Resources for MediaStudies 335
Media and Society

"Recommended reading" downloads, Radford Research Resources (below) & other links used in class. This page will be edited frequently as the semester progresses. Dated items will be added to the top.

Essentials: (Syllabus; Jan.17 readings list; Feb.21 research review assignment; Feb. 28 Study Guide for Feb. 28 midterm test)

Tables of contents of textbooks and first PDF downloads

• Bucy (ed.), Living in the Information Age (table of contents in MS Word).
• Bowman, S. & Willis, C. We Media (full text 66-page pdf or read individual chapters (1) online; links to research citations may prove useful in your projects. http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia
• Merrill & Dennis, Media Debates (MS Word copy of table of contents); full text on reserve at the library
• Nieman Reports -- A quarterly magazine from Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism. The archives include special “topic” issues, such as these examples. (You may find others that interest you even more.):
  o “Can Newspapers Reach the Young?” first half of this 4.9 mb, 106-page magazine; or see table of contents (PDF “toc”) file to download individual articles.
  o “War & Terror” (PDF “toc”) Special online collection of 2001-2004 articles:
  o Fall 2007: Two-part issue on Hurricane Katrina and Teaching Journalism in a Digital Age
• Other online publishers, some available through library databases, are mentioned below.
  

Media & Society Sources
Food for thought, ideas for projects, items used in class, and more...

• Books on McConnell Library reserve for MSTD 335-02 (more may be added)
  • Berger, A.A., Media and society: a critical persective, 2nd ed. 2007
  • Lowery & DeFleur, Milestones in mass communication research, 1983 (See DeFleur, 1998, below)
  • Merrill & Dennis, Media debates (linked to a MS Word copy of the table of contents)
    
• Overview articles available through the library databases (Full text PDF available when logged in to Radford network; abstracts available elsewhere with text for a fee)
  • Bryant & Miron, Theory and research in mass communication, Journal of Communication, 54,4, pp 662-704. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/jcom/54/4
  • DeFleur, M.L., Where have all the milestones gone? The decline of significant research on the process and effects of mass communication; Mass Communication & Society,
    1998, Vol. 1, No. 1&2, Pages 85-98. (Use the Communication & Mass Media Complete link at the library, then search for the journal. While you have that issue of MC&S on screen, see its review of Roger Fidler's book Mediamorphosis, which is excerpted in the Bucy textbook.)
    
• General media reviews & news
  • NPR's On The Media -- available online, as podcast, or as on-air broadcast
  • Jim Romenesko's Media News weblog
    

Media & Society Class Discussion Topics & Issues

• Media Ecology and Douglas Rushkoff (see his article in the Bucy anthology)
  • Here's more on "media ecology" and "Open Source Democracy" (click to download a 70-page pdf) at Rushkoff.com
  • Prefer video? Watch "Merchants of Cool," a PBS series on media corporations marketing to "youth" (text and links as well as 53 minute documentary featuring... Douglas Rushkoff)
    
• Supplementing Roger Fidler...
  • Notes from Bob's class discussion of "diffusion of innovation," filling a gap in the textbook: Mr. Rogers & the Brontosaurus
  • More on diffusion of innovations theory
    
• "Uses & Gratifications" research
  • Ruggiero, Thomas A. Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century. (Full text available through Radford library databases at no charge.)
  • Compare these papers (and determine the source and reliability of their information) article 1--TV, article 2--advertising, article 3--theory article 4-the Web.
• David Weinberger (one chapter is included in Bucy)
  • Small Pieces Loosely Joined
  • The Cluetrain Manifesto
  • Joho the Blog

• Convergence, changing media & audiences
  • Future view: Googlezon -- Epic 2015 (Flash video)
  • Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/Ing Us (YouTube video by Michael Wesch)
  • Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive, A digital literacy guide for the information age. (A more how-to book for journalists on using 21st century Web tools.)
    
• Media ownership
• Who Owns What (by the Columbia Journalism Review)
• Who Owns the Media (by FreePress.net)
• Media ownership and other issues as discussed at AEJMC 2007 conference.
• Center for Public Integrity" -- Download PDF "The growing importance of nonprofit journalism" by Charles Lewis for background, and watch the development of "The buying of the president 2008 (http://buyingofthepresident.org/)
  
• Ethics and editing
  • Broadcast news techniques, audiences and ethics.
    
• Memes and authors mentioned in class
  • My readers know more than I do
  • Facebook and journalism
  • Build-your-own journalism: How-to information
  • Rebecca Blood on journalism & blogs
  • Dave Winer on blogs and podcasting (and my notes)
  • Lawrence Lessig on creative "read-write" versus "read-only" culture (20-minute video) and Creative Commons copyright. (Example, one of his books and its remixes.)
  • Dan Gillmor's blog and book, We the Media
  • Howard Rheingold's SmartMobs book and blog about "The next social revolution
    Mobile communication, pervasive computing, wireless networks, collective action."
    
• Research paper examples (role models and contemporary themes)
  • Cassidy, William. "Outside influences: Extramedia forces and the newsworthiness conceptions of online newspaper journalists" First Monday [Online], Volume 13 Number 1 (13 January 2008)
  • Bumgarner, Brett. "You have been poked: Exploring the uses and gratifications of Facebook among emerging adults" First Monday [Online], Volume 12 Number 11 (28 October 2007)
  • Green, R.. "Trust but verify: caution in the application of Internet-based research" First Monday [Online], Volume 12 Number 11 (28 October 2007)

Radford research resources and McConnell Library PDF guides:

Free help finding full-text articles, using correct citation style, creating an annotated bibliography, and more. See the PDFs Avoiding Plagiariam, Evaluating Information on the World Wide Web and How to Tell a Professional/Scholarly Journal from a Popular Magazine.

New for 2008 color-enhanced APA style guide in one page.

Overview from UNC Writing Center and UNC Library with more detail on APA style and general issues:

1. Why we cite sources
2. What needs to be cited
3. How to use parenthetical citations
4. How to create the reference page
5. Additional APA style tips

Older, but still good: APA citation style; APA-MLA comparison.

• Examples of databases (try topic-oriented database finder), e-books, e-journals from the library (login to link; many allow download of full-text PDF files, abstracts or citation lists)
  • Communication & Mass Media Complete database at McConnell Library (via EBSCOhost) has most of the communication-related academic journals as well as books, monographs and magazines. Once you have searched for articles, choose "Academic Journals" to shorten the list.
  • Some journals in the Comm & Mass Media Complete database are also available directly from their publishers' Web sites at no charge, IF you are logged into a Radford-networked computer. Examples:
    • The Journal of Communication and other titles in communication, media studies and cultural studies, through Blackwell Synergy
    • Communication Research and Media,Culture & Society, among other journals, available through Sagepub.com
  • ABI/Inform Complete (Proquest via RU Library)
  • Google scholar (scholar.google.com)
  • JSTOR advanced search; note the J is for journal not journalism; most recent editions are not available, but great for more "historical" projects. Sample: A Stanford Law Review article about television violence. (RU login required)
  • Project Muse from Johns Hopkins University, a publisher of research journals (available on campus or from library menu)
  • ERIC is not always full-text, but as a huge "education" research collection it has plenty of topics of interest to college students.
  • ACM Portal: Don't be misled by the last word in the name Association for Computing Machinery. It's not all bits, bytes and math at ACM. This academic professional organization publishes research about the use of computer systems, including Internet communication resources like Facebook and online newspapers. And your RU password lets you download full-text articles. Use links at the top of the page to search The Guide to Computer Literature (including book reviews) or the ACM Digital Library...
  • Similarly, see the IEEE Computer Society's digital library -- some areas are "Electrical Engineering" technical, but others are not; includes a history of computing.
  • LISA: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts -- not only does this database have research about online publishing, it also includes book reviews on many communication topics.
  • Dissertation Abstracts: Many studies will be more narrow than you need, and only abstracts are online, but even they can help you focus a research topic.
  • InfoTrac and Lexus Nexus are great... but heavily populated with journalistic sources, which should not be your only research sources -- journalists talk to experts, so you should try to find what the experts have written.
• A sampling of e-books & e-journals
  • Journalism 2.0 -- A guide for experienced journalists who have had their head in the sand and never heard of blogs, Facebook, podcasting and other online developments of the past five years. Actually, even if you think you're well-wired you can learn a lot from this well-organized and free book, then keep up by following this blog by the author, Mark Briggs.
• These are e-media in the library catalog
• Media Technology and Society: A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet
  by Winston, Brian.
• Media Effects and Society (LEA's Communication Series)
  by Perse, Elizabeth M.
• Unbiased Editing in a Diverse Society
  by Wissner-Gross, Elizabeth.
• Custodians of conscience [electronic resource] : investigative journalism and public virtue / James S. Ettema and Theodore L. Glasser
• Religion and the media [electronic resource] : an introductory reader / edited by Chris Arthur
• Media, culture & society (periodical 0163-4437) -- print and online
• Framing public life [electronic resource] : perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world / edited by Stephen D. Reese, Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., August E. Grant

• AEJMC (Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and others)
• NCA -- also see CRTNET's research announcements and discussion search
• RTNDA -- Radio/Television News Directors Association
• PRSSA -- Public Relations Students Society of America
• SPJ -- Society of Professional Journalists
• IRE -- Investigative Reporters and Editors
• Center for Public Integrity, non-profit investigative reporting organization
• Ad Age -- periodical
• AdBusters -- social action organization and magazine
• PR Watch -- watchdogs and critics
  
• Research and Education Organizations and Funders
  • Harvard's Nieman Foundation, publishes Nieman Reports and its online archive, summer 1998 to date, as HTML pages of individual articles and PDF files of full 100-page printed quarterly magazine. Browse or search for research topics from press coverage of issues as specific as Hurricane Katrina's influence on photojournalism or as general as race in America or bloggers and the business of journalism (both in the same issue). Other examples:
    • Can Newspapers Reach the Young?
    • Three-year Nieman anthology of articles on coverage of war and terror (five-page PDF file index to more than 100 articles, all linked and downloadable for free)
    • Media convergence from newspapers to Web 2.0 and YouTube.
  • Pew Foundation research on news media, Internet and on research methods for polls, surveys and other projects. Examples: Parents, teens & technology; Widespread negativity: Muslims Distrust Westerners More than Vice Versa
  • PEJ or Project for Excellence in Journalism http://www.journalism.org
  • Kaiser Family Foundation -- studies of media and health issues (kids and food advertising, violence, sex education, etc.)
  • Poynter Institute -- journalism research and education, ethics, digital media
  • Knight Foundation -- research and development in community journalism
  • Markle Foundation -- children and interactive media; policy for a networked society
  • Media Awareness Network (Canada) -- Research and info pages on stereotyping, media violence and other issues
  • U.S. Government sources USA.gov
    
• More advertising & business resources
  • Ad Track column archives at USA Today
  • NYTimes Media & Advertising page
  • The Advertising Research Foundation
  • NYTimes Virginia Herffernan blog on digital video as "the Medium"
  • Lost Remote -- television meets online
    
• Journalism Reviews
  • OJR -- OnlineJR
  • CJR -- ColumbiaJR
  • AJR -- AmericanJR