Overview

As the global information infrastructure evolves, the field of communication has the opportunity to renew itself while addressing the urgent policy need for different ways of thinking and data to think about. This volume examines diverse relationships between the communication research and policy communities over more than a century and the issues that arise out of those interactions. The book provides primary material in the form of reports on such relationships spanning time periods, subject matter, policy issues, decision-making venues, and governments. The essays range from historical pieces on the importance of communication research since the beginning of systematic policy analysis and on the various roles that researchers can play to contemporary analyses of contributions of research to policy debates over network design and access, media violence, and advertising fraud. Substantial interstitial essays by the editor explore the impact of the policy context on communication theories and research practices, relationships between researchers and their institutional homes, the role of communication researchers as public intellectuals, and ways to maximize the impact of communication research on policy-making during this period of infrastructural transformation. The book includes an extensive bibliography.

Full Product Details

9780262523400

Table of Contents

Reviews

Communications research has been deeply implicated in policy since its origins, although not always overtly. Braman provides conceptual frameworks that get us out of stale dichotomies and the fiction of politics-free academic research. Her compilation of otherwise dispersed analyses and arguments brings out of the shadows a central relationship between the academy and policymaking, and provides much-needed historical depth. This sourcebook charts challenges for communications research to come, and will be an essential resource for both scholars and professionals. --Patricia Aufderheide, American University, and author of Communications Policy in the Public Interest and The Daily Planet

Author Information

Sandra Braman is Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available