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Theorizing Communication: A History
Author(s): Dan Schiller (Author)
- Publisher: OUP USA
- Publication Date: 13 Mar. 1997
- Language: English
- Print length: 296 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780195101997
- ISBN-13: 9780195101997
Book Description
This is the first book to offer a detailed intellectual history of communication study over the last century. Schiller looks at the relationship between early communication theory and contextualizing social and economic changes, and finds that the evolving dualism between intellectual and manual labour became deeply embedded in the work of theorists, even into our own time. Close attention is paid to leading thinkers in the field, including John Dewey, C. Wright Mills, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, and Daniel Bell.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“His account helps organize and make sense of the seemingly disparate work from which the field of communication study emerged….This is an important contribution, both as a history and as a critique of the field’s failure to adequately theorize communication in its social context.”–Publishing Research Quarterly
“A breathtaking historical tour-de-force and creative synthesis of ideas that frame the key socio-political issues and cultural debates of our time.”–George Gerbner, Dean Emeritus, The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
“Engages a wide range of communications and cultural theory extending from mainstream empirical research to British cultural studies. It provides a comprehensive and critical overview of the field which should be of great interest to those who wish to understand communications theory and the multifaceted roles of communications in the contemporary world.”–Douglas Kellner, University of Texas at Austin.
Review
superb text … This engaging, informative, and extremely well-researched study is a must read for communication scholars and students of the media alike … much more than an intellectual history of communication theory. Ultimately, this valuable addition to the literature of communication provides an important corrective to the standard decontextualized treatments which posit the development of communication as a linear progression of ideas in search of a unified theory of communication. ― Bonnie Brennan, Communications: The European Jnl of Communication Research
