History Of Communication Study

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Summary, But Too Many Typos and Academic Worship
Review: This book provides a nice summary of the history of communication study. It is particularly valuable in that it makes the figures behind the theories more accessible, and the book's biographical approach does make the suject more interesting. The book offers summaries of Freud, Marx, and Darwin's work, and how they laid the basis for the field. It discusses the Frankfurt School and the Chicago school, and those summaries were quite useful. It covers Lasswell, Lazarsfeld, Lewin, Hovland, Weiner, and Shannon, and suggests that Wilbur Schramm was instrumental in establishing communication as a discipline. The book is strong in pointing to the influence of international events and philanthropic foundations, in founding communication study.

Downside: Too many typos! When was "World War Ii"? (Was it after WW Ia, WW Ib, and so on?)Some names are inconsistently spelled, and there are a few (obvious) grammar flubs. Also, there are too few personal anecotes about these figures, most of the stories are professional anecdotes. Which brings me to my final damnation: the book is obsessed with academic credentialism to the point of being slightly embarrasing...focusing on degree, field of study, school, mentors, and so on. All of it is useful information if you're into that sort of thing, of course, but sometimes it obscures the humanity and personality of the people involved. I won't mention that the book cites "Darwin for Beginners" (the cartoon guide) as a source several times....