Introduction to Communication Studies

Front Cover
Routledge, Oct 18, 2010 - Social Science - 248 pages

This 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
INDEX 191

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About the author (2010)

John Fiske is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

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