Communication studies

Communication Abstracts.

Beverly Hills: Sage, 1978–. Provides abstracts from more than 150 scholarly journals, books, and research reports in the field.

Communication and Mass Media Complete.

Ipswich: EBSCO, 2004–. An online database that covers both scholarly articles on communication studies and trade and popular coverage of the media. A substantial portion of the contents is linked to full text, with especially rich historical material on communication theory.

The Year’s Work in Cultural and Critical Theory.

Oxford: Blackwell, 1994–. An annual roundup of recent research on feminist theory, postcolonial studies, popular culture, virtual culture, film theory, cultural policy, and visual culture, presented as evaluative review essays written by leading scholars. This work is published in conjunction with the English Association (UK).

American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm. Offers over 5,000 speeches, many of them as audio or visual files as well as written texts.

Communication Studies Resources

http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources. A well-organized directory of Web resources useful for research. The directory covers advertising, culture studies, digital media, film studies, interpersonal and small-group communication, journalism and mass media, media studies, and rhetoric as well as online tools for communication studies researchers. It is maintained by Karla Tonella of the University of Iowa Department of Communication Studies.

First Amendment Handbook

http://www.rcfp.org/handbook/index.html. Provides detailed analyses of constitutional law issues as they relate to the practice of journalism. Sections cover access to courts, places and people, the Freedom of Information Act, confidentiality, surreptitious recording, libel, invasion of privacy, prior restraint, and copyright. From the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, compiled by Gregg P. Leslie.

Journalism.org: Research, Resources, and Ideas to Improve Journalism

http://www.journalism.org. News about the news industry, information for working journalists, background on issues of concern to journalists, and a detailed survey of the state of the news media, including print, broadcast, cable news, magazines, local TV, alternative media, and online news sources. The site is jointly maintained by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists.

MCS: The Media and Communications Studies Site

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media. A well-organized, searchable collection of links to Web content on a wide variety of topics: gender and ethnicity, news media, advertising, film studies, visual images, textual analysis, media influence, and more. The site is based at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

American Voices: Significant Speeches from American History

1640–1945. Ed. James Andrews and David Zarefsky. New York: Longman, 1991. A chronologically arranged anthology of major speeches of historical and oratorical significance. A companion volume covers speeches from 1945 to the end of the 1980s.

Encyclopedia of American Journalism.

Ed. Steven L. Vaughn. New York: Routledge, 2008. Offers articles on news organizations, journalists, significant publications, legal and political terms, and topics such as ethics, cameras in the courtroom, and blogs.

Encyclopedia of Rhetoric.

Ed. Thomas O. Sloane. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Offers substantial, scholarly overviews of research on such topics as invention, ethos, fallacies, rhetoric, and social movements.

History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia.

Ed. Margaret A. Blanchard. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000. Covers all forms of mass media from 1690 to 1990, offering short articles on technological, legal, economic, and political developments as well as major organizations and institutions.

International Encyclopedia of Communication.

Ed. Wolfgang Donsbach. 12 vols. Malden: Blackwell, 2008. A definitive and global source for information about every aspect of communication, including interpersonal and group communication as well as mass media and visual communication.

Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television.

Ed. Horace Newcomb et al. 3 vols. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000. Covers genres, programs, people, organizations, and topics related to television history. Information on television programs includes casts, producers, programming history, and bibliographies. The same publisher also offers Encyclopedia of Radio (2004).