Vol. 16, No. 39	Aug. 21, 1997

Prof. edits book about women in communication

Students from universities around the country who call Nancy Signorielli, communication, requesting interviews on a variety of topics invariably mention how difficult it is to find useful information about women in the field of communication. So, when an editor at Greenwood Press approached Signorielli to edit a book that would focus on women in communication, she saw an opportunity to help fill a void.

The result is Women in Communication, published by Greenwood Press late last year. The biographical reference work provides information on a wide variety of women who have had an impact in the field of communication. Those selected range from well-known current broadcast journalist Cokie Roberts, who granted a personal interview for the book, to Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, to women who may be less well-known but are just as significant, such as Hilde Himmelweit, a respected scholar of communication and psychology.

According to Alan Rubin, in the book's foreword, "Those who are profiled in this book have had remarkable lives of achievement. Many have overcome obstacles that would not have been experienced by their male peers. They have all contributed to the discovery, synthesis or application of knowledge about communication's significant role in society." A communication professor at Kent State University, Rubin also is one of the book's contributors.

The women were selected for the book through a peer review process, in which Signorielli asked communication journal editors and past presidents or fellows of the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association to nominate women they believed to be important in the communication field. Signorielli then used these nominations to choose the women who would be included in the book.

After deciding which women to profile, Signorielli placed each into one of three categories: pioneers in journalism, broadcasting or scholarship; current key professionals in the industry; and current scholars in mass and interpersonal communication. In addition, an appendix provides short essays and background biographical information about active women scholars-both women with stature in the field and those who were considered to be up and coming.

Examples of women profiled in Women in Communication include: Sara McClune, founder of Sage Publications; Edna Rogers, a communication scholar and former visiting professor at the University of Delaware who served as president of the International Communication Association in the late 1980s, thus becoming one of the first women to head a national communication association; Herta Herzog, member of the first Office of Radio Research and an early researcher of the uses and gratifications perspective; and Ellen Wartella, dean and Walter Cronkite Regents Chair of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Communication and an early public advocate of better children's television.

Ultimately, Signorielli said she believes the book will find a useful place in libraries.

"College libraries should be very interested in having the book. It will be quite useful for graduate and undergraduate students, and even broadcast journalists," Signorielli said.

Many of those who wrote a chapter about a specific woman in communication have ties to the Department of Communication at UD as either faculty members or students. Faculty contributors include Sheila Crifasi, Juliet Dee, Beth Haslett, Douglas McLeod, Elizabeth Perse and Wendy Samter. Past and present graduate and undergraduate students from the Department of Communication who contributed include Scott Caplan, William Eveland Jr., Susan Kahlenberg, Candace Lewis, Johnna Moyer, Amy Nathanson, Jessica Staples and Dorothy Zeccola.

-Jennifer Bevan