Scientific research and science-guided practice based on the promotion of an individual's strengths constitutes a radical shift in a new and growing area of study within the field of human development. Its trademark term is `positive youth development'. This approach to human development is based on the idea that, in addition to preventing problems, science and practice should promote the development of competencies, skills, and motivation in order to enhance individuals' developmental pathways. Approaches to Positive Youth Development, is based on this concept and brings together authors from across Europe and America who are leaders in their respective fields. The main focus of the book, beyond a clarification of the paradigmatic foundations, concerns the major contexts of adolescents and young adults, namely, neighbourhoods and leisure locales, school and family, and the major themes of healthy psychosocial development, namely, competences and knowledge, prosocial behaviour, transcending problems of delinquency, civic engagement, identity, agency, and spirituality.
Historical and biographical work is becoming a more common type of qualitative research done by social scientists and usually requires the extensive use of formal archives housed in universities, governments, museums and other institutions. This practical and concise book provides an introduction for the novice on conducting archival research and covers such topics as contacting and preparing to work in archives, the protocol of using archives, and ways of organizing and referencing the useful data from the archive.
This book will play an important role in providing structure to a broad, fragmented discipline. I believe it will, at the very least, create important dialogues about what we now know//understand about areas of mass media, and where we should move as a discipline.a[Thisabook will]ahelp orient future scholars about the imperative to organize our re search more efficiently so that we can expand our knowledge about media phenomena. a Dr. Potter is an excellent writer, able to distill important ideas in a compelling, yet en gaging way. His passion about the topic clearly shines through and this is a major rea son why I believe scholars (and future scholars) will gravitate toward this book.oa --Roger Cooper, Ohio UniversityIn Arguing for a General Framework for Mass Media Scholarship, media scholar and bestselling author W. James Potter challenges media scholars and students to change the way they think about the media.a His goals are to: (1) take a macro approach and focus on explanations that span across four major facets of the mass media: (2) present a critical analysis of the mass media literatures and offer a recalibration of what we know about the media; anda(3) provide structure to mass media scholarship that is focused on the most useful ideas in the phenomenon of the mass media, not lines of research.The arguments and findings in the book are based on sound, in-depth research and analysis. The book presents scholars with an innovative way of thinking about the mass media. It challenges many of their assumptions and practices: Some scholars will find this very stimulating and will learn a great deal by working through the arguments presented in the book; other scholars will likely find themselves arguing against some of Potter's positions u but in so doing, they will be examining their own assumptions to a much deeper level and thereby be stimulated by the experience of reading the book.KEY FEATURES &BAD:amp; BENEFITS**The book is respectful of the wide range of theories and methodologies. Potter does not take an approach that sanctions one world view, method, or theory over others. All are important and useful. However, we need to integrate the value of all approaches instead of arguing over differences. On first reading, his arguments might appear as subversive with so many challenges to past thinking and practices; however,ahe takes a constructive approach: not solely criticizing faulty practices, but providing detailed recommendations about alternative assumptions, re-conceptualizations, and alterations in research practices.**The book is more interested in the future than in the past. It is not just a review of the literatures. It identifies shortcomings and proposes strategies for overcoming them. It presents an innovative plan for moving beyond the base of scholarship produced in the last century and into a new generation of thinking that will provide even more useful explanations for the next millennium.** Most explanations of the mass media focus on only one sub-topic of the overall phenomenon u such as one effect, one type of content, one issue of audience construction, or one type of channel. This book takes a macro approach and focuses on explanations that span across all four major facets of the mass media u the organizations, the content, the audiences, and the effects. ** The few treatments of the mass media that exist are general in nature and are very descriptive, that is, they present thumbnail descriptions of one theory after another, or one research finding after another.a This book presents a critical analyses of the mass media literatures. It presents arguments why certain parts of those literatures u while fairly large u have not produced much value for the field, while other writings u often overlooked or discounted u contain powerful ideas that can be fashioned into elegant explanations about some persistently puzzling aspects of the mass media. This critical analysis results in a re-calibration of what we know about the media.** This re-calibration of important findings along with some creative speculations are synthesized into a fresh approach to explaining the mass media.**The book is not structured by media channels, theories, world-views, or other typical devices used to organize books on the mass media. Instead, it is structured by a vision of what Potter considers the most important ideas to have been generated by mass media scholarship over the last half century. **The focus is on the mass media phenomenon itself more so than on the contours of the research about the mass media.
This book will play an important role in providing structure to a broad, fragmented discipline. I believe it will, at the very least, create important dialogues about what we now know//understand about areas of mass media, and where we should move as a discipline.a[Thisabook will]ahelp orient future scholars about the imperative to organize our re search more efficiently so that we can expand our knowledge about media phenomena. a Dr. Potter is an excellent writer, able to distill important ideas in a compelling, yet en gaging way. His passion about the topic clearly shines through and this is a major rea son why I believe scholars (and future scholars) will gravitate toward this book.oa --Roger Cooper, Ohio UniversityIn Arguing for a General Framework for Mass Media Scholarship, media scholar and bestselling author W. James Potter challenges media scholars and students to change the way they think about the media.a His goals are to: (1) take a macro approach and focus on explanations that span across four major facets of the mass media: (2) present a critical analysis of the mass media literatures and offer a recalibration of what we know about the media; anda(3) provide structure to mass media scholarship that is focused on the most useful ideas in the phenomenon of the mass media, not lines of research.The arguments and findings in the book are based on sound, in-depth research and analysis. The book presents scholars with an innovative way of thinking about the mass media. It challenges many of their assumptions and practices: Some scholars will find this very stimulating and will learn a great deal by working through the arguments presented in the book; other scholars will likely find themselves arguing against some of Potter's positions u but in so doing, they will be examining their own assumptions to a much deeper level and thereby be stimulated by the experience of reading the book.KEY FEATURES &BAD:amp; BENEFITS**The book is respectful of the wide range of theories and methodologies. Potter does not take an approach that sanctions one world view, method, or theory over others. All are important and useful. However, we need to integrate the value of all approaches instead of arguing over differences. On first reading, his arguments might appear as subversive with so many challenges to past thinking and practices; however,ahe takes a constructive approach: not solely criticizing faulty practices, but providing detailed recommendations about alternative assumptions, re-conceptualizations, and alterations in research practices.**The book is more interested in the future than in the past. It is not just a review of the literatures. It identifies shortcomings and proposes strategies for overcoming them. It presents an innovative plan for moving beyond the base of scholarship produced in the last century and into a new generation of thinking that will provide even more useful explanations for the next millennium.** Most explanations of the mass media focus on only one sub-topic of the overall phenomenon u such as one effect, one type of content, one issue of audience construction, or one type of channel. This book takes a macro approach and focuses on explanations that span across all four major facets of the mass media u the organizations, the content, the audiences, and the effects. ** The few treatments of the mass media that exist are general in nature and are very descriptive, that is, they present thumbnail descriptions of one theory after another, or one research finding after another.a This book presents a critical analyses of the mass media literatures. It presents arguments why certain parts of those literatures u while fairly large u have not produced much value for the field, while other writings u often overlooked or discounted u contain powerful ideas that can be fashioned into elegant explanations about some persistently puzzling aspects of the mass media. This critical analysis results in a re-calibration of what we know about the media.** This re-calibration of important findings along with some creative speculations are synthesized into a fresh approach to explaining the mass media.**The book is not structured by media channels, theories, world-views, or other typical devices used to organize books on the mass media. Instead, it is structured by a vision of what Potter considers the most important ideas to have been generated by mass media scholarship over the last half century. **The focus is on the mass media phenomenon itself more so than on the contours of the research about the mass media.
In this volume, leading composition scholars demonstrate that argumentation as an approach to teaching w riting remains valuable, in spite of modern theories of comp osition which have challenged its relevance. '
In this volume leading composition scholars consider the ways in which argumentation as an approach to teaching writing remains valuable - in spite of the challenge presented by postmodern theories. The book first explains the traditional approaches to argument - the enthymeme, evidence, Toulmian, Rogerian and classical rhetoric - and ......
This book teaches the principles of argumentation as a practical way to engage in interpersonal and public deliberation. With a unique emphasis on encouraging polite discourse, the book the case that how we argue is as important as the individual arguments that we offer.
Offering rich coverage of theory and applying this to everyday life, connecting real-world examples to the theories of rhetoric and argumentation, this text enables students to practice and apply the content in personal, civic and professional contexts. Jeffrye P. Mehltretter Drury introduces the fundamentals of constructing and refuting arguments using the Toulmin model and ARG conditions (Accessibility, Relevance and Grounds). Resources include: "The Debate Situation" providing a birds-eye view of any given debate organized around three necessary components: arguments, issues, and the proposition Multiple "Everyday Life" examples with an emphasis on context encouraging students to grapple explicitly with dilemmas arising in different contexts "Find Your Voice Prompts" focus on choice & empowerment offering strategies for students to choose which arguments to address and how to address them "Build Your Skill Prompts" using objective applications to test how well students have learned the information Two application exercises at the end of each chapter encouraging students to think critically about the content, discuss their thoughts with their peers, and apply the material
"Argumentative and Aggressive Communication is an excellent balance between research and application. This fits with the tradition of having high concern for application in the field of communication, and leaning on strong research to guide that application." -James C. McCroskey, West Virginia University "The thoroughness of coverage that ......
