ABSTRACT

Disappointments stand out. The “successful” textbooks as they enter into their 6th to nth editions still present communication studies as largely derivative on the theories of others, topically focused, fragmented, and reviewish. Few challenge dominant conceptions in our society and few engage real social problems. We touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of students each year with materials that are intellectually and conceptually dated and that usually only marginally or topically address issues of pluralism, globalization, mediation, corporativism, culture production, community development, and public decision-making-all issues that make communication central to human concerns and choices that are core to the very life of contemporary democratic society. What are the systems of choice, preparation, and economics that keep producing these outcomes?