Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach (born 1941) is an American sociologist and communications scholar. She is professor emerita at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and the department of sociology at the University of Southern California (USC). Ball-Rokeach is best known for developing media system dependency theory with

Melvin Defleur Melvin Lawrence DeFleur (April 27, 1923 – February 13, 2017) was a professor and scholar in the field of communications. His initial field of study was social sciences. Biography Melvin Lawrence DeFleur was born in Portland, Oregon on April 27, ...

Life

Sandra Jean Ball was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1941. She gained a BA in sociology from the University of Washington in 1963, and her PhD in sociology there in 1968. In 1967 Ball became an assistant professor at the University of Alberta. In 1968-69 she was co-director of a National Mass Media and Violence Task Force. In 1969 she married the social psychologist

Milton Rokeach Milton Rokeach (born in Hrubieszów as Mendel Rokicz, December 27, 1918 – October 25, 1988) was a Polish-American social psychologist. He taught at Michigan State University, the University of Western Ontario, Washington State University, and t ...

. In 1970 Ball-Rokeach moved to

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, and in 1972 to Washington State University (WSU). She started the first gender studies program at WSU. In 1986 she moved to the University of Southern California, where she stayed until retirement. She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA), and has served as Chair of the ICA. She is on the editorial board of several

communication studies Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differen ...

journals, including the ''

Journal of Communication The ''Journal of Communication'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles and book reviews on a broad range of issues in communication theory and research. It was established in 1951 and the current editor-in-chief is ...

'', ''

Communication Studies Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differen ...

'' and '' International Journal of Communication''.

Works

Books

* (with Robert K. Baker) ''Mass media and violence; a report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence''. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969. * (with

& Joel W. Grube) ''The Great American Values Test: Influencing Belief and Behavior through Television''. Free Press, 1984. * (ed. with Muriel Cantor) ''Media, Audience and Social Structure''. SAGE, 1986. * (with Melvin Defleur) ''Theories of Mass Communication''. Pearson, 1989. * (ed.) ''Paradoxes of Youth and Sport''. SUNY, 2002. * (ed. with

Marita Sturken Marita Sturken (born 1957) is an American scholar, author, professor, and critic. Life and work Marita Sturken is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University's Steinhardt School of Cul ...

and

Douglas Thomas Douglas Thomas (born 1966) is an American scholar, researcher, and journalist. He is Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where he studies technology, communication, and culture. ...

) ''Technological Visions: The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies''. Temple University Press, 2004. * (with Matthew D. Matsaganis and Vikki S. Katz) ''Understanding Ethnic Media: Producers, Consumers, and Societies''. SAGE, 2010.

Selected articles

* (with Melvin Defleur) 'A Dependency Model of Mass-Media Effects'. ''Communication Research'', 3 (1), 3. 1976. doi: 10.1177/009365027600300101 * (with Gerald J. Power, K. Kendall Guthrie and H. Ross Waring) 'Value-framing abortion in the United States: an application of media system dependency theory. ''

International Journal of Public Opinion Research The ''International Journal of Public Opinion Research'' (''IJPOR'') is a quarterly social science journal sponsored by the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) and published by Oxford University Press. Since 1994, WAPOR bestows ...

, 3'', 249-273. 1990. * 'A theory of media power and a theory of media use: Different stories, questions, and ways of thinking'. ''Mass Communication & Society'', 1(1), 5-40. 1998. * 'Media System Dependency Theory'. In Wolfgang Donsbach, ed., ''The Blackwell International Encyclopedia of Communication''. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rokeach-Ball, Sandra 1941 births Living people American sociologists American mass media scholars Washington State University faculty University of Southern California faculty