Zillmann, Cantor, and Wright among most highly cited in new media effects textbook
A new textbook on the social and psychological impacts of media, “Fundamentals of Media Effects,” relies heavily on the published scholarship of former IU professor Dolf Zillmann, IU alum Joanne Cantor, and IU professor Paul Wright. The 496-page tome covers a range of topics, including the history of the study of media effects, theories of media effects, and scientific research on media effects in areas such as politics, health, and education.
The text’s coauthors, the late Jennings Bryant and Bruce Finklea, cited the first-authored work of more than 1,300 unique scholars. Of these 1,300 scholars, less than one percent (five scholars in total) had more than 15 first-authored publications cited. Three of these five were Zillmann, Cantor, and Wright. The other two were Albert Bandura, the late David Starr Jordan Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and developer of Social Cognitive Theory, and Richard Petty, distinguished professor of Psychology at Ohio State University and developer of the Elaboration Likelihood Model.
Zillmann was a professor of communication and psychology at IU from 1971 to 1988 and is now Dean Emeritus at University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. Cantor received her Ph.D. from IU’s mass communications program in 1974 and is now Emeritus Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin. Wright is a professor and the director of communication science at IU’s Media School.