The Crisis of the Institutional Press

Stephen D. Reese (Polity, 2021) 

As polarized factions in society pull apart from economic dislocation,  tribalism, and fear, and as strident attacks on the press make its survival more precarious, the need for an institutionally organized forum in civic life has become increasingly important. Populist challenges amplified by a counter-institutional media system have contributed to the long-term decline in journalistic authority, exploiting a post-truth mentality that strikes at its very core.

Networked China: Global Dynamics of Digital Media and Civic Engagement

Wenhong Chen and Stephen Reese, eds. (New York:  Routledge, 2015)

The Internet and digital media have become conduits and locales where millions of Chinese share information and engage in creative expression and social participation. This book takes a cutting-edge look at the impacts and implications of an increasingly networked China. Eleven chapters cover the terrain of a complex social and political environment, revealing how modern China deals with digital media and issues of censorship, online activism, civic life, and global networks. The authors in this collection come from diverse geographical backgrounds and employ methods including ethnography, interview, survey, and digital trace data to reveal the networks that provide the critical components for civic engagement in Chinese society.

Mediating the Message in the 21st Century: A Media Sociology Perspective

Pamela Shoemaker and Stephen Reese (New York:  Routledge, 2014).

Although this new volume addresses the same broad issues and theoretical framework as its predecessors, it carries a different title, which although it connects to the same tradition, indicates a complete revision to account for the radical changes in the media, media professions, institutional boundaries, and globalization.

Mediating the Message: Theories of Influence on Mass Media Content

Pamela Shoemaker and Stephen Reese, (New York: Longman, 1991). (2nd edition, 1996). Translated into Spanish and Korean.

This book provides a conceptual framework for exploring the shaping of media content.  The model incorporates influences at the individual, routines, organizational, extra-media, and ideological levels of analysis.

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Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and our Understanding of the Social World

Stephen Reese, Oscar Gandy, and August Grant (editors).
(Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001).

This volume offers a thorough interdisciplinary examination of the ways in which meaning comes to be shaped.  The editors and contributors illustrate how media texts and those who provide them powerfully shape of "frame" our social worlds and thus affect our public life.  It includes a detailed theoretical discussion as well as illustrative empirical case studies. 

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Book Chapters

See Academia.edu for recent chapters.

Brian Baresch, Sandra Hsu, and Stephen Reese, “Studies in news framing,” in S. Allan (ed.) Routledge companion to news and journalism studies, pp. 637-647. (New York: Routledge, 2012).

Stephen Reese, “Global news literacy: The educator,” in P. Mihailidis (ed.) News literacy: Global perspectives for the newsroom and the classroom. (New York: Peter Lang, 2012).

Stephen Reese, “Journalism,” major headword entry for Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Mark Juergensmeyer and Helmut Anheier, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012.

Stephen Reese, "On anti-Iraq war protests and the global news sphere," in S. Cottle & L. Lester (eds.) Transnational protests and the media (New York: Peter Lang, 2011).

Stephen Reese, "Understanding the Global Journalist: A Hierarchy of Influences Approach," reprinted in Dan Berkowitz (ed.) Cultural Meanings of News: A Text- Reader (Beverly Hills: Sage, 2011).

Stephen Reese and Jae Kook Lee, "Understanding the content of news media," in H. Semetko & M. Scammel (eds.) Handbook of political communication (Beverly Hills: Sage, 2012).

Stephen Reese, "Managing the symbolic arena: The media sociology of Herbert Gans," in L. Becker, C. Holtz-Bacha & G. Reust (Eds.), Festschrift for Klaus Schoenbach (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag fuer Sozialwissenschaften, 2009).

Stephen Reese and Jia Dai, "Citizen journalism in the global news arena: China's new media critics," in S. Allan and E. Thorsen (eds.) Citizen journalism: Global perspectives (New York: Peter Lang, 2009).

Stephen Reese, "Finding frames in a web of culture: The case of the War on Terror," in P. D'Angelo and J. Kuypers (eds.) Doing News Framing Analysis: Empirical, Theoretical, and Normative Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 2010).

Stephen Reese, "Media Production and Content," major overview of subfield as area editor for International Encyclopedia of Communication. W. Donsbach (ed.) Project of the International Communication Association to map the field of communication. (London: Blackwell, 2008).

Pamela Shoemaker, Timothy Vos and Stephen Reese, "Journalists as gatekeepers," in K. Wahl-Jorgensen and T. Hanitzsch (eds.) Handbook of Journalism Studies, International Communication Association Handbook Series (London: Routledge/Lawrence Erlbaum, 2009).

Stephen Reese, "Theorizing a globalized journalism," in M. Loeffelholz & D. Weaver (eds.), Global journalism research: Theories, methods, findings, future. London: Blackwell, 2008).

Stephen Reese, "Militarized journalism: Framing dissent in the Persian Gulf wars," in Stuart Allan and Barbie Zelizer (eds) Reporting War: Journalism in Wartime (London and New York: Routledge, 2004).

Stephen Reese, "Framing Public Life," Major synthesis review chapter in Stephen Reese, Oscar Gandy, and August Grant (Eds.) Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and our Understanding of the Social World,, pp. 7-32, (Mahwah, N.J. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001).

Stephen Reese, "The News Paradigm and the Ideology of Objectivity: A Socialist at the Wall Street Journal," reprinted in Dan Berkowitz (ed.) Social Context of News: A Text- Reader (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1996).

Stephen Reese, "Setting the Media's Agenda: A Power Balance Perspective," pp. 309-340, invited full-length review essay in James Anderson (ed.) Communication Yearbook 14 (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1991).

Stephen Reese and Lucig Danielian, "Inter-Media Influence and the Drug Issue: Converging on Cocaine," in Pamela Shoemaker (ed.) Communication Campaigns About Drugs: Government, Media and the Public, pp. 29-45. (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1989). Also, anthology chapter in Max McCombs and David Protess (eds.) Agenda-Setting: Readings on Media, Public Opinion and Policy Making (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1991).

Lucig Danielian and Stephen Reese, "A Closer Look at Inter-Media Influences on the Agenda-Setting Process: The Cocaine Issue of 1986," in Pamela Shoemaker (ed.) Communication Campaigns About Drugs: Government, Media and the Public (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1989).

Stephen Reese, "Relations of Occupations to Uses of Information Technologies," chapter in Frederick Williams (ed.) Measuring the Information Society: The Texas Studies (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1988).