Communication & Media Studies Library — Index
The study of communication — how meaning is made, exchanged, and contested, from the conversation to the mass medium to the platform. The discipline that grew from rhetoric, sociology, psychology, and information theory: it studies the process and institutions of communication, complementing
Arts/Film/(the moving image as art and craft) andSociety/Sociology/culture-media-and-socialization(media as a social structure), and drawing onSociety/Psychology/andMath/information-theory.
- Status: Tier 1 complete — 6 notes (theory; two levels/contexts; two media-and-society; influence), authored 2026-06-03.
- Conventions: named scholars, models, and works throughout; titles in italic;
> Scope:opener and a “Common pitfalls” section per note; no emojis.
Tier 1 — Foundations
| Topic | File | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Communication theory & models | communication-theory-and-models | transmission vs. ritual, semiotics, encoding/decoding, Craig’s seven traditions, medium theory |
Tier 1 — Levels and contexts
| Topic | File | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Interpersonal & organizational communication | interpersonal-and-organizational-communication | relational & nonverbal communication, message design, sensemaking, groups & teams |
| Mass communication & media effects | mass-communication-and-media-effects | the effects pendulum, agenda-setting, framing, cultivation, uses & gratifications |
Tier 1 — Media and society
| Topic | File | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Media, journalism & the public sphere | media-journalism-and-the-public-sphere | the press & democracy, Habermas, news production, media systems, propaganda |
| Digital media & networked communication | digital-media-and-networked-communication | the network society, CMC, platform studies, social media, misinformation & governance |
Tier 1 — Influence
| Topic | File | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Rhetoric & persuasion | rhetoric-and-persuasion | classical & new rhetoric, the Yale tradition, the ELM/HSM, Cialdini, digital persuasion |
Adjacent libraries
- Film — the moving image as art and craft (this library treats media as a communicative/social process)
- culture-media-and-socialization — media as a social structure (production of culture, socialization)
- Psychology — the psychology of persuasion, attitudes, and interpersonal interaction
- PoliticalScience — political communication, the press & democracy, propaganda
- rhetoric-nonfiction-and-the-essay — the humanistic rhetorical tradition
- information-theory — the information-theoretic root of the transmission model