Mediating the Message in the 21st Century ─ A Media Sociology Perspective

Hailed as one of the "most significant books of the twentieth century" by Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Mediating the Message has long been an essential text for media effects scholars and students of media sociology. This new edition of the classic media sociology textbook now offers students a comprehensive, theoretical approach to media content in the twenty-first century, with an added focus on entertainment media and the Internet.

Pamela J. Shoemaker has been John Ben Snow Professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, New York, since 1994. Her books include Gatekeeping Theory with Tim Vos (2009), Gatekeeping (English with Mandarin annotations) with Yonghua Zhang (2007), News Around the World with Akiba Cohen (2006), How to Build Social Science Theories with James Tankard and Dominic Lasorsa (2004), Mediating the Message with Stephen Reese (1996, 1991), Gatekeeping (1991), and an edited volume Communication Campaigns About Drugs (1989). In addition, Shoemaker and Michael Roloff have edited a top-ranked journal Communication Research since 1997. She has been invited to speak in Brazil, Canada, China (10 universities), Germany, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom and has given conference papers in many others. She is a past president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and formerly a head of its communication theory and methodology division; she is also a former chair of the mass communication division of the International Communication Association. Prior to joining the Newhouse School, Shoemaker was director of the School of Journalism at Ohio State University (1991-1994) and was on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin (1982-1991). Her Ph.D. in mass communications is from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (1982), with her M.S. in communication and B.S. in journalism from Ohio University, Athens (1972).

Stephen D. Reese is Jesse H. Jones Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been on the faculty since 1982 and was previously director of the School of Journalism. His research on issue framing, media sociology, political communication, and the globalization of journalism has been published in numerous book chapters and articles, and includes his edited volume, Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and our Understanding of the Social World (2001), Mediating the Message: Theories of Influence on Mass Media Content with Pam Shoemaker (1996, 1991), and major edited section, "Media Production and Content," in the International Communication Association’s Encyclopedia of Communication (2008). He has chaired the Political Communication Division of the International Communication Association and two divisions of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and was awarded that organization’s Krieghbaum Under-40 award for teaching, research, and service. He has lectured internationally at universities in Brazil, China, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Mexico, and Spain, and was Kurt Baschwitz Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (1982) and his B.S. in communication from the University of Tennessee (1976).