In this innovative and potentially controversial book, Penman examines the future of communication as a discipline. She foresees a time in which communicating is conceived as a social construction process, in the anticipation that this will allow a genuine practical response to contemporary social problems. The book sets out a map toward accomplishing that future--laying the foundations for a different way of conceiving of communication, enabling direct action, rather than just theorizing about it. It begins with a history illustrating how the communication discipline has arrived to where it is today and then goes on to demonstrate Penman's conception of communication. Reconstructing Communicating is an exploration of what it means to inquire into communicating; to treat communicating as the essential problematic of concern; and to recognize that we construct our reality in our communicating. In undertaking this exploration, the author pursues a central theme of what constitutes good communicating and good communication research. Arguments throughout this book provide a radical departure from mainstream communication studies and especially from the rationalist's quest for truth and scientific knowledge. A way of acting in good faith is offered, both with the process of communicating and with the participants in it, that generates practical understandings for constructing new futures. Designed for communication scholars and graduate students primarily in organizational communication, public relations, and communication theory, this book will also interest those in management and business as it deals with practical communication issues.

This study reviews the images and meanings which play a vital role in our mass-mediated world. The author demonstrates that there is often a large gap between reality and the reconstruction of realities as communicated by the mass media.

Constructing and Reconstructing Gender is an excellent compendium of current research, and will be appealing and useful to those interested in gender issues in a wide variety of disciplines. This book cuts across disciplines and scholarly methods, drawing from many backgrounds, including Communication, Linguistics, English, Business, Law, and Psychology. The interweaving of rhetorical, critical, phenomenological, and statistical methods gives readers a multifaceted analysis of gender. At the same time that this book shows the value of gender research in provoking new currents of thought, it also brings into focus two aspects of gender that are often confused: how gender operates as a cultural category that affects communication behavior, and how communication and language function to create gender categories.

One of the most significant and obvious examples of how mobile communication influences our understanding of time and space is how we coordinate with one another. Mobile communication enables us to call specific individuals, not general places. Regardless of location, we are able to make contact with almost anyone, almost anywhere. This advancement has changed, and continues to change, human interaction. Now, instead of agreeing on a particular time well beforehand, we can iteratively work out the most convenient time and place to meet at the last possible moment--on the way to the meeting or once we arrive at the destination. In their early days, mobile devices were primarily used for various types of emergency situations and for work. In some cases, the device was an essential element in various business operations or used so that overseas workers could communicate with their families. The distance between a remote posting and the people back home was suddenly and dramatically reduced. People began to share these devices not necessarily out of economic issues, but also questions of family and interpersonal dynamics. The process of sharing decisions as to who is a legitimate partner makes the nature of relationships more explicit. By examining the economy of sharing, we not only see how sharing mobile phones restructures social space, but are also given insight into an individual's web of interactions. This cutting-edge book deals with modern ways of thinking about communication and human interaction; it will illuminate the ways in which mobile communication alters our experience with space and time.

infoDev is exploring the transformative role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can have in post-conflict nations during the process of reconstruction. The case studies look at countries at different stages of post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan, Liberia, Rwanda and Timor-Leste, and post-revolution in Tunisia.

In Communication as...: Perspectives on Theory, editors Gregory J. Shepherd, Jeffrey St. John, and Ted Striphas bring together a collection of 27 essays that explores the wide range of theorizing about communication, cutting across all lines of traditional division in the field. The essays in this text are written by leading scholars in the field of communication theory, with each scholar employing a particular stance or perspective on what communication theory is and how it functions. In essays that are brief, argumentative, and forceful, the scholars propose their perspective as a primary or essential way of viewing communication with decided benefits over other views.

With more than 300 entries, these two volumes provide a one-stop source for a comprehensive overview of communication theory, offering current descriptions of theories as well as the background issues and concepts that comprise these theories. This is the first resource to summarize, in one place, the diversity of theory in the communication field. Key Themes Applications and Contexts Critical Orientations Cultural Orientations Cybernetic and Systems Orientations Feminist Orientations Group and Organizational Concepts Information, Media, and Communication Technology International and Global Concepts Interpersonal Concepts Non-Western Orientations Paradigms, Traditions, and Schools Philosophical Orientations Psycho-Cognitive Orientations Rhetorical Orientations Semiotic, Linguistic, and Discursive Orientations Social/Interactional Orientations Theory, Metatheory, Methodology, and Inquiry