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This book addresses the convergence of sociology, communication and rhetoric, with particular reference to the contemporary expressive and social patterns of mass communication. Using rhetoric as a meta-conceptual apparatus for the sociology of communication, this book offers an original and comprehensive critique of historical social theory alongside 20th century communication researchers. The author demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between the rhetorical structures of the media-sphere and the new narrative formats in which cultural representation merges into social and civil observation. This book will be of interest to academics and students studying sociology, communication and cultural studies.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: "Shared Symbols of a Community": Roger Silverstone and Media Commonplaces.- Chapter 3: "Metaphor Work": Richard Sennett and the Urban Rhetoric of Public Speaking.- Chapter 4: Mainstream Soliloquies: Erving Goffman and the Sociology of Self-Talk.- Chapter 5: Mythic Operators: Jean Baudrillard and the Rhetoric of Designation.- Chapter 6: Imaginary Myths: Roland Barthes and the Rhetorical Induction.- Chapter 7: Faded Metaphors: Walter Lippmann and the Rhetoric of News.- Chapter 8: The Values of the Gutenberg Era: Myth and Media Rhetoric.- Chapter 9: Digital Cosmopolitism: Ulrich Beck and Communication as "Public Bad".- Chapter 10: The Lure of Rhetoric: Jürgen Habermas and the Faltering European Project.- Chapter 11: Richard Sennett and "the New Rhetoric of the People": A Manzonian Path.- Chapter 12: Presence is Absence. Communication and Rhetoric in Paolo Sorrentino's The Young Pope.- Chapter 13: "Society is Predictable". Risk and Persuasion in Paolo Sorrentino's The New Pope.
About the author
Andrea Lombardinilo is Associate Professor in Sociology of Communicative and Cultural Processes at the "Gabriele d'Annunzio" University, Italy, where he teaches sociology and communication, communication and public safety, media and risk society. He has carried out institutional and research activities at the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), in the field of higher education and institutional communication.
