Mass Communication Theories: Explaining Origins, Processes, and Effects

The second edition of this innovative textbook provides a comprehensive overview of mass communication theories, as well as their origins and empirical supports in psychology, sociology, political science, and philosophy.

Each chapter presents a specific theory, describing its basic structure in simple formal terms and providing an accessible summary of the research studies and scholarly writings from which it developed. It breaks each complex theory down into five or six interlinked basic ...