Introduction to Communication StudiesThis revised edition of a now classic text includes a new introduction by Henry Jenkins, explaining ‘Why Fiske Still Matters’ for today’s students, followed by a discussion between former Fiske students Ron Becker, Elana Levine, Darrell Newton and Pamela Wilson on the theme of ‘Structuralism and Semiotics, Fiske-Style’. Both underline the continuing relevance of this foundational text in communication studies. How can we study communication? What are the main theories and methods of approach? This classic text provides a lucid, accessible introduction to the main authorities in the field of communication studies, aimed at students coming to the subject for the first time. It outlines a range of methods of analysing examples of communication, and describes the theories underpinning them. Thus armed, the reader will be able to tease out the latent cultural meanings in such apparently simple communications as news photos or popular TV programmes, and to see them with new eyes. |
Contents
LIST OF PLATES x | |
STRUCTURALISM AND SEMIOTICS FISKESTYLE | |
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xlvi | |
Suggestions for further work 106 | |
What is Communication? 1 | |
Communication Theory 5 | |
1a A Mirror of Reality? 14 | |
1b The Daily Mirror 15 | |
Signification 80 | |
Metaphor 86 | |
The Snake in the Glass 93 | |
Semiotic Methods and Applications 95 | |
Pasta Plate 98 | |
11a Notting Hill 100 | |
11b Observer Review 100 | |
Mr Honda 107 | |
Other Models 22 | |
Communication Meaning and Signs 37 | |
Convention 50 | |
Asquith and the Law 47 | |
Signs of women 52 | |
The organization of signs 54 | |
Bravo Belgium58 | |
Still Hope 59 | |
Codes 61 | |
Aberrant decoding 75 | |
Raining Cigarettes 78 | |
7Structuralist Theory and Applications 109 | |
The Weekly World News 122 | |
Empirical Methods 128 | |
Ideology and Meanings 156 | |
Nonscience 160 | |
Seventeen 170 | |
Go Native 177 | |
Police and girl 178 | |
Conclusion 180 | |