Architects of Communication Scholarship

In this episode, Barbara Osborn interviews Professor Emerita Sandra Ball-Rokeach about her struggles and triumphs working as a woman in sociology and communication theory since the 1960s. Professor Ball-Rokeach tells anecdotes about her time serving on the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence under President Lyndon B. Johnson. This experience led her to develop media system dependency theory, a multi-level analysis from the psychological to the sociological. Professor Ball-Rokeach also discusses how she brought theory to practice through her Metamorphosis project, which focused on civic engagement in 11 major communities in Los Angeles County.

Click here for the episode transcript

Featuring

Ellen Wartella

Barbara Osborn

Sandra Ball-Rokeach

Sponsor:

Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

More from the host & speakers:

Ellen Wartella

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Communication | Professor of Psychology, Human Development and Social Policy, and Medical Social Sciences

Northwestern University

Director, Center on Media and Human Development

Twitter: @CMHD_NU

Barbara Osborn

Senior Strategist at Wow The Crowd

LinkedIn: Barbara Osborn, Ph.D.

Twitter: @Bosborn

Sandra Ball-Rokeach

Professor, Emerita of Communication at USC Annenberg

Works referenced in episode:

DeFleur, M. L., & Ball-Rokeach, S. (1989). Theories of mass communication (Vol. 5). New York: Longman.

Ball-Rokeach, S. J. (1998). A theory of media power and a theory of media use: Different stories, questions, and ways of thinking. Mass Communication and Society, 1(1-2), 5-40.

Copy and Audio Editors:

Dominic Bonelli

Executive Producer:

DeVante Brown