Communications Studies

Communication's Studies has many different sub-fields that can be located under set Library of Congress Subject Headings in our collection. You can also use these sub-fields as topics for subject searches in our on-line catalog.

Communication's Studies Print Resources

Dictionaries

A Dictionary of Communication and Mass Media. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. - Covers definitions of terms on such topics as culture, mass media, news, censorship, and film. Contains an abbrevation sectiondefining common acronyms and initials, as well as extensive cross-referencing.[REF P87.5.W38 1997]

Communications Standard Dictionary. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983. - A comprehensive compilation of terms and definitions used in the field of communications. Some subfields covered include information management, networking, signal processing, telecommunications, television, and optics. Some entries contain illustrations and cross-references.[REF P87.5.W4 1983]

NTC's Mass Media Dictionary. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Co., 1995. - This dictionary contains over 20,000 entries. Useful for studies in writing, broadcasting, publishing, film and video making, printing, advertising and mass media. Entries are descriptive rather than prescriptive.[REF P87.5.E45 1995]

Webster's New World Dictionary of Media and Communications. New York: Macmillan, 1996. - This dictionary covers not just technical terms, but also associations and their companies with their locations and products plus the names of designers and inventors. Includes advertising, broadcasting, marketing, printing, public relations, library science, and direct marketing terms. The resource also contains cross-references.[REF P87.5.W45 1996]

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of communication and information. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. - This three volume set discusses the terms and issues of communication/information science. It has limited illustrations and contains bibliographic references at the end of each article. [REF P87.5.E53 2002]

Encyclopedia of Television, Cable, and Video. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992. - This single volume encyclopedia has small entries covering subjects such as advertising, general terms and processes, government/legal, home video, and production. Also contains an initial and acronyms index for procedures, equipment, processes, and organizations. Extensively cross-referenced with a general bibliography at the end of the volume.[REF P87.5.R44 1991]

International Encyclopedia of Communications. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. - A 4-volume international survey of the disciplines of communications, including communication systems and organizations, communication modes, media, codes, and communication behavior and effects. Most are followed by brief bibliographies and many have cross references.[REF P87.5.I5 1989]

Journals

Communication Quarterly. - This journal is specialized, aimed toward communication scholars, majors and graduate students. It is self described as "eclectic" and covers many facets of human communication. The writings is advanced, and topics are theory as well as analysis based. This would be an excellent journal to consult for methods papers, culminating papers, and other research.[PN4071.T6]

Communication Research. - This periodical includes serious research articles that meet the strict criteria required by the journal; explicitly tied to communication, theoretically driven, use the most rigorous methods, and linked to the "most important problems and issues facing mankind."[P91.C56]

Communication Studies. - This journal is liberal in its requirements for publication, asking for diverse articles in human communication processes. The articles range from cultural aspects, reactions to stimuli, gender roles, behavior in relation to specific events, and many other topics. It is a good introduction to research in communications because of its topics and writing style.[PN4001.C45]

Journal of Communication. - This periodical is an "official publication of the International Communication Association." The journal has both articles and book reviews on a wide range of communication scholarship. It takes pride in providing a venue for sub-disciplinary research.[P87.J6]

Communication's Studies Electronic Resources

Databases

Academic Search Complete - A multi-disciplinary full text index, Academic Search Complete indexes hundreds of titles in communications and media, with full text coverage of many of the journals it covers.

ComAbstracts - Contains article abstracts, books, bibliographic records, and other sources of relevence in the fields related to human communication studies, including mass communication, human interaction, rhetoric, health communication, journalism, etc...

Communication and Mass Media Complete - Combines the content of CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index to provide extensive coverage of communication studies and mass media. Offers full text for over 200 titles, with citation coverage for many more titles.

Humanities Full Text - This database cites articles from scholarly journals and specialized magazines in the humanities, including archaeology, art, classical studies, communications, dance, film, folklore, gender studies, history, journalism, linguistics, social criticism, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology. It also includes full text/full image articles.

Websites

Communication Theory - Web resource created by the University of Colorado at Denver. It is an index of names and resources addressing theoretical aspects of Communications from a variety of disciplines within the social sciences.