the term and exploring different types of sibship remain compelling research challenges. Traditional definitions
Sibling ties are some of the most widespread and enduring intimate relationships. Located at the border of kinship and friendship, the sociology of siblings largely centers on childhood and old age, rivalry and social support. The role of sib ling ties at other stages of the life course – youth and adulthood – and in
Stepfamilies are common throughout the industrialized world. In the US nearly everyone marries, and about half of the marriages include at least one previously married partner (US Census Bureau 2000). Most divorced people in other western countries also either remarry or cohabit, but at lower rates than in the US. About half of the remarriages
Stepfamilies are becoming increasingly com mon in contemporary developed societies, with the vast majority (in heterosexual families) comprising a stepfather who has partnered and formed a (married or cohabiting) house hold with a biological mother and her resident children. The rise in stepfather households, however, occurs in an institutional context where legislation in many countries
Stepmothers are women who marry or cohabit with partners who have children from prior unions. This broad definition of stepmothers includes women from a variety of roles and who live in diverse family constellations – those who have children of their own as well as women that are childless or childfree, women in lesbian relationships
There has been a slow but discernible increase in sociological interest in the experience of widowhood in later life in the last three decades of the twentieth century, which has come about as a result of two major western world trends: demography and feminism. People are living longer, and as a result of a decrease
In the broadest perspective, education refers to all efforts to impart knowledge and shape values; hence, it has essentially the same meaning as socialization. However, when sociologists speak of education, they generally use a more specific meaning: the deliberate process, outside the family, by which societies transmit knowledge, values, and norms to prepare young people
Traditionally, literacy has meant the ability to read and write. As the cognitive skill requirements of work and daily life have increased, the definition has expanded. In the National Literacy Act of 1991, the US Congress defined literacy as ”an individual’s ability to read, write, and speak in English and compute and solve problems at
Magazines use the aesthetic and rhetorical strategies of graphic design to produce style codes, which define the identity of the magazine as a recognizable title, and establish relationships with their audiences. The magazine combines text and image to publish news, information, editorial content, and advertising. The structural components of the printed magazine include the cover
A mask is a facial representation worn by performers and exists in a continuum with puppetry, which often represents the same characters (Harlequin, Punch, Devil, etc.). Emigh (1996, 3, 7) theorizes masks as “transitional objects” that bridge gaps through strategies of play and argues that though in the west the mask is “generally regarded as
Metaphor is widely regarded as a basic linguistic form in nearly all types of discourse. In contrast to early thinking about metaphor, which emphasized its role as a stylistic embellishment used for rhetorical effect, modern theories consider metaphor to be an essential feature of thinking itself. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) identified a variety
On an evening newscast a news story about the US president includes a file photo of the White House in the frame over the news anchor’s left shoulder. The picture of the White House is meant to cue the audience to the fact that the story is about matters associated with the president’s office. The
The visitor to a museum engages in a dialogue, enters a political space, or constructs a visual legacy, all of which signify membership in a larger community that links past, present, and future. Membership in such a community is made possible through communication. Whether one views the museum as an exchange of information or as
Newspaper design refers to the process of planning, selecting, organizing and arranging the typography, photographs, illustrations, and graphics of newspapers. It also refers to the look or style of a newspaper. Newspaper design is highly conventional, so historians have noted visual features that comprise different stylistic periods. These styles are closely related to how publishers
“Nollywood” – the Nigerian direct-to-video film industry – has become the third largest film industry in the world, producing a staggering 1,500 titles per year. It began during the Nigerian political, social, and economic crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the collapsing national currency made celluloid film production prohibitively expensive and when
Understanding the historical practices of painting is significant for communication studies because in nearly all cultures these practices embody the origins and establishment of subsequent genres of picture-making. Humans have made paintings for at least 30,000 years using three material components: pigment suspended in a medium; a surface to which the paint is applied; and
Perspective refers to the graphic representation on a flat surface of an optical sense of depth associated with natural stereoscopic vision. This translation of three-dimensional visual perception onto a two-dimensional picture plane is accomplished through a variety of techniques for composing the pictorial space, including: (1) diminishing scale, (2) the occlusion of figures and shapes
The word photography comes from the Greek ϕωτoς (photos) and γρaϕειν (graphein), meaning to write with light. From its invention in the early 1800s to the beginning of the twenty-first century, photography referred to a photo-chemically based system of analog and indexical still image production that resulted in an optical reproduction of the space in
We live in an increasingly diverse world, not only in terms of ethnic heritage, but also in the forms of communication available. With so many information resources to choose from, how do we make sure that communication campaigns reach target audiences? Ethnicity is often implicated in the formation of knowledge gaps, in which certain portions
One of the most challenging tasks in research on media exposure is quantifying the amount of film viewing. Currently, people watch films via a variety of media, such as television, VCR, DVD player, computer and Internet, and cinema. For some of these media, it is difficult, if not impossible, to track the number of viewings.
How has the spread of the Internet been studied and explained? Numerous studies have established that the spread of Internet access follows an S-shaped curve. What is not well understood is the factors responsible for different levels of Internet access among different countries. Many theories of the diffusion of innovations, such as the Bass model
In democratic societies “being informed” is regarded as part of the citizen’s duty in order to form a political opinion and to participate in political life. The media, on the one hand, play a major role in the transmission of information about current events, and they are thought to be very influential. To fulfill its
Research on exposure to television builds a large and heterogeneous field with one common denominator. Studies of television viewing try to provide evidence on the question: What do people do with television? Exposure to television has developed as a major research field since we cannot understand television as a medium of public communication without considering
Radio is the medium with the highest relevance for media users in daily life – at least with respect to the amount of exposure time. In western industrialized countries, people listen to radio for about three hours each day, with about 80 percent of daily reach (Table 1). Radio consumption has decreased massively since the
The term “print media” can be defined in different ways. In its broadest sense the term is used for a whole range of publications that can be subdivided into two main categories in terms of their format and content: media published at regular intervals such as newspapers and magazines, and media for one-time publication such
The past three decades have witnessed a considerable increase in empirical research into the origins, contents, and effects of people’s fantasy and imagination. What exactly is meant by fantasy and imagination, however, often remains unclear. Moreover, the two terms are often used without distinction, suggesting that they capture one and the same experience. Of course
Habituation is a decrement in response to repeated stimuli. It is a learning mechanism through which organisms are able to filter sensory inputs from their environment and thereby allocate scarce attentional resources to only the most relevant stimuli (Siddle 1991). Habituation involves both peripheral and central nervous system processes. In the peripheral nervous system, the
Identification with media characters is a key component of viewers’ propensity to become engaged and involved in media content. Identification is an imaginative process that is evoked as a response to characters presented in mediated texts, whereby audiences feel as if they are part of the world depicted by the mediated text. When identifying with
Airline Careers Background The first recorded flight of a human being took place in 1783 when French inventors Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier inflated a large balloon with hot air, reaching an altitude of 6,000 feet. Advancements in aeronautics, the science of flight, soon led to the development of successful glider designs. Two brothers, Orville Wright
Alternative Medicine Careers Background The United States has been involved in an escalating health care crisis since the 1980s. Alternative health care (also called alternative medicine) plays an increasingly important role both in stirring the conflict and in contributing to potential solutions. What is the health care crisis? There is a growing feeling of alienation
Animal care involves the care and maintenance of animals, both wild and domestic. The animal care field includes the training and breeding of animals, as well as promoting their health and care. It also includes the entire range of actions taken by humans to protect and preserve wildlife and ensure its continued survival, such as
Automotive Careers Background The automotive industry plays a vital and powerful role in world economies, in terms of the value of its product, the jobs it creates, the income it generates, and the taxes it pays. The industry as a whole employs people at all levels of the occupational spectrum, from highly skilled engineers and
Banking and Finance Careers Background Banking Banking in the United States emerged immediately after the Revolutionary War. The First Bank of the United States was a federally chartered bank established to print money, purchase securities (stocks and bonds) in companies, and lend money. It also was responsible for establishing lending rules that state banks would
Biology Careers Background Life has many different levels of organization from the atom to complex organisms, to whole populations and ecosystems. The biological sciences look at life on one or more of these levels—at anything that is or has been alive. The field of biology also looks at the effects of surroundings on living things.
Book Publishing Careers Background The earliest known books were the clay tablets of Mesopotamia and the papyrus rolls of Egypt. Examples of both date from about 3000 BC. According to archeological findings, the Chinese developed books about 1300 BC. Early Chinese books were made of wood or bamboo strips and bound together with cords. With
Broadcasting Careers Background For centuries people have sought to improve methods of communicating over long distances. In 1895 an Italian engineer, Guglieimo Marconi, demonstrated how to send communication signals without the use of wires; instantaneous worldwide communication soon became a reality. In the early 1900s, transmitting and receiving devices were relatively simple, and hundreds of
Chemistry Careers Background Modern chemistry can trace its birth to the large-scale production of alkalis and alkaline salts of potassium and sodium in the late 1700s. These compounds were used to make soap, glass, and textile bleaches, and they were therefore in tremendous demand. The crude, inefficient procedures by which they were made could not
Construction Careers Background Construction is an industry field that includes the erection, maintenance, and repair of buildings and other immobile structures, and the building of roads and service facilities that become integral parts of structures and are essential to their use. Construction includes structural additions and alterations but excludes the building of mobile structures such
Mitochondrial Eve is the name given to the idea that the mitochondrial DNA in all modern humans can be traced back to a single genetic lineage, carried by a woman who lived in Africa approximately 250,000 to 150,000 years ago. This idea has been misunderstood by people who incorrectly think that it means that all
The Nature of Evil The notion of evil is complex but usually involves some combination of or interplay between four basic categories, consisting of two sorts of effect and two sorts of cause or origin. The two sorts of effect are suffering and metaphysical evil, and the two sorts of cause are moral and natural
One must distinguish between the fact of organic evolution and those different interpretations of this process that are offered in the world literature. The arc of interpretations ranges from materialism, through vitalism and spiritualism, to mysticism. Furthermore, perspectives vary from population dynamics to cosmic history. The interpretation may give preference to science, philosophy, or theology.
Ethnoscience is the study of what native people know about the world around them, including biology, zoology, and astronomy. This discipline is concerned with the cultural knowledge and classification systems in a given society. An ethnography, from this methodology, would include all the rules and ideas that a member of a society would need in
The Abrahamic religions (that is, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) all have fundamentalist schools and denominations that believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. Because of the belief in the infallibility of the Bible, the fundamentalists reject evolution and believe in the literal truth of the origin accounts as told in Genesis. The fundamentalist Christians, mainly
Several major models have been used to represent organic evolution on earth. These models include the arc, line, spiral, circle, pyramid, and tree or bush or coral of life forms throughout biological history. Aristotle (384-322 BCE), the father of biology, including morphology and taxonomy, taught that plants and animals represent a hierarchical line of eternally
Inspired by the scientific framework of organic evolution, paleoanthropologists continue to be very successful in discovering the diversified remains of fossil hominids at sites in eastern and southern Africa. This growing evidence represents the very long, branching, and complex process of human emergence from Pliocene apelike forms, through protohominids and then hominids, to the present
Theories of molecular evolution try to explain the natural history of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which is the material carrier of genetic information. Evolutionarily relevant variations between organisms must be implemented in the biochemical structure of DNA sequences. Otherwise, those variations would not be genetically transmitted from an organism to its offspring, so they would disappear
Evolution, in the modern sense, refers to changes in the genetic composition of populations over time and is the result of natural selection and/or genetic drift acting on population variation. In this Darwinian paradigm, species may change or split into more than one species (speciation). All extant species are descendants of a common ancestor (descent
In a famous manifesto, the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) claimed in 1973 that “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” One could also wonder if anything in anthropology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Indeed, there is a part of anthropology that does not deal with evolutionary issues. This
The growth of lone parenthood is a trend common to many advanced industrial countries. In 1990 Britain had one of the highest rates of lone parenthood in Europe (with 19 percent of families with children being lone parent families) along with Sweden (19 percent), Norway (19 percent), and Denmark (18 percent). The European countries with
Love is one of the most basic human emotions. Many have written about love experiences, both in popular writing and in more scholarly publications, especially as they apply to romantic relationships. As these writings indicate, there are many ways of thinking about love. Some of the types of love identified by researchers are reviewed below.
Questions about inequalities in marriage and the distribution of power within the relationship have long been a concern within sociology of family. In particular, ideas about historic shifts in the dominance of husbands/fathers within families have vied with feminist inspired views of the continuing significance of patriarchal control in both public and private spheres. The
Marital quality is a dynamic concept, as the nature and quality of people’s relationships change over time. There have been two major approaches to conceptualizing and measuring marital quality: looking at the relationship itself (examining patterns of interaction, such as the amount and type of conflict) and looking at individual feelings of the people in
Dictionary definitions of marriage usually begin with something like ”the legal union of a man and a woman in order to live together and often to have children.” Even in such a simple and limited definition, some key elements and some potential complexities are highlighted. First, we are dealing with a definition referring to legal
As with ideas of community, public perceptions of family life highlight the extent to which change has been occurring. Usually the emphasis is on the “decline” of family values and family solidarities in comparison to some past, more stable and wholesome period. In most cases, these perceived changes are significantly exaggerated, with the past being
Maternalism has three meanings. First, it refers to social practices grounded in women’s concern for children, especially when those practices extend beyond the home into community and/or political arenas. Maternalism has been used particularly to describe the activities of Progressive era social reformers who shaped the emerging welfare states’ policies concerning mothers and children. It
The term matriarchy has a commonsense meaning today. It refers to a situation where a female becomes an important figure in a nuclear or extended household. Thus, for example, Rose Kennedy was a matriarch of the Kennedy clan. That current meaning has deep roots. At one time many thinkers believed that women had always been
The equal sharing of financial resources and, hence, material well-being has become an assumed norm of contemporary heterosexual families. Of course, this is not to say that hetero sexual couples actually enjoy financial equality or that they share a similar standard of living. In fact, as Pahl (1989) pointed out over 15 years ago, the
Motherhood is the word that sociologists tend to use to refer to the social expectations, experiences, and structures associated with being a mother. The use of the term motherhood differentiates the biological fact of producing a baby (becoming a mother) and the practices involved in taking care of children (mothering) from the public and cultural
A working definition of film genre depends on the purposes toward which it will be applied. The audience approaches genre as it is generally defined as kind, sort, or style. Categorizing films this way has been in use going back to the advent of film production and consumption. For example, the “actuality” (early documentaries), the
The term “film production” has routinely been used as a way to indicate the stage in the making of a movie where actual filming takes place. While this usage is shared by both the public and filmmakers, it is somewhat misleading in that it draws attention to just one aspect of filmmaking at the expense
Film theory is a form of speculative thought that aims to make visible the underlying structures and absent causes that confer order and intelligibility upon films. These structures and causes, while not observable in themselves, are made visible by theory. The ultimate objective of film theory is to construct models of film’s nonobservable underlying structures.
“Graphic design” refers, in essence, to the artful arrangement of images and text on a variety of surfaces and in a range of forms. Typical pieces of graphic design include: posters; books; CD, DVD, and book covers; brochures and flyers; magazines and newspapers; logos, trademarks, branding and corporate identity systems; product packaging; annual reports; T-shirts;
Heraldry is a traditional display system for family and corporate visual identity, originating in late twelfth-century western Europe, based on the complex of design-bearing units known in English as a coat of arms. The word “heraldry” originally indicated the entire business of the heralds, court officials who at first recorded coats of arms and later
Hollywood is the metaphoric, if not exactly the geographic, center of the American film, television, cable, music, and digital media industry. Ripe with symbolic meaning for media consumers across the globe, Hollywood exists almost purely in the collective imaginary, since it is neither incorporated as a city, nor definable by strict borders as a geographic
The term “Hong Kong cinema” refers both to an industry and to a phenomenon. In its most concrete sense it denotes the cinematic productions based in the former colony and now Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. But in a larger sense it also refers to a stylistic and cultural movement, and the influence of
Iconography is both a method and an approach to studying the content and meanings of visuals. In its colloquial use, the term “iconography” describes the motif of a particular picture or a specific group of artworks. A general distinction can be made between religious, mainly Christian iconography and secular or political iconography. In the context
Image ethics has never before been the subject of so much media criticism as at the present time. The use of violent images is questioned. Photographers that hound celebrities beyond propriety are criticized. Pictures that are manipulated and present misleading views damage the media’s credibility. Images that perpetuate negative stereotypes of individuals from various multicultural
An infographic (or information graphic) is a visual explanation – for example, a chart, map, or diagram – that aids in the comprehension of text-based content. The infographic designer does not merely illustrate given information, but must actively interpret given content in order to present it in a manner that effectively visually communicates to the
Ethos, commonly translated as “ethics” and “moral character,” is a fundamental term in the history of the western rhetorical tradition. For “who does not know,” writes the ancient Greek philosopher and rhetorician Isocrates, “that words carry greater conviction when spoken by men of good repute than when spoken by men who live under a cloud
While social sciences of the twentieth century could be characterized by endeavors to “debiologize” human nature, evolutionary thinking has become increasingly presentable in scientific rationale. The most influential approach utilizing evolutionary theory to answer questions in respect of communication is evolutionary psychology (EP). EP (or Darwinian psychology) is focused on how evolution has shaped human
The excellence theory is a general theory of public relations that resulted from a 15-year study of best practices in communication management funded by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation. Three books were published from the research (J. E. Grunig 1992; Dozier et al. 1995; L. A. Grunig et al. 2002). This
Common sense holds that exposure to media content can be associated with different levels of excitement and arousal. The specific case of a thrilling movie well describes the type of stimuli that come to our mind when using the terms arousal and excitation in everyday language. From a psychological point of view, arousal is conceptualized
The theory of excitation transfer addresses sequential dependencies in emotional reactivity. Specifically, it predicts an enhancement of emotional reactions to immediately present emotion-arousing situations by portions of excitation that are left over from preceding related or unrelated emotion-arousing situations. The theory operationalizes excitation primarily as dominance of sympathetic activity in the autonomic nervous system and
The term “exemplification effect” describes the influence of illustrating and aggregating case descriptions in media presentations on the recipients’ perceptions of issues. Aggregating case descriptions emerges whenever media coverage presents any kind of generalizing claim about natural or social phenomena and an arbitrarily selected sample of single cases to illustrate the issue at hand. General
Human beings have a natural tendency to react with some degree of positive or negative affect to any object or concept of psychological significance (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975; Eagly & Chaiken 1993). We like or dislike certain people, support or oppose various policies, regard some activities as pleasant and others as unpleasant, have favorable views
People have expectations about how others should and will act in a given situation. Some expectations are based on personal knowledge about an individual, relationship, or situation. Other expectations are based on rules of social and cultural appropriateness. When a communicator’s behavior deviates from these expectations, an expectancy violation has occurred. Expectancy violations theory (EVT)
Research utilizing experimentation is increasingly being conducted in venues outside the research laboratory. Such projects, when they involve the manipulation of an independent variable in realistic circumstances, are called “field experiments.” Natural experiments, involving research conducted in realistic circumstances where the researcher does not manipulate the independent variable, are discussed elsewhere. Distinction From Laboratory Experiments
Research utilizing experimentation is undertaken in a variety of contexts and settings. Decisions concerning the circumstances under which to conduct an experiment typically reflect a combination of considerations including the nature of the research question, the availability of research resources, and the researcher’s interest in balancing concerns about the validity and the generalizability of subsequent
Surveyors mark exact measurements and locations of elevations, points, lines, and contours on or near Earth’s surface. They measure distances between points to determine property boundaries and to provide data for mapmaking, construction projects, and other engineering purposes. There are approximately 131,000 surveyors, cartographers, photogrammetrists, and surveying technicians employed in the United States. Of those
Technical support specialists investigate and resolve problems in computer functioning. They listen to customer complaints, walk customers through possible solutions, and write technical reports based on their work. Technical support specialists have different duties depending on whom they assist and what they fix. Regardless of specialty, all technical support specialists must be very knowledgeable about
Technical writers, sometimes called technical communicators, express technical and scientific ideas in easy-to-understand language. Technical editors revise written text to correct any errors and make it read smoothly and clearly. They also may coordinate the activities of technical writers, technical illustrators, and other staff in preparing material for publication and oversee the document development and
Traffic engineers study factors that influence traffic conditions on roads and streets, including street lighting, visibility, and location of signs and signals, entrances and exits, and the presence of sites such as factories or shopping malls. They use this information to design and implement plans and electronic systems that improve the flow of traffic. History
Video game art directors play a key role in every stage of the creation of a video game, from formulating concepts to supervising production. They work with 2D and 3D artists, animators, modelers, and other artistic staff to coordinate all the visual images used in a game. Video game art directors supervise both in-house and
Video game producers are the liaison between the creative side of video game development, and the business side of marketing and selling the final product. They oversee all steps and processes needed in the creation of a video game, including the hiring, training, and management of staff, checking to see that progress is proceeding according
Video game testers examine new or modified video game applications to evaluate whether or not they perform at the desired level. Testers also verify that different tasks and levels within a game function properly and progress in a consistent manner. Their work entails trying to find glitches in games and sometimes crashing the game completely.
Do you like performing experiments to test scientific hypotheses? Do you enjoy the challenges of working with numbers? Perhaps you like thinking of new and improved designs for vehicles or everyday products. If any of these or similar activities describe you, then you may have the innate curiosity that all of the jobs in the
Aerospace Careers Background Despite a slowdown in recent years, aerospace is a career field that continues to attract many people because of its cutting-edge technology and wide range of career opportunities. Aerospace technology has made our world a smaller place. The ability to move humans in flying machines has changed our culture, from the way
Agriculture Careers Background Rudimentary farming developed approximately 10,000 years ago. Archeological records reveal that people first planted seeds about 9000 BC. However, it would be another thousand years before farming produced crops as a primary source of food. As the skills of farmers increased, food production improved. Animal husbandry, fishing, and planting skills became more
Ethnopharmacology is the cross-cultural study of how people use plants, animals, fungi, or other naturally occurring resources for medicinal purposes. Such knowledge provides the basis for the herbal remedy industry and has led to the development of at least 121 pharmaceuticals. Often, this involves observation of how a traditional remedy is used; then, the effective
Ethnopsychiatry is that branch of medical anthropology focally concerned with mental health and illness. Historically, ethnopsychiatry studied the theories and practices of “primitive” or folk psychiatries. Such work generally involved the application of then current western “psychiatric” (unmarked) “knowledge” and practice to the ethnopsychiatries of other cultures. The field of ethnopsychiatry was first delineated by
Ethnosemantics, sometimes called “ethnoscience,” is the scientific study of the ways in which people label and classify the social, cultural, and environmental phenomena of their world. Beginning in the 1960s, ethnosemantics continued the Boasian tradition of focusing on linguistic relativity and the importance of native language terms, with a focus on developing theories of particular
Ethology is a subdivision of biology that focuses on animal behavior that is innate—a study of animal behavior that holds the belief that most of what animals know is instinctive, not learned. Instincts are genetically programmed behaviors; they generally serve to galvanize the mechanisms that evoke the animal to act or react. Ethology, as a
Cognitive ethology is the study of higher mental functions in animals. Until about 1980, the possibility of cognitive powers in animals was largely denied. This aversion to thinking about the animal mind was rooted in the deeply embarrassing “Clever Hans” incident. In the early 1900s, a horse known as “Clever Hans” was apparently taught language
Etics is a term used by some cultural anthropologists to denote descriptions and explanations of human beliefs and behaviors that are presented in terms relevant to an outside analyst or observer but not necessarily meaningful or relevant to the native practitioners of the culture in question. The linguist Kenneth Pike coined the term etics from
Eudysphoria is a neologism coined by A. Gaines to represent and characterize dysphoric (the Greek meaning “hard to bear”) affect that is ego-syntonic and positively experienced in particular cultural contexts. The term critiques U.S. ethnopsychiatry’s uniformly negative conception of dysphoric affect and highlights the existence of distinct, positive cultural evaluations thereof. Psychiatry interprets dysphoric affect
Concept The term eugenics was coined by Sir Francis Galton in his book Inquiries into Human Faculty (1883). The term is taken from two Greek words: eu, which is the Greek word for the adverb “well,” and gen, which has its roots in the verb gignesthai, meaning “to become.” Galton described with this word the
Euthenics is a branch of art and science that deals with the improvement of human functioning, efficiency, and well-being by modifying controllable environmental factors such as living conditions and education. The word euthenics is derived from the Greek word euthenein, which means, “to thrive or flourish.” One of the first known authors to make use
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard was a British social anthropologist known for his ethnographic work among the various tribes of Africa. Evans-Pritchard was born in England in 1902. He studied at the Exeter School, Oxford, and the London School of Economics, under Charles Seligman. In 1945, Evans-Pritchard was appointed reader in anthropology at Cambridge University. In 1946
When people discuss family life there is often a confusion between family as kinship and family as household. The two ideas are so much part of commonsense understandings of “family” that they are elided together. Though less common in sociology, a similar lack of clarity over what aspect of “family” is being examined sometimes arises.
Overall, the sociology of immigrant families represents a significant lacuna in the research on international migration. Although migratory flows have been interpreted as complex negotiations involving a diversity of actors including the individual, the family, social and kin networks, the market, and the state, other topics have polarized the attention of the social sciences. The
Women and men typically experience different rights and responsibilities in marriage, in spite of widespread beliefs in marital equality. These differences led sociologist Jesse Bernard (1972) to coin the phrase ”his and her marriages.” Gender-based patterns of inequalities in marriage have existed historically in the US and other western nations, though they have declined somewhat
Infidelity is about being emotionally or sexually unfaithful. It is closely equated with non-monogamy, and as such is usually examined in the context of marriage. However, as constructions of marriage have changed since the middle of the twentieth century, the meanings attached to infidelity (or unfaithfulness, betrayal, or disloyalty) are no longer associated so exclusively
What is imagined by “intimacy” as a quality of relationships is often associated with particular ways of behaving (Davis 1973). Intimacy is sometimes defined narrowly to mean the familiarity resulting from close association. In this sense, domestic life across much of the life course in all societies is intimate. Living arrangements that involve sharing domestic
Ten years ago studies of couple relationships emphasized marriage formation and dissolution (both separation and divorce). Marriage is still the dominant heterosexual couple relationship, but increases in rates of nonmarital cohabitation, the growing recognition of couple relationships between individuals who do not live together, sometimes called LAT (Living Apart Together) couples, and same sex unions
The study of kinship tends to be associated more closely with social anthropology than with sociology. In large part, this is a consequence of anthropologists frequently studying societies in which social and economic organization was premised to a great extent on the obligations and responsibilities that kin had towards one another. Consequently, understanding the kin
With the aging of the population and increased life expectancy in western societies, there has been growing research interest in the period of late adulthood, which can span several decades. That life stage is characterized by three major events that can affect the individual as well as the marital unit: decline in health, retirement from
In the narrowest sense, the term ”lesbian and gay family” refers to lesbian and gay individuals or same sex couples and their children. The term is sometimes used to refer to same sex partnerships or cohabiting relationships. In the broadest sense, the term can denote social networks that include lesbian or gay individuals and/or couples
The concept of the life course refers to the social processes shaping individuals’ journey through life, in particular their interaction with major institutions associated with the family, work, education, and leisure. The life course perspective distinguishes between trajectories on the one side and transitions on the other. The former refer to the sequence of roles
Provisionally, we can define cinema as on-screen (and even large-screen) presentation of moving images that have been pre-recorded photo-chemically on some support (most often, strips of celluloid). Among the practices of modern, mass-disseminated visual culture, the cinema was perhaps the pre-eminent form for at least the first half of the twentieth century (after which it
Cinematography is the technique of photographing motion pictures. The art of cinematography involves working with three distinct sets of tools: the camera, the film, and the lighting. We can make useful distinctions among cinematography, mise en scène, and editing. Whereas mise en scène involves the arrangement of details in front of the camera, cinematography involves
A code is a term in semiotics that designates a set of related signs or signifying practices that correspond to a system of meaning. While each sign has a unique signifier, what is signified is generally understood as a marker of difference within a larger group of signs. For instance, the number sign “2” has
Comics, either in the form of newspaper strips (funnies) or comic books, combine text and images to carry a narrative or a joke. Although semblances of comics can be found in Egyptian Pharanoic art, thousand-year-old Indian, Japanese, and Chinese scrolls, eighteenth-century Japanese kibyoshi (yellow books), and thirteenth-century European book illustrations, the nineteenth century is normally
Community video is one form of community media. It is best defined by its objective, which is to stimulate participation in public affairs. The defining phrase might be “with the people, not just about them.” John Grierson, in the late 1920s in the UK, began writing about its possibilities. His persuasive pen and leadership attracted
Dance is a complex visual form that communicates through movement in time and space, often in conjunction with music and poetry. Dances convey meaning through culturally understood conventions within social contexts. Dances are produced as a result of creative processes that move human bodies through time and in spatial layouts. They are transient in performance
Design is the human power to conceive, plan, and make all of the products that serve human beings in the accomplishment of their individual and collective purposes. It is a cultural art and a practical art, supporting all forms of activity in the human community by providing a high degree of forethought for communications, artifacts
Two distinct processes can give rise to digital images. On the one hand, they can be created entirely by computer, as animations or as single computer-generated images. On the other hand, they can be produced photographically, through digital cameras and camcorders, or through the digital scanning of photographs originally recorded on celluloid. When a real
Among the qualities that distinguish films considered documentary are: (1) explicit reference to the historical world that surrounds the film, (2) a persuasive effort that encourages viewers to see or understand some aspect of the actual world in a particular way, and (3) an indexical relationship between the image and the reality it refers to.
It is commonly assumed that an ethnographic film is any documentary about nonwestern cultures. There is scholarly debate about its parameters. Some suggest all film is ethnographic (Heider 1976), while others restrict the term to films produced by anthropologists (Ruby 2000). There are no up-to-date histories of ethnographic film. The scholarly literature in the field
Cognitive dissonance is a theory developed in the late 1950s by US psychologist Leon Festinger, which claims that people tend to avoid information and situations that are likely to increase a dissonance with their existing cognitions, such as beliefs, attitudes, or other value judgments. The author proposed the following basic hypotheses: “(1) The existence of
The world wide web has revolutionized the ways in which people communicate. People can have simultaneous online chats with colleagues across the world. Yet, people often communicate with a single individual so the communication is in many ways like interpersonal communication – except not face to face. Chatrooms have been created for many reasons, ranging
In social psychology, consistency theories constitute a body of four theories: Leon Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory (1957), Fritz Heider’s balance theory (1946, 1958), Charles Osgood and Percy Tannenbaum’s consistency theory (1955), and Rosenberg’s model of affective–cognitive consistency (1956). Consistency theories are characterized by the assumption that humans strive for a balanced state of cognitions and
Co-viewing is the viewing of media content in groups. Typically, the co-viewing group is a dyad, but the term can also refer to groups of three or more. Most of the research has been conducted in regard to television viewing, but the concept has been a part of communication research since the investigation of silent
Empathy is a social emotion. It comes in response to bearing witness to the emotions of others, usually persons but also other beings thought capable of experiencing emotions. Prototypically, an empathic reaction is evoked by the immediate observation of others’ acute emotions, and it manifests itself in an emotional experience that the witness believes to
As early as 1962, Elihu Katz and David Foulkes wondered why communication researchers had almost exclusively addressed mass media’s persuasive capacities and almost completely neglected its role as an agent of entertainment. Their surprise was caused by the simple observation that the bulk of mass media consumption at that time served entertainment needs – an
Entertainment education is defined as the “process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, shift social norms, and change over behavior” (Singhal & Rogers 2004, 5). Parables, fables, and morality plays have been used for
Escapism was introduced as an explanation for people’s use of entertainment media in the 1950s. The tremendous popularity of entertainment programming in radio and, especially at the beginning of the 1960s, in television inspired communication researchers to discuss the reasons why mass audiences felt attracted to these programs and what consequences should be expected from
Ethnic media are media vehicles (e.g., specific programs, publications, promotional pieces) that carry culturally relevant messages designed for and targeted to a particular ethnic group. Studies have demonstrated the rapid growth and success of ethnic media in North America and throughout the world (Deuze 2006; Gross 2006; Ojo 2006). In the past, media planners were
Harold Garfinkel introduced the term “ethnomethodology” (by analogy to “ethnoscience”) in the 1950s and 1960s and gave the approach its fullest explication in his widely influential Studies in ethnomethodology (1967). Ethnomethodology consists of the effort to discover and analyze generic practices – methods – found across different occasions by which people in concert with one
Silverware artisans include designers and artists, as well as silversmiths, who are skilled workers and repairers of silver and a variety of other metals, including gold and platinum. Silverware workers manufacture metal utensils used at the table for holding, serving, and handling food and drink, such as platters, pitchers, forks, and spoons. The creation and
Software designers are responsible for creating new ideas and designing prepackaged and customized computer software. Software designers devise applications such as word processors, front-end database programs, and spreadsheet programs that make it possible for computers to complete given tasks and to solve problems. Once a need in the market has been identified, software designers first
Software engineers are responsible for customizing existing software programs to meet the needs and desires of a particular business or industry. First, they spend considerable time researching, defining, and analyzing the problem at hand. Then, they develop software programs to resolve the problem on the computer. There are about 800,000 computer software engineers employed in
Soil scientists study the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of soils to determine the most productive and effective planting strategies. Their research aids in producing larger, healthier crops and more environmentally sound farming procedures. There are about 30,000 agricultural and food scientists, a group that includes soil scientists, working in the United States. Hundreds of
Sports broadcasters, or sportscasters, for radio and television stations select, write, and deliver footage of current sports news for the sports segment of radio and television news broadcasts or for specific sports events, channels, or shows. They may provide pre- and postgame coverage of sports events, including interviews with coaches and athletes, as well as
Sports executives, sometimes known as team presidents, CEOs, and general managers, manage professional, collegiate, and minor league sports teams. They are responsible for the teams’ finances, as well as overseeing the other departments within the organization, such as marketing, public relations, accounting, ticket sales, advertising, sponsorship, and community relations. Sports executives also work on establishing
Stadium, arena, and facility managers, sometimes called general managers, sports facility managers, or stadium operations executives, are responsible for the day-to-day operations involved in running a sports facility. They are involved in sports facility planning, including the buying, selling, or leasing of facilities; facility redesign and construction; and the supervision of sports facilities, including the
Statisticians use mathematical theories to collect and interpret information. This information is used to help various agencies, industries, and researchers determine the best ways to produce results in their work. There are approximately 19,000 statisticians in the United States, employed in a wide variety of work fields, including government, industry, and scientific research. History of
Supermarket workers are a diverse group. Each supermarket worker is employed in one or more areas of a grocery store, from the checkout lane to the deli counter to the back stock room. There are 3.4 million people who work as employees of food stores, according to the Food Marketing Institute. Supermarkets are located in
Surveying and mapping technicians help determine, describe, and record geographic areas or features. They are usually the leading assistant to the professional surveyor, civil engineer, and mapmaker (See “Surveyors”). They operate modern surveying and mapping instruments and may participate in other operations. Technicians must have a basic knowledge of the current practices and legal implications
Concepts The term ethics was first coined by the philosopher and physician Aristotle (384-322 BC), in his book Ethika Nikomacheia (ethics for his son Nikomachos). Ethics has its roots in the noun ethos, which means “custom.” Aristotle understood it as the rational study of custom which, methodically, as a practical science has not the exactness
Ethnocentrism is the term used to describe the phenomenon of people from a certain group seeing all other groups in comparison to their own as the ideal. Ethnos is the Greek word for “nation,” so ethnocentrism literally means nation-centered. Ethnicity itself is a word that is broad enough to include any number of features that
Ethnoecology is the study of human knowledge, perception, classification, and management of natural environments. Work in ethnoecology synthesizes the ecologist’s understanding of the relationships between biological and physical components in ecosystems with the cognitive anthropologist’s focus on the acquisition and expression of cultural information. For ethnoecologists, culture is seen as the knowledge necessary for ecologically
The term ethnogenesis is derived from the Greek ethnos, signifying a people sharing a same language and culture. The term ethnos is synonymous with the Latin gens (gentes in the plural) and the less common natio. The Greek and the Latin words worked their way into the English language as nation in Middle English and
An ethnographer, most typically a cultural anthropologist, sometimes a sociologist, or another type of social scientist, educator, or humanist, is a person who writes a description of a cultural group or situation using participant observation and informant interviews. The product of the research is the ethnography, or written account of that particular culture. Using all
Ethnography is an in-depth description of a culture or group of people sharing a culture. It is a fairly straightforward idea until one begins to ask troubling questions, such as: What is a culture? What are the boundaries of the group of people we are describing? Who describes them and upon what terms? What is
Ethnography, the study of people in a natural setting, provides an opportunity for researchers to conduct a detailed study of a group of people while being immersed in the culture of that group. Ethnography (ethno, “people” or “folk,” and graphy, “to describe something”), sometimes referred to as participant observation or field research, involves the study
Ethnohistory refers in general terms to the study of the history of a social group from an anthropological perspective. Frequently, this involves using a variety of sources, such as oral history, missionary documents, and travel accounts, to reconstruct the social history of the marginalized peoples who tend to form the subject matter of most anthropological
The word ethnology comes from the Greek words ethnos, meaning “people” and logia, meaning “study of.” Franz Boas said the goal of ethnology was first to describe and explain culture, and then formulate laws about it. While some anthropologists use this term as synonymous with sociocultural anthropology, more often, it means one of the two
The nature and experience of affliction and the causes and consequences thereof vary from culture to culture and, over time, within a culture. Cultures have developed more or less organized approaches to understand and treat afflictions, and identify the agents, forces, or conditions believed responsible for them. Ethnomedicine is that branch of medical anthropology concerned
European societies during the nineteenth century underwent massive changes. The old social order anchored in kinship, the village, the community, religion, and old regimes was attacked and fell to the twin forces of industrialism and revolutionary democracy. The sweeping changes had particular effect on the family. There was a dramatic increase in such conditions as
Father involvement refers to involvement by fathers in the daily responsibilities of parenthood. According to data from the early 1990s, only 12.6 percent of men 45 to 64 years of age report never having had children (Bachu 1996). Thus, although not all men are fathers, most eventually father a child and have, therefore, the opportunity
Since the late 1970s the topic of family migration has increasingly been examined by sociologists, geographers, economists, and demographers. Studies of family migration have clearly become a wide ranging, interdisciplinary endeavor, with discussions cross cutting the social sciences. Although family migration occurs at many geographic scales, from the neighborhood to the global, academic discourses within
Many societies have made the transition from high mortality and large family sizes to settings where most children survive, small families are desired, and most people control their fertility. In the early 1960s, the average woman could expect to have almost five children over her life, but now she can expect to have fewer than
Within any society there are more or less common ways of ‘‘doing’’ family relationships. That is, there are ways of organizing family relationships which are broadly accepted as appropriate and given legitimacy in that society. This does not mean that all family relationships are similar or that all follow the same societally imposed ‘‘rules.’’ There
The implications of family structure for child wellbeing have been a central topic of research for several decades. In its simplest form, it is the comparison between two parent and one parent families that is the root of concern for child wellbeing. Children who live with two married parents are defined in most government statistics
Family theory consists of sets of propositions that attempt to explain some aspect of family life. Theorizing involves making general statements about some phenomenon, and an important characteristic of family theory, therefore, is that it involves a degree of abstraction from reality. Theoretical statements are abstract statements employing concepts that refer to things in the
Family therapy is a clinical approach to treating mental health and relationship problems based on the assumption that dysfunction can best be understood and treated by examining the social context in which it exists. Emerging as an identifiable ‘‘field’’ in the 1950s, family therapy was, and continues to be, characterized by attention to the interaction
Fatherhood is a social institution and includes the rights, duties, responsibilities, and statuses associated with being a father. A useful distinction is made between the terms father, fathering, and fatherhood. The first refers to the connection made between a particular child and a particular man (whether biological or social). The second refers to behavior; the
Grandparenthood can be considered at three distinct levels: the societal level (referring to societal norms, functions, and esteem of grandparents), the family level (referring to interactions and supports among grandparents, parents, and grandchildren), and the individual level (referring to the meaning and significance of grandparenthood to the grandparents). The meaning and significance of grandparenthood often
Advertisements organize typography and art (photographs, illustrations, and graphics) into designed layouts. Advertising’s visual characteristics can be described historically by analyzing their style, or functionally by analyzing their role in advertising rhetoric. Modern advertising appeared during the Industrial Revolution. In the early nineteenth century, most ads, like the goods they promoted, were locally produced. Written
While the invention of the camera and advancement of photography are best known in the contexts of the history of technology or the emergence of a new art form, cameras have been used for more than commercial concerns, scientific interests, or artistic work. From the earliest use of the camera and the emergence of consumer
History has belied the field of animation with misplaced emphases and ethnocentric retellings. First, animation did not start with Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse; the first animated show was Pantomimes lumineuses, produced in Paris in 1892 by Emile Reynaud. Second, the pioneers were not solely the Americans James Stuart Blackton, Winsor McCay, John Randolph Bray
Since the modern era in the west, art has increasingly been defined as distinct from communication. Since Kant and Hume, discriminations of sensory beauty and “delicacy of taste” have been invoked in judgments of aesthetic value that separate those forms of communication that qualify as art from those that do not. Gross has argued that
When a descriptor becomes more than its immediate signified – the concept that it refers to directly – we begin to feel that there is something special, something rather unusual about it. Such a descriptor is “Bollywood.” The word refers to a film industry situated in Mumbai/Bombay (the slash here is important because without its
The book is a durable vehicle for words and images and often is a central artifact in cultures with the written word. Those produced in the era before the advent of printing are unique “manuscript” books that were made by hand. The book became the first mass medium, and conventions for its presentation shaped those
A caricature is an exaggerated and distorted image of a person or thing, which is characterized by visual likeness, immediate recognizability, and pictorial wit, irony, or satire. This visual burlesque can be insulting or complimentary. It is not uncommon that a caricature offends the sensibilities of a depicted person. Caricatures can serve editorial, illustrative, entertainment
Cartography is the visual representation and communication of data, geospatial information, and relationships in the form of printed and digital maps. The form of the map and the visual systems of map-making are determined by technologies of production and reproduction. The mass reproduction of maps has encouraged the dissemination of geospatial information, statistical data, and
Cartoons can be simply described as humorous drawings, separated into political or editorial, which use caricature, humor, and satire to comment on current affairs and influence public opinion, and social or gag, which poke fun at daily life and its problems or merely illustrate jokes. Although political cartoons normally are found in daily newspapers, where
The generic term child art often refers to graphic and even three-dimensional work done by children. The term was first made popular by a leading art educator of the last century, Victor Lowenfeld (1947). It is occasionally used to refer to “real” artworks produced by “wunderkinder” such as Alexandra Nechita (Plagens 1996) who paints only
An important part of the history of communication, particularly in the US, focused on how to train teachers to teach this subject. From the first issues of the academic journals in the early 1900s (Quarterly Journal of Public Speaking) until today, when entire journals provide research reports for and about teachers, the topic has been
When teachers use verbal and nonverbal messages to elicit laughter and smiling from students, they employ a teaching strategy labeled instructional humor. Classic and contemporary scholarship on this topic has shed light on the benefits of teacher humor, how teacher humor relates to student learning, challenges of studying the relationship between humor and learning, and
For many people the concept of addiction involves the ingestion of a drug. However, there is now a growing movement that views a number of behaviors as potentially addictive, including some that do not involve the ingestion of a drug, such as gambling, sex, and exercise (Orford 2001; Griffiths 2005). Increasing research into behavioral addictions
Media scholars and consumers alike ponder the question “why do we enjoy the stories we enjoy?” Affective disposition theory is one of the leading explanations of the enjoyment process. The theory – more accurately, set of theories – conceptualizes enjoyment of media content as a product of a viewer’s emotional affiliations with characters and the
Recently, the influence of affects and emotions in media exposure on the impact of media has become indisputable. Formerly, the emphasis was largely on cognitive aspects such as recall, learning, thoughts, and beliefs. The affective aspects were reserved for entertainment media, mostly limited to processes of involvement and gratifications. Nowadays, the borders between entertainment and
The audience is an essential part of mass communication processes, and since the beginnings of communication research, it has been one of its central topics. As regards mass communication, the term “audience” describes the sum of all persons who receive or received (parts of ) a media offering. Thus, audience is a group participating in
“Audience segmentation” or “audience fragmentation” is a phenomenon that describes the process of partitioning mass audiences into smaller and smaller segments. It is considered as an inevitable outcome of competition in media markets. Hence, audience segmentation is expected to be stronger in high rather than in low-competition media environments. Models of Audience Segmentation The phenomenon
Automaticity in information processing is best conceptualized in terms of its antithesis. “Deliberative” processing involves the comprehension and use of information for a particular purpose (e.g., to make a judgment or decision, to communicate to others, etc.). This processing is conscious and intentional; it requires some degree of cognitive or motor effort, and it is
The term “avatar” derives from the Sanskrit word avatara, meaning “incarnation” and has been used to describe a deliberate descent of a higher being into mortal realms for special purposes. Avatar also has a long history of use in Hindu texts to characterize the human appearance on earth of various Hindu gods such as Vishnu
The issue of viewer loyalty has received some attention from academics, but it is of vital interest to broadcasters. Since the beginning of television, stations and networks have tried to promote viewer loyalty in order to increase ratings, advertising revenue, and profits. In fact, the way US broadcasters devise programming schedules – with most programs
Recreational therapists plan, organize, direct, and monitor medically approved recreation programs for patients in hospitals, clinics, and various community settings. These therapists use recreational activities to assist patients with mental, physical, or emotional disabilities to achieve the maximum possible functional independence. Recreational therapists hold almost 24,000 jobs in the United States. The field of therapy
Retail managers are responsible for the profitable operation of retail trade establishments. They oversee the selling of food, clothing, furniture, sporting goods, novelties, and many other items. Their duties include hiring, training, and supervising other employees, maintaining the physical facilities, managing inventory, monitoring expenditures and receipts, and maintaining good public relations. Retail managers hold about
Robotics engineers design, develop, build, and program robots and robotic devices, including peripheral equipment and computer software used to control robots. Robotics technicians assist robotics engineers in a wide variety of tasks relating to the design, development, production, testing, operation, repair, and maintenance of robots and robotic devices. Robots are devices that perform tasks ordinarily
School administrators are leaders who plan and set goals related to the educational, administrative, and counseling programs of schools. They coordinate and evaluate the activities of teachers and other school personnel to ensure that they adhere to deadlines and budget requirements and meet established objectives. There are approximately 442,000 school administrators employed in the United
Secretaries, also called administrative assistants, perform a wide range of jobs that vary greatly from business to business. However, most secretaries key in documents, manage records and information, answer telephones, handle correspondence, schedule appointments, make travel arrangements, and sort mail. The amount of time secretaries spend on these duties depends on the size and type
Semiconductor technicians are highly skilled workers who test new kinds of semiconductor devices being designed for use in many kinds of modern electronic equipment. They may also test samples of devices already in production to assess production techniques. They help develop and evaluate the test equipment used to gather information about the semiconductor devices. Working
Pharmacists are health care professionals responsible for the dispensation of prescription and nonprescription medications. They may advise physicians, nurses, or other health care professionals on the use of medications, and they also give patients instructions for taking and storing medicines. Senior care pharmacists have expert knowledge regarding the medical conditions of the elderly and the
Rehabilitation counselors provide counseling and guidance services to people with disabilities to help them resolve life problems and to train for and locate work that is suitable to their physical and mental abilities, interests, and aptitudes. There are approximately 131,000 rehabilitation counselors working in the United States. Today it is generally accepted that people with
Reporters are the foot soldiers for newspapers, magazines, and television and radio broadcast companies. They gather and analyze information about current events and write stories for publication or for broadcasting. News analysts, reporters, and correspondents hold about 64,000 jobs in the United States. History of Reporter Career Newspapers are the primary disseminators of news in
Respiratory therapists, also known as respiratory care practitioners, evaluate, treat, and care for patients with deficiencies or abnormalities of the cardiopulmonary (heart/lung) system by either providing temporary relief from chronic ailments or administering emergency care where life is threatened. They are involved with the supervision of other respiratory care workers in their area of treatment.
Dr. William Ernst Engelbrecht, the son of Waldo Ernst Engelbrecht and Margaret Patricia Schall, is an archaeologist whose primary focus continues to be on Northern Iroquoian peoples. After completing his bachelor of arts in anthropology at Northwestern University (1965), where he studied under Sally Binford, Paul Bohanen, Ronald Cohen, Creighton Gable, Bruce Trigger, and Oswald
Friedrich Engels was born November 28, 1820. Engels’s father was a wealthy German entrepreneur. In his early 20s, he moved to Manchester, England, to supervise the family cotton factory. While managing the plant, Engels was shaken by the poverty of his workers. This became the data for his book Condition of the Working Classes in
As a historical epoch, “The Age of Enlightenment” comprises the crucial developments of Western civilization in the 18th century. In France, which is considered the cradle of the Enlightenment, this period included the time from the death of Louis XIV (1715) until the coup d’état of Napoleon Bonaparte (1799). But Enlightenment was spread also over
Coined by Aristotle in the 4th century BCE, entelechy, or entelecheia in classical Greek, originally meant “being complete,” or having the end or purpose internally. Two thousand years later, Leibniz found it necessary to reintroduce the term to describe the principle and source of activity, the primitive force, in his “monads,” or real, substantial unities.
The relationship between culture and nature is on assault on many fronts. Researchers argue that environmental degradation is the single most important problem affecting the quality of life across the globe. Author Manjara Mehta quotes from her research on environmental change and gender in the Himalayan Valley: “Our lives are no different from that of
Environmental philosophy is a branch of systematic philosophy that started addressing the global environmental situation in the second half of the 20th century. Environmental philosophy appears as a philosophical reaction to the worldwide deterioration in the environment and to its partial analysis by biologic and system sciences. This is, for example, a reaction to the
Eoliths are chipped flint nodules formerly believed to be the earliest stone tools dating back to the Pliocene (in modern terms, a period dating from 2 million to 5 million years ago). These were regarded as crudely made implements that represented the most primitive stage in the development of stone tool technology prior to the
The indigenous Arctic peoples are the Yuit/Yup’ik of Siberia and Alaska, the Inupiat of Alaska, and Inuit of Canada, Greenland, and Iceland; they have also been generically called Inuit. The term Eskimo is a name derived from an Algonquin word meaning “to eat it raw” and has been considered by many Arctic people to be
Eskimo, more commonly called Inuit, is a term used to describe people who primarily live in the far north, usually the Arctic. The Arctic is located north of the Arctic Circle, and although it has extreme cold temperatures, Eskimos have adapted to the harsh environment both physically and culturally. Most Eskimos are compactly built, having
Essentialism is a philosophical doctrine that each object has an essence that makes that object what it is. Essence can be seen as a set of properties of a thing, which that thing must possess to be that particular thing. The word essence is the English translation of a Latin term essentia, by which Roman
Sociologists who study divorce have focused on three major questions. First, some have taken a macro perspective and examined how and why divorce rates have changed over time. In this research, scholars have looked at broad social trends and how they are related to divorce rates. Second, there have been many studies of why individual
Dual earner couples are romantically involved (either married or unmarried) and each contribute to the financial support of their household through their work outside the home. The presence of dual earner couples has increased over the last 40 years, as there has been a shift away from the traditional male breadwinner and female homemaker family
The earner-carer model is a fundamentally gender egalitarian welfare state approach, which assumes that men and women equally engage in both caregiving and paid employment (Gornick & Meyers 2003). Welfare state structures always rest on gendered assumptions about men’s and women’s roles in the family and workplace. Through social policies, such gender ideologies reflect but
Endogamy refers to in group marriage, or a pattern of marriage in which the partners have a shared group affiliation. Its conceptual counterpoint is exogamy, or a pattern of marriage in which the partners are different in their group affiliation. For scholars of race and ethnic relations, the significance of endogamy stems from its relationship
Families of children with disabilities experience challenges that other families do not face. They may experience stigma as a result of having a child with a disability and may perform health care and advocacy work for their children beyond that performed by other families. The extent of these additional concerns varies tremendously across families, depending
From the earliest days of sociology, family and community have been central concerns of the discipline. The dense interpenetration of these two dimensions of life was associated in particular with simple societies. This is especially evident in the work of early social thinkers such as the German Ferdinand Tonnies and the Frenchman Frederick Le Play.
Although present since the nineteenth century, particularly in Marxist thinking (more specifically in Engels’s work), interest in family conflict within the sociology of family only really developed as a theme during the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1950s the dominant functionalist perspective tended to analyze the family in terms of internal equilibrium and its complementarity
Sociology of family is the area devoted to the study of family as an institution central to social life. The basic assumptions of the area include the universality of family, the inevitable variation of family forms, and the necessity of family for integrating individuals into social worlds. Family sociology is generally concerned with the formation
Family demography is a subfield of demography and is the study of the changing nature of intergenerational and gender ties that bind individuals into households and family units. The core of family demography uses basic demo graphic information collected about household members, including the numbers of members, their relationships to each other, and each per
Family living arrangements in the US and throughout much of the world are consider ably more diverse, pluralistic, and fluid than they were just a few decades ago. We have witnessed profound demographic changes, including longer life expectancy, postponed marriage and childbearing, dramatic increases in both childbearing and childrearing outside of marriage, and substantial growth
Internet research ethics (IRE) attempts to clarify and resolve ethical dilemmas encountered by researchers who use the Internet as a medium for their research – for example, doing online surveys – and/or focus on the various forms of interactions observable online, such as virtual communities, social networks like MySpace, web pages, instant messaging, and other
A search engine is a computer program that allows the user to enter a series of keywords, usually called a “query,” and that responds with a list of results from a database that match the query. Major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo Search, and Microsoft Live Search, provide the most widely used method of
Pornography online, sometimes called “cybersex,” has been assimilated to the discourse on sexuality as a mode of liberation for humankind through the exploration of sexual and political alternatives (Hunt 1993). The question is whether cybersex offers new constructions of pornographic exchanges. The definition of pornography has not changed much over the centuries. It is the
There are numerous approaches to technology assessment but it is essentially a systematic method for exploring technology developments and assessing their potential societal effects. It was typically implemented as a strategy to inform policy decisions within government and industry but now includes a growing body of scholarly research in science and technology studies (Herdman &
In 1957 Vance Packard complained that the manufacturers of typewriters and telephones had recently begun producing models in a wide range of colors rather than in their traditional black. He critically surmised that the sole motive for this innovation was “to make owners dissatisfied with their plain old black models” (Packard 1957, 72). Packard understood
The term “globalization” and related terms such as global system, global economy, and global culture have been used since the mid-1980s in both the popular and academic literature to describe the “temporal-spatial compression” of the physical world (Harvey 1989). New information and (tele)communication technologies (ICTs) are viewed as linking distant localities into one globalizing world
The social construction of technology (SCOT) is one approach among several constructivist ways of studying science and technology that emerged in the 1980s. Here, “constructivist” means that the truth of scientific facts and the working of technical artifacts are studied as accomplishments; that is, as being constructed, rather than as intrinsic properties of those facts
Communication and communication technologies are intrinsic to the idea of terrorism as formulated and understood from the nineteenth century onwards. The discourse of terrorism has come to be symbiotically linked to communication technologies as state and nonstate actors across the globe use and exploit technological advances to further their causes. Schmid and de Graaf (1982
Ubiquitous computing refers to a new era in which networking and computing technologies become so small, fast, interconnected, and cheap that they can be embedded seamlessly into the environment and everyday objects. It implies that computing becomes ubiquitous. User-friendly services are expected to be available anytime and anywhere and only when demanded by users. This
Largely due to Rheingold (1993), the term “virtual communities” has become the most popular way to identify interpersonal and Internet-based communication networks to form, maintain, or extend social relationships. In 1993, Rheingold was writing ethnographies of the communities anticipated by pioneers such as Licklider (1968), who imagined the Internet as the source of new meeting
The communication of social support is central to relationships in and outside of the classroom. Although scholars offer many definitions, social support is widely understood to be resources – time, money, comforting – that people possess and extend to others. These resources can be further defined by the type of help that is provided, using
Teacher communication concern (hereafter abbreviated TCC) is a concept and research line that developed from attempts to describe specific behaviors of teachers that could influence student learning. Initially conceived as three factors of worry or anxiety about self (confidence and competence as teacher), task (mastering the specific skills), and impact (affecting learning), it is an
Education scholars interested in the communication that transpires within the classroom have often mentioned the importance of studying the teacher as a pivotal source of that communication. After searching the literature, Norton (1977) wrote that very few studies had specifically investigated teacher communication style as it relates to teacher effectiveness, though many of the exciting
Teacher confirmation is the transactional process by which teachers communicate to students that they – the students – are valuable, significant individuals. Like other affective variables such as teacher immediacy and teacher caring, studies indicate that perceived teacher confirmation plays a very important role in students’ learning. Philosopher Martin Buber (1957) was the first to
Teacher feedback is considered one of the most powerful instructional variables in terms of enhancing student achievement (Hattie 1993). Because teaching and learning are relational processes, teachers are both sources and receivers of feedback. Teachers provide feedback to their students about their learning and they receive feedback from their students about their teaching. Ilgen et
Teacher immediacy is the term used to describe communication behaviors that reduce the perceived distance between teacher and students. By definition, immediacy behaviors convey teacher warmth, communicate positive relational affect, signal approach and availability for communication, and create increased physiological arousal in receivers. Introduced in research based on her dissertation, J. Andersen (1979) identified teacher
Teaching is a social influence process. Teachers influence students to learn. Influencing students to learn requires teachers to find ways to change students’ existing attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Teachers may need to induce a positive attitude toward learning mathematics or science. They may need to alter students’ beliefs about the causes of World War II.