Object of the study: The broad object of this study is the academic field of the book and the book as an area of interdisciplinary teaching. Purpose: to prove that the 21st-century cross-media and hybrid media ecosystem emancipates Book Science from the rest of the sciences in whose objects it can partake only as a constituent using one of its…

This article explores the textual properties of arguably one of the most influential textual domains in contemporary society; that of mass-media discourse. Within this genre, it examines English-language hard news media reports from the United States, Great Britain and Australia focussing on the concepts of objectivity within this domain. Drawing…

For English-speaking researchers, French doctoral dissertations can represent a "terra incognita." For this reason, a retrospective bibliometric study of French dissertations in press and media studies offers a useful profile of available research to researchers concentrating in studies of the press and other media. The present study…

Defines the "critical" approach to communications study. Assesses leading recent works in critical and institutional theory, emphasizing books available in English. Claims that scholars in mass communications must periodically address the questions raised in these publications to keep abreast and take full advantage of the critical…

Assesses the status of the movie theater business during the past seven years, which has seen major changes in production, distribution, types of theaters, seating capacity, and the general media landscape. (NKA)

Examines the current state of empirical research on religious television, discusses some of the implicit difficulties in exploring this phenomenon and its viewership, and suggests avenues for future research. (MS)

Responds to six articles in the same issue on images in retrospect. Deals collectively rather than individually with ideas that underlie the work of the respective authors and attempts to provide a critical interpretation guided by the maxim "always historicize!" (SR)

Responds to Jeffery Bineham's article, "A Historical Account of the Hypodermic Model in Mass Communication" (same issue). Argues that the history of the hypodermic model (viewing media's all-powerful and direct influence on society) is distinct from the history and literature of empirical research on mass media effects. (MM)

Documents the nature and extent of electronic bulletin board use. Compares predictions about the success of collaborative media based on two theoretical perspectives: file contribution levels, and system adoption rates. Finds both to be related to a measure of symmetry in user participation. (NH)

Contributes to scholarship on media diversity and the free market. Examines dimensions of media diversity. Argues that market forces have led to unprecedented levels of concentration, resulting in less diversity of access and diversity of choice. Shows that the range of opinions available to consumer-citizens is being limited by current…

Surveys the relationship between historical inquiry and mass communication research. Argues that historically grounded inquiries into mass communications have focused on three areas: apparatus-centered criticism, social history, and textual interpretation. Contends that challenges from inside and outside the discipline have encouraged historians…

Critiques different historical conceptions of mass communication research. Argues that the different conceptions of the history of mass communication research, and of the hypodermic model (viewing the media as an all-powerful and direct influence on society), influence the theoretical and methodological choices made by mass media scholars. (MM)

Discusses how the use of unregulated mass media to convey the health risks of smoking is severely limited by the tobacco industry's power, via advertising dollars, to minimize the coverage of the negative health aspects of smoking in the editorial content of these media. (JD)

Reports on an analysis of prices and amounts of advertising in magazines showing that price per page is not related to amount of advertising. (FL)

Reveals that survey respondents who agree to complete time-use diaries differ significantly in several characteristics from those respondents who are only willing to complete a questionnaire. (FL)