Review of The process and effects of mass communication

Abstract

Reviews the book "The process and effects of mass communication" edited by Wilbur Schramm (see record 1955-03971-000 ). This is the third collection of readings in mass communications research edited by Professor Schramm and published by the University of Illinois Press. Unlike its predecessors (Communications in Modern Society, 1948, and Mass Communications, 1949), this volume is strongly oriented toward international mass communication. As a background volume or supplementary text this is a useful book. Many of the items have not been reprinted previously in the sizable collection of readers now available in this field. The selections are apt in view of the editor's intent and are particularly well chosen in the final section on problems of achieving an effect with international communication. The reviewer noted most favorably that one of the book's important papers--the Davison-George item--was reworked by the authors for this volume. Such a procedure, more generally applied in collections of readings, would update and doubtless improve certain "classic" papers whose value may be diminished by obsolescence of data, by new insights or integrations, or by significant changes in the field which the item covers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)