Series: Inquiries in Social Construction
Volume: 18 

Debra Grodin : University of Washington, Seattle 
Thomas R Lindlof : University of Kentucky 

 In today's media-saturated world, identities are no longer built solely within the close-knit communities of family, neighborhood, school, and work. Today media are part of our world and therefore play an important role in the formulations of our identities or constructions of self. In a truly postmodern mode, Constructing the Self in a Mediated World not only brings together the usually segregated areas of interpersonal and mass communication but also incorporates works from scholars in sociology, psychology, and women's studies as well. Each essay examines our understanding of self in a different context of mediated culture within a specific framework of interpretive theories such as critical theory, social constructionist theory, and feminism.

This volume provides insights into issues of self and identity in contemporary mediated culture. Designed for advanced students and experienced researchers in communication (both media and interpersonal), sociology, psychology, and women's studies. Constructing the Self in a Mediated World raises important questions and contributes greatly to its field. 

 1. The Self and Mediated Communication D. Grodin & T. Lindlof 
2. All-Consuming Selves: Self-Help Literature and Women's Identities W. Simonds 
3. Terms of Enmeshment: The Social Construction of Mother
Daughter Relationship S. D. Walters 
4. Desperately Seeking Strategies: Reading in the Postmodern M. Brown 
5. "Gilt by Association": Talk Show Participants Televisually Enhanced Status and Self-Esteem P. Priest 
6. Mediating Cultural Selves: Soviet and American Cultures in a Televised "Spacebridge" D. Carbaugh 
7. Constructions of Self and Other in the Experience of Rap Music T. Simpson 
8. Technology and the Self: From the Essential to the Sublime K. Gergen 
9. Parallel Lives: Working on Identity in Virtual Space S. Turkel 
10. Therapy and Identity Construction in a Postmodern World S. McNamee 
11. The Nature of the Individual in Communication Research J. Anderson & G. Shoening 
12. Seeking a Path of Greatest Resistance: The Self Becoming Method T. R. Lindloff & A. Grubb-Swetnam CONTRIBUTORS: J. Anderson, M. Brown, D. Carbaugh, K. Gergen, D. Grodin, A. Grubb-Swetnam, T. R. Lindlof, S. McNamee, P. Priest, G. Shoening, W. Simonds, T. Simpson, S. Turkel, S. D. Walters