Communication
A Critical/Cultural Introduction
(Fourth Edition)
©2027, 322 pages
Paperback list price: $159.95
Cognella Direct Ebook: $78.95
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Empowering Students through Public Advocacy
The central goal of this textbook is to breathe new life into introductory communication courses. By blending current theory and cultural studies with modern societal issues, the authors invite students into a vital conversation about public advocacy in today’s world.
Written in an engaging and friendly style, the text explores how we collectively construct our world through communication. It challenges students to think deeply about how power, ideology, and diversity shape our daily lives—both in our private interactions and in the public sphere.
A Clear, Comprehensive Journey
The book is organized into three intuitive sections to guide student learning: Part 1: Foundational Principles explains the essential links between communication, culture, and power while introducing the history of the discipline and the concept of public advocacy. Part 2: Communication Processes and Skills dives into the "how-to" of communication, covering topics like active listening, identity, perception, language, and embodied knowledge. Part 3: Communication Contexts shows how to apply advocacy in specific environments, from personal relationships and group alliances to our mediated digital world, thus empowering students to use communication for the causes that matter most to them.
What's New in the Fourth Edition:
Deanna L. Fassett is a professor of communication and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at San José State University. She is the co-author of Critical Communication Pedagogy and Coordinating the Communication Course: A Guidebook and co-editor of The SAGE Handbook of Communication and Instruction (all with John T. Warren). Her published research has appeared in an array of communication studies journals, including Basic Communication Course Annual, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Communication Education, and Communication Teacher.
Dr. Keith Nainby is a professor of communication within the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Stanislaus. His publications include chapters in The SAGE Handbook of Communication and Instruction and The Invisibility Factor: Administrators and Faculty Reach Out to First-Generation College Students, as well as journal articles in Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Language and Intercultural Communication, and Educational Foundations.
Dr. Tabitha Hart holds a Ph.D. in communication with specialized training in the ethnography of communication and speech codes theory from the University of Washington. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at San José State University. Dr. Hart’s research focuses on cultural communication, service communication, service learning, and civic engagement.
Dr. John T. Warren was a professor of communication at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He was the author of numerous books including Performing Purity: Whiteness, Pedagogy and the Reconstitution of Power, Casting Gender: Women and Performance in Intercultural Contexts, Critical Communication Pedagogy, and Coordinating the Communication Course: A Guidebook. He authored articles for several education and communication studies journals, including Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Communication Education, Educational Theory, and Text and Performance Quarterly.
Other Cognella titles by Deanna L. Fassett:Other Cognella titles by Keith Nainby:
Other Cognella titles by Tabitha Hart:
Cognella Active Learning is available for this title! Adopting instructors can provide students with dynamic online learning activities that reinforce key concepts from the text, provide engaging educational experiences, and support various learning styles.
Please note: Cognella Active Learning can be bundled for purchase with the text or posted separately. Contact us to learn about bundle discounts.
The Cognella Active Learning content for Communication includes:
To see a full demo, please email us and one of our adoption specialists will follow up with you.
Please note: Cognella Active Learning can be bundled for purchase with the text or posted separately. Contact us to learn about bundle discounts.
The Cognella Active Learning content for Communication includes:
- 1 original video
- 12 decks of digital flashcards
- 12 chapter quizzes
- 12 videos
- 12 video quizzes
- 12 assignments
- 12 skill-builders
- 12 discussions
To see a full demo, please email us and one of our adoption specialists will follow up with you.
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Cognella Active Learning provides dynamic online content within a custom digital learning environment. Does not include the ebook. Contact us for course adoptions; not available for individual purchase. |
Adopting instructors will receive PowerPoints and test banks.
Praise for Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction:
“I am a huge fan….I’ve tried other books, but nothing gets my students open to Communication and dialogue like this text. They feel like they know the authors and become just as excited as I am about reading and learning. The ultimate compliment is that they go home and talk to their families about the class.…I have been using this book in some format since its first edition. It continues to help make my teaching successful, so I am going to follow every edition as it comes. … I will continue to echo this in all the book’s editions: The examples offered in the text and the narrative format allow my students to open up in conversations about how to apply communication in their everyday lives. … Many of our students become student leaders and cite this class and, in proximity, this book for their confidence and advocacy.”
Andrea Baldwin, University of Houston-Clear Lake
“This is the most engaging and honest communication textbook I’ve ever used. The fact that it covers the theories and history of the discipline I want my students to learn about is a bonus. Everything from the criticism of textbooks in the first chapter to the personal stories the authors include keep my students interested. The authors describe theories in a way that makes them personal for my students and use language that is readable without oversimplifying....At the end of the semester, they usually comment on how much they enjoy the book in my teaching evaluations. This is the only class in which they never complain about the book.”
Chris Lancaster, College of the Redwoods
“I have been searching for a text that situates public speaking within the field of communication studies in a way that is relevant to undergraduate students not yet immersed in their major programs and not yet highly integrated in the world around them. Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction effectively examines public communication as public advocacy and introduces students to the democratic ideal of personal responsibility for the quality of our lives and those around us. I am relieved to find this approach in our current global and political climate.”
Shelley-Jean Bradfield, Central College
“[This text] helps me identify and apply relational dynamics theory and concepts including those related to interpersonal communication, gender communication, intercultural communication, and organizational communication. It also helps to demonstrate effective group communication skills including leadership, problem-solving, decision-making, and conflict management by bringing challenging topics within the contexts of public advocacy and civic engagement.”
Lydia Huerta Moreno, University of Nevada, Reno
“The [book’s] critical/cultural approach makes this a unique asset to the field....It helps by providing contemporary examples from popular culture and society that students can relate to. For example, each chapter begins with a fictional/hypothetical vignette and continues with images that help students visualize key theories. Discussion questions that are embedded in the margins also help students think through some of the denser language and field-specific jargon….It’s simply the best introductory book on the market.”
Christopher Joseph Westgate, Johnson & Wales University
“I appreciate the advocacy portion of this text. Students need to understand their words have power, actions have power, a twitter post can change a life forever. It also speaks to the idea that public speaking is not just a memorized 10-minute speech, it is an everyday practice that can be improved upon.”
Aimee Irene Finney, Austin Community College
“Students of today’s sometimes-divisive culture will appreciate learning through the lens of culture and critical thinking. They might not realize it at first, but as their skills grow, students will expand their minds as well as their ability to communicate with civility and humility….Questions at the end of chapters are excellent and would most definitely provoke great discussions in the classroom that are relevant to local issues.”
Shannon DeBord, Austin Community College
“I think my students will appreciate how this is written. It is assessable, easy to follow, and easy to understand.”
Kate S. Kurtin, California State University, Los Angeles
“I appreciate having [this textbook’s] critical lens as foremost, even as it’s also appropriately contextualized / co-existing with the other paradigms introduced in this textbook. Overviews comm’s diverse epistemologies nicely.…Seeing phenomena and power as ‘built by’ communication adds relevant insight to students’ experiences, sense-making, and agency. Introduces the breadth of phenomena interesting to communication studies scholars.”
Jeff Kerssen-Griep, University of Portland
“I have struggled with finding an interesting text, that balances history, rhetoric, culture, and communication. I hope that my adoption of this text will provide a good entry point, and based on my review of the text, have great hopes for it.…”
Kyle Cheesewright, The College of Idaho
“I am a huge fan….I’ve tried other books, but nothing gets my students open to Communication and dialogue like this text. They feel like they know the authors and become just as excited as I am about reading and learning. The ultimate compliment is that they go home and talk to their families about the class.…I have been using this book in some format since its first edition. It continues to help make my teaching successful, so I am going to follow every edition as it comes. … I will continue to echo this in all the book’s editions: The examples offered in the text and the narrative format allow my students to open up in conversations about how to apply communication in their everyday lives. … Many of our students become student leaders and cite this class and, in proximity, this book for their confidence and advocacy.”
Andrea Baldwin, University of Houston-Clear Lake
“This is the most engaging and honest communication textbook I’ve ever used. The fact that it covers the theories and history of the discipline I want my students to learn about is a bonus. Everything from the criticism of textbooks in the first chapter to the personal stories the authors include keep my students interested. The authors describe theories in a way that makes them personal for my students and use language that is readable without oversimplifying....At the end of the semester, they usually comment on how much they enjoy the book in my teaching evaluations. This is the only class in which they never complain about the book.”
Chris Lancaster, College of the Redwoods
“I have been searching for a text that situates public speaking within the field of communication studies in a way that is relevant to undergraduate students not yet immersed in their major programs and not yet highly integrated in the world around them. Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction effectively examines public communication as public advocacy and introduces students to the democratic ideal of personal responsibility for the quality of our lives and those around us. I am relieved to find this approach in our current global and political climate.”
Shelley-Jean Bradfield, Central College
“[This text] helps me identify and apply relational dynamics theory and concepts including those related to interpersonal communication, gender communication, intercultural communication, and organizational communication. It also helps to demonstrate effective group communication skills including leadership, problem-solving, decision-making, and conflict management by bringing challenging topics within the contexts of public advocacy and civic engagement.”
Lydia Huerta Moreno, University of Nevada, Reno
“The [book’s] critical/cultural approach makes this a unique asset to the field....It helps by providing contemporary examples from popular culture and society that students can relate to. For example, each chapter begins with a fictional/hypothetical vignette and continues with images that help students visualize key theories. Discussion questions that are embedded in the margins also help students think through some of the denser language and field-specific jargon….It’s simply the best introductory book on the market.”
Christopher Joseph Westgate, Johnson & Wales University
“I appreciate the advocacy portion of this text. Students need to understand their words have power, actions have power, a twitter post can change a life forever. It also speaks to the idea that public speaking is not just a memorized 10-minute speech, it is an everyday practice that can be improved upon.”
Aimee Irene Finney, Austin Community College
“Students of today’s sometimes-divisive culture will appreciate learning through the lens of culture and critical thinking. They might not realize it at first, but as their skills grow, students will expand their minds as well as their ability to communicate with civility and humility….Questions at the end of chapters are excellent and would most definitely provoke great discussions in the classroom that are relevant to local issues.”
Shannon DeBord, Austin Community College
“I think my students will appreciate how this is written. It is assessable, easy to follow, and easy to understand.”
Kate S. Kurtin, California State University, Los Angeles
“I appreciate having [this textbook’s] critical lens as foremost, even as it’s also appropriately contextualized / co-existing with the other paradigms introduced in this textbook. Overviews comm’s diverse epistemologies nicely.…Seeing phenomena and power as ‘built by’ communication adds relevant insight to students’ experiences, sense-making, and agency. Introduces the breadth of phenomena interesting to communication studies scholars.”
Jeff Kerssen-Griep, University of Portland
“I have struggled with finding an interesting text, that balances history, rhetoric, culture, and communication. I hope that my adoption of this text will provide a good entry point, and based on my review of the text, have great hopes for it.…”
Kyle Cheesewright, The College of Idaho
