Eric W. Rothenbuhler, Professor
(Ph.D. Annenberg School, University of Southern California, 1985)

Media studies, communication theory, media anthropology, American music, music and radio industries.

Office Phone: (979) 845-2880
email: Rothenbuhler@tamu.edu

Office: 202C Bolton
Department of Communication
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-4234

Rothenbuhler's teaching and research address media anthropology and communication systems ranging from ritual through community to media industries. He is co-editor (with Mihai Coman) of Media Anthropology (2005, Sage). Author of Ritual communication: From everyday conversation to mediated ceremony (1988, Sage), which has been translated to Polish (2003), and co-editor (with Greg Shepherd) of Communication and Community (2001, LEA). He was Review and Criticism Editor for the Journal of Communication (1997-99) and currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, and The Radio Journal. He is author or co-author of over 50 articles, chapters, essays, and reviews on media, ritual, community, media industries, popular music, and communication theory.

Rothenbuhler teaches Theories of Media Communication and courses on media industries, popular music, and the anthropology and sociology of communication and media.

Eric Walter Rothenbuhler
(short vita)
July 2008

Department of Communication
Texas A&M University
102 Bolton Hall, 4234 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-4234
979-845-2880
rothenbuhler@tamu.edu

Higher Education

Ph.D. Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California, 1985.

M.A. Department of Communication, Ohio State University, 1982.

B.A. Department of Communication, Ohio State University, 1980.

Academic Positions

Professor, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, August 2004 through present.

Director of Graduate Studies, Media Studies Program, New School University, August 2001 through July 2004. Chief academic officer for a program with over 400 MA students and 60 part-time faculty members.

Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa: Assistant, Associate, and Professor, 1985-2001.

Teaching

Undergraduate courses include:  Theories of Media Communication; American Broadcasting; Radio, Records, and Popular Music; Media Industries and Organizations; and Research Methods.

Graduate courses include:  Survey of Telecommunication and Media Studies; Foundations of Media Theory; Ritual and Communication; Popular Music Studies; Communication and Community; Media Industry Systems; Theories of Mass Communication; Rhetorical and Textual Methods; and Research Methods.

 

Books

The redefinition of radio, 1947-1962.  Preliminary contract, University of Illinois Press.

Media anthropology.  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler & Mihai Coman, Eds.)  Newbury Park, CA:  Sage Publications, 2005.

Communication and community.  (Greg J. Shepherd and Eric W. Rothenbuhler, Eds.). Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.

Ritual communication: From everyday conversation to mediated ceremony.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, 1998.

Articles and Chapters ( recent and selected)

From media events to ritual to communicative form.  In N. Couldry, A. Hepp, & F. Krotz (Eds.), Media events in a global age.  London:  Routledge, in press.

Rituals in popular communication.  The international Encyclopedia of Communication, 4424-4428, X, (W. Donsbach, Ed.).  Oxford, UK and Malden, MA:  Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.

John Peel in America.  The Radio Journal:  International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, 2007, 4, 7-23 (lead article of special issue).

International cultural journalism and civic life.  In H. Bohrmann, E. Klaus, & M. Machill (Eds.), Media industry, journalism culture, and communication policies in Europe (pp. 64-82).  Köln, Germany:  Herbert von Halem Verlag, 2007.

Myth and collective memory in the case of Robert Johnson.  Critical Studies in Media Communication, 2007, 24, 189-205 (lead article).

Robert Johnson’s blues style as a product of recorded culture.  Popular Music, 2007, 26, 65-81.

Déchirure symbolique et processus de réparation: Les témoins du 11 Septembre [Symbolic disorder and repair after 9/11].  In D. Dayan (Ed.), La Terreur Spectacle:  Terrorisme et television (pp. 199-209).  Brussells:  De Boeck and Paris:  Institut National de l’audiovisuel, 2006.

The self as a sacred object in media.  In J. Sumiala-Seppänen, K. Lundby, & R. Salokangas (Ed.), Implications of the sacred in (post) modern media (pp. 31-41).  Nordicom, 2006.

The strange career of Robert Johnson’s records.  In S. Jones & J. Jensen (Eds.), Afterlife as afterimage:  Understanding posthumous fame (pp. 209-234).  Peter Lang, 2005.

Communication as ritual.  In G. J. Shepherd, J. St. John, & T. Striphas (Eds.).  Communication as . . . :  Stances on theory (pp. 13-21).  Sage, 2005.

The promise of media anthropology.  (Mihai Coman & Eric W. Rothenbuhler).  In E. W. Rothenbuhler & M. Coman (Eds.), Media anthropology (pp. 1-11).  Newbury Park, CA:  Sage, 2005.

The church of the cult of the individual.  In E. W. Rothenbuhler & M. Coman (Eds.), Media anthropology (pp. 91-100).  Newbury Park, CA:  Sage, 2005.

Ground zero, the firemen, and the symbolics of touch on 9/11 and after.  In E. W. Rothenbuhler & M. Coman (Eds.), Media anthropology (pp. 176-187).  Newbury Park, CA:  Sage, 2005.

Burnishing the brand:  Todd Storz and the total station sound.  (Tom McCourt & Eric Rothenbuhler.)  The Radio Journal, 2004, 2, 3-14.

The economics of the recording industry.  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler & Tom McCourt.)  In A. Alexander, J. Owers, R. Carveth, C. A. Hollifield, & A. N. Greco (Eds.), Media economics:  Theory and practice (3rd. ed.) (pp. 221-248).  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.

Radio (social and cultural contexts).  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler & Tom McCourt.)  2000-word entry for The encyclopedia of popular music of the world.  London:  Continuum, 2003.

Broadcasting (social and cultural contexts).  (Ken Garner & Eric W. Rothenbuhler.) 1500-word entry for The encyclopedia of popular music of the world.  London:  Continuum, 2003.

Community and pluralism in Louis Wirth’s “Consensus and mass communication.”  In E. Katz, J. D. Peters, T. Liebes, & A. Orloff (Eds.), Canonic texts in media research.  Polity Press, 2002.

Radio redefines itself, 1947 – 1962.  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler & Tom McCourt.)  In M. Hilmes & J. Loviglio (Eds.), The radio reader:  Essays in the cultural history of radio (pp. 367-387).  New York:  Routledge, 2002.

Rock and roll.  1500-word entry for the Encyclopedia of radio.  Fitzroy Dearborn, 2002.

Media events.  2000-word entry for the International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 9487-9489).  Oxford, England:  Elsevier Science, 2002.

Defining phonography:  An experiment in theory.  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler & John Durham Peters).  Musical Quarterly, 1997, 81, 242-264.

SoundScan and the consolidation of control in the popular music industry.  (Tom McCourt & Eric W. Rothenbuhler.)  Media, Culture, & Society, 1997, 19, 201-218.

Communication, community attachment, and involvement.  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler, Lawrence J. Mullen, Richard DeLaurell, & Choon Ryul Ryu).  Journalism Quarterly, 1996, 73, 445-466.

Commercial radio as communication.  Journal of Communication, Winter 1996, 46, 125-143.

The social distribution of participation in the broadcast Olympic Games.  The Journal of International Communication, June 1995, 2, 66-79.

Argument for a Durkheimian theory of the communicative.  Journal of Communication, Summer 1993, 43, 158-163.

The process of community involvement.  Communication Monographs,1991, 58, 63-78.

Values and symbols in public orientations to the Olympic media event.  Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1989, 6, 138-157.

The reality of construction.  (John D. Peters & Eric W. Rothenbuhler)  In Herb Simons (Ed.), Perspectives on the rhetoric of the human sciences (pp. 11-27).  London:  Sage, 1989.
          Translated and reprinted as:  Au-Delà de la peur des images:  La réalité de la construction (trans. & ed. by Daniel Dayan).  In Hermes:  cognition, communication, politique, 1994, 13-14, 27-42.

The living room celebration of the Olympic Games.  Journal of Communication, Autumn 1988, 38, 61-81.

The liminal fight:  Mass strikes as ritual and interpretation. In Jeffrey C. Alexander (Ed.), Durkheimian sociology: Cultural studies (pp. 66-89).  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Neofunctionalism for mass communication theory.  In Michael Gurevitch & Mark R. Levy (Eds.), Mass communication review yearbook, Volume 6 (pp. 67-85).  Newbury Park:  Sage, 1987.

Commercial radio and popular music:  Processes of selection and factors of influence.  In James Lull (Ed.), Popular music and communication:  Social and cultural perspectives (pp. 78-95). Beverly Hills:  Sage, 1987.

Programming decision making in popular music radio. Communication Research, 1985, 12, 209-232.

Popular music:  Concentration and diversity in the industry,1974-1980.  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler & John Dimmick.)  Journal of Communication, Winter 1982, 32, 143-149.

Presentations (selected, recent)

From ritual to communicative form to media worlds.  Keynote address at Nordic Research Network on Media, Religion, and Culture, Reykjavik, Iceland, May 28-30, 2008.

Signs of secular faith:  Religious symbolism in the public response to 9/11 in New York City.  University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 2, 2008.

Ritualization and mediatization in religion and commercial entertainment.  On panel Media cultures and the mediatization of religion.  International Communication Association, Montreal, Canada, May 2008.

Notes of melancholia on the 25th anniversary of the CD.  On panel The day the music digitized:  Exploring the digital music commodity.  International Communication Association, Montreal, Canada, May 2008.

What is new?  What is not?  Paper for The Long History of New Media, Pre-conference for International Communication Association, Montreal, Canada, May 22, 2008.

Industry systems, ritual communication, and media worlds, or how the Top-40 came to be a real thing.  4th Annual Walt Fisher Lecture, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, March 13, 2008.

The diffusion and institutionalization of Top-40 radio.  Great Plains Radio History Conference, Kansas State University, September 2007.

Sorting music and talk in 1950s radio.   Troubling Truth, a symposium of the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, Texas A&M University, September 7 & 8, 2007.

From media events to ritual to communicative form.  Keynote address at Media Events, Globalization, and Cultural Change; international conference held at University of Bremen, Germany, July 5-7, 2007.

The excess of meaning and the value of influence.  International Communication Association, San Francisco, CA, May 2007.

Panel organizer and chair:  Is reality a scarce or abundant resource.  International Communication Association, San Francisco, CA, May 2007.

Respondent to panel:  Media as contested spaces of religious/spiritual evolution:  Rituals, spectacles, commodities, and markets. International Communication Association, San Francisco, CA, May 2007.

Reasserting the reality of construction.  Position paper for panel discussion: Ontology and rhetoric.  National Communication Association, San Antonio, Texas, November 2006.

The myth of Robert Johnson.  International Communication Association, Dresden, Germany, June 2006.

Anthropology, mass communication, and media studies:  Respondent.  International Communication Association, Dresden, Germany, June 2006.

The development of a segmented audience concept at the McLendon radio stations.  (Eric W. Rothenbuhler & Tom McCourt.)  Great Plains Radio History Symposium, Kansas State University, April 28, 2006.

Symbolic disorder and repair after witnessing 9/11.  Public lecture, University of Oslo, January 24, 2006.

The evolution of the self, the media, and the cult of the individual.  Conference presentation at Convergences between the interpersonal and the mediated, University of Oslo, Soria Moria conference center, Oslo, Norway, January 20-22, 2006.

Media Anthropology as a Field of Interdisciplinary Contact.  Second Brazil-US Colloquium on Communication Studies, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 2005.

Panel organizer:  What is media anthropology for?  International Communication Association, New York City, May 2005.

Ethnography in symbolic places.  Position paper for panel discussion:  What is media anthropology for?  International Communication Association, New York City, May 2005.

Ritual, Myth, and Power:  Debating the central concepts of media anthropology.  Panel organizer and chair.  International Communication Association, New Orleans, May 2004.

Distinguishing ritual and power in communication analysis.  International Communication Association, New Orleans, May 2004.

The future of mass communication scholarship.  Panel discussion, National Communication Association, Miami, November 2003.

Burnishing the brand:  Todd Storz and the total station sound.  (Tom McCourt & Eric Rothenbuhler.)  The Radio Conference:  A Transnational Forum.  Madison, WI, July 28-31, 2003.

Community and collegiality:  Enacting the possible.  Opening address, New York State Communication Association Convention, Tarrytown, New York, October 25, 2002.

The symbolics of touch on 9/11 and after.  Keynote address, Making sense of September 11:  News media and old metaphors.  E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, September 20-21, 2002.

Media anthropology and international civic life.  School of Interpersonal Communication, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, September 20, 2002.

The church of the cult of the individual.  Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, May 15, 2001.

 

Professional Service (selected, recent)

Editor, Review and Criticism section, Journal of Communication, 1997-99.

Editorial Board, Journal of Communication, 1991‑2002, 2005-present; Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1990-92, 1999-present; The Radio Journal, 2003-present; Communication Studies, 1991‑98; Communication Education, 1994‑96.

Ad hoc book manuscript reviewer or consultant:  Allyn & Bacon (1998), Guilford Publications (1994, 2), Houghton Mifflin (1994), Lawrence Erlbaum (2004; 2001, 2; 1999), McGraw-Hill (1997; 1994), Peter Lang (2006), Oxford University Press (2007,1997), Rutgers University Press (2008, 2006); Sage Publications (2005; 1997; 1990), State University of New York Press (2005); University of Illinois Press (1998), Wesleyan University Press (2006; 2005).

Ad hoc reviewer (no dates available):  Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies; Communication Monographs; Communication Research; Communication Theory; Communication Yearbook; Critical Studies in Mass Communication; Cultural Analysis;  The Electronic Journal of Communication; Human Communication Research; Human Relations; Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media; Journal of Communication; Journal of Communication Inquiry; The Journal of International Communication; The Journal of Media Economics; Journal of Radio Studies; Journalism & Communication Monographs; Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; Mass Communication and Society; New Media & Society; Popular Music and Society; Sociological Theory; Western Journal of Communication.

 

<< Back to the complete faculty listing

<< Back to Department of Communication home page