This work introduces communication to students who may have little background in communication theory. It aims to help students understand the pervasiveness of theory in their lives, to demystify the theoretical process, and to help students become more systematic in their thinking about theory.

Updated Edition of Bestseller! Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life is the first communication theory textbook to provide practical material for career-oriented students. Featuring new case studies, updated examples, and the latest research, the Fourth Edition of this bestseller introduces communication theory in a way that helps students understand its importance to careers in communication and business. Real-world case studies within each chapter are designed to illustrate the application of theory in a variety of professional settings. Give your students the SAGE edge! SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of free tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning.

This broad-ranging textbook provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to using communication theory in real-life communication activities. Planned communication, both interpersonal and through the mass media, is a standard facet of modern life. It is as evident in public health campaigns on smoking, drugs or AIDS as in commercial advertising and public relations. This textbook outlines how such communication can be informed by an understanding of the theories of communication that have evolved over the last thirty years. How are ideas diffused through the mass media and other channels of communication? How does the audience read a message? What is known about the impact of different ways of handling a communication ca

This volume provides a graduate-level introduction to communication science, including theory and scholarship for masters and PhD students as well as practicing scholars. The work defines communication, reviews its history, and provides a broad look at how communication research is conducted. It also includes chapters reviewing the most frequently addressed topics in communication science. This book presents an overview of theory in general and of communication theory in particular, while offering a broad look at topics in communication that promote understanding of the key issues in communication science for students and scholars new to communication research. The book takes a predominantly "communication science" approach but also situates this approach in the broader field of communication, and addresses how communication science is related to and different from such approaches as critical and cultural studies and rhetoric. As an overview of communication science that will serve as a reference work for scholars as well as a text for the introduction to communication graduate studies course, this volume is an essential resource for understanding and conducting scholarship in the communication discipline.

`This is a very clear and concise summary of media studies, present and future. There is no other book that can both be used as a teaching tool and can help scholars organize their thinking about new media as this book can' - Steve Jones, University of Chicago This book offers an introduction to communication theory that is appropriate to our post-broadcast, interactive, media environment. The author contrasts the `first media age' of broadcast with the `second media age' of interactivity. Communication Theory argues that the different kinds of communication dynamics found in cyberspace demand a reassessment of the methodologies used to explore media, as well as new understandings of the concepts of interaction and community (virtual communities and broadcast communities). The media are examined not simply in terms of content, but also in terms of medium and network forms. Holmes also explores the differences between analogue and digital cultures, and between cyberspace and virtual reality. The book serves both as an upper level textbook for New Media courses and a good general guide to understanding the sociological complexities of the modern communications environment.

This introduction to communication theory offers an historical account of the development of all major theoretical approaches by summing up the range of existing theories, and explaining how and why the diverse currents of thought emerged.