Gregory J. Shepherd - Communication and community

Cover

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LEAs COMMUNICATION SERIES
Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, General Editors

Selected titles include:

Berger Planning Strategic Interaction: Attaining Goals Through Communicative Action

Ellis Crafting Society: Ethnicity, Class, and Communication Theory

Greene Message Production: Advances in Communication Theory

Heath/Bryant Human Communication Theory and Research: Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges, Second Edition

Olson Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency

Penman Constructing Communicating: Looking to a Future

Perry American Pragmatism and Communication Research

Salwen/Stacks An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research

For a complete list of titles in LEAs Communication Series
please contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers

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Communication and Community

Edited by
Gregory J. Shepherd
University of Kansas

Eric W. Rothenbuhler
University of Iowa

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Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Communication and community / Gregory J. Shepherd,
Eric W. Rothenbuhler [editors]
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3138-X (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8058-3139-8 (pbk : alk. paper)
1. Interpersonal communication. 2. Community. I. Shepherd,
Gregory J. II. Rothenbuhler, Eric W.
HM1166.C66 2000
302dc21 00-086821
CIP

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.

Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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To the community of partners and friends:
Mary, Jamie, and each other
GJS
EWR

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Concerns about community, the balancing of individual rights with social responsibilities, and the weighing of freedom and equality permeate nearly every aspect of American life. In marriages, neighborhoods, and workplaces, via face-to-face and mediated behaviors, we strive to commune and we long to separate; we make sense of our cooperative lives and we deny them; we bond and we break.

Throughout the public sphere, political leaders and citizens bemoan a slide in civility, express a fear that the will to cooperate has weakened, and worry about the decline of responsibility in social life. Recent years have witnessed a remarkable thematic resonance across political speeches, media commentary, citizen complaints, and scholarly writings: The problems of contemporary life (e.g., declining social capital, loss of neighborliness, threats to the family, divorce, uncaring corporations, unstable jobs, faceless technology, exploitative movies, anonymous suburbs, unsupervised children) are collectively captured by the problem of community. Often, certain types or practices of communication are identified as contributing to the problem (e.g., violent television programs and movies, nihilistic music, apathy-producing news coverage); more frequently, the hope of communication is offered as the solution (as witnessed by the daily talk shows and their incessant calls for more communicationsincere, open, and face-to-faceas the balm for lifes many, and sometimes weird, wounds).

A book on Communication and Community would thus seem to fit the Zeitgeist of the 21st centurys dawn; and given the intricate character of the relationship between these complex terms, communication and community, a collection of essays by both new and established voices from across the areas of communication studies seems the most appropriate form for such a book. In the few pages that follow, we preface this collection by suggesting a few themes readers might keep in mind