Social Sciences
Media & Communication
How information moves through a society — and, increasingly, how it gets corrupted on the way.
8 fields · 71 topics · 10 curated works
Fields within Media & Communication
Information Literacy
10Evaluating claims — arguably the most valuable field in this entire index right now.
Source Evaluation · Lateral Reading · Fact-Checking Methods · Primary vs Secondary Sources · Identifying Bias
Misinformation & Disinformation
9How false information spreads, and why corrections rarely catch up.
Rumour & Contagion · Coordinated Influence Operations · Propaganda Techniques · Conspiracy Theories · Motivated Reasoning
Journalism
9The practice, the economics and the failure modes.
Reporting Methods · Investigative Journalism · Source Protection · Editorial Standards · Journalistic Ethics
Rhetoric & Persuasion
9The oldest communication discipline, still the most useful.
Classical Rhetoric · Ethos, Pathos, Logos · Argument Structure · Logical Fallacies · Framing
Media Theory
8What the medium does independently of the message.
Medium Theory · Agenda Setting · Framing Theory · Cultivation Theory · Political Economy of Media
Digital & Social Media
10Platforms as the dominant information infrastructure.
Recommendation Algorithms · Engagement Optimisation · Filter Bubbles & Echo Chambers · Virality Mechanics · Online Radicalisation
Advertising & Public Relations
8Paid and earned influence.
Advertising History · Ad Targeting & Tracking · Brand Communication · Crisis Communication · Sponsored Content
History of Media
8Each information revolution and its social consequences.
Oral Tradition · The Printing Press · Newspapers & Mass Literacy · Radio · Television
Reading in Media & Communication
10Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
- EssayOn BullshitHarry Frankfurt, 1986
Bullshit differs from lying by indifference to truth altogether, which makes it the greater enemy of understanding.
- BookThe Elements of JournalismBill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel, 2001
Journalism's first obligation is to the truth and its essence is a discipline of verification — everything else is a delivery detail.
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
- BookPropagandaEdward Bernays, 1928
The founder of public relations arguing openly that manufacturing consent is necessary in a democracy — the field's most candid document.
- BookAmusing Ourselves to DeathNeil Postman, 1985
Television reshapes public discourse into entertainment, and the resulting damage is worse than censorship because nobody objects.
- PaperThe Spread of True and False News OnlineVosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018· 6 pages
False stories on Twitter spread further, faster and more broadly than true ones, and humans rather than bots drive the difference.
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
- BookRhetoricAristotle, 350 BCE
The first systematic account of persuasion — ethos, pathos, logos — and still the framework everyone arguing in public is using unknowingly.
- BookThe Printing Press as an Agent of ChangeElizabeth L. Eisenstein, 1979
Print did not merely spread ideas but changed what counted as knowledge — fixity, comparison and cumulative correction became possible.
- BookManufacturing ConsentEdward Herman & Noam Chomsky, 1988
A propaganda model in which ownership, advertising and sourcing filter news without requiring any explicit censorship.
- BookThe Age of Surveillance CapitalismShoshana Zuboff, 2019
Behavioural data taken as free raw material became a market in predictions about people — attention is the by-product, not the product.
- BookUnderstanding MediaMarshall McLuhan, 1964
The medium is the message: the form of a communication technology changes society more than any content it carries.