WTheodor W. Adorno was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society.
WHesamoddin Ashna is an Iranian politician and advisor to President Hassan Rouhani. He is also the head of Center for Strategic Studies. Ashna is described to be in Rouhani's inner circle and associated with the Moderation and Development Party.
WRoland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of many schools of theory, including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology and post-structuralism. He was particularly known for developing and extending the field of semiotics through the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular culture.
WWalter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mysticism, Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School, and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem. He was also related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin Günther Anders.
WArthur Asa Berger is Professor Emeritus in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University.
WAndrew C. Billings is a professor and the Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at The University of Alabama. He is the current director of the sports communication program. His research primarily focuses on the study of Sport Communication. Billings received his PhD in Communication & Culture from Indiana University in 1999. He was the founding chair of both the Communication and Sport Division of the National Communication Association and the Sport Communication Interest Group of the International Communication Association. He has also chaired the Research Symposium for Broadcast Education Association and the Visiting Chair of Olympism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
WKenneth Duva Burke was an American literary theorist, as well as poet, essayist, and novelist, who wrote on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Burke was best known for his analyses based on the nature of knowledge. Furthermore, he was one of the first individuals to stray away from more traditional rhetoric and view literature as "symbolic action."
WAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.
WCees Jan Hamelink is a Dutch academic known for his work on communication, culture, and technology. He is emeritus professor of international communications and emeritus professor of media at the University of Amsterdam; professor in management information and knowledge at the University of Aruba; and professor of media, religion and culture at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
WMax Horkheimer was a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research. Horkheimer addressed authoritarianism, militarism, economic disruption, environmental crisis, and the poverty of mass culture using the philosophy of history as a framework. This became the foundation of critical theory. His most important works include Eclipse of Reason (1947), Between Philosophy and Social Science (1930–1938) and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). Through the Frankfurt School, Horkheimer planned, supported and made other significant works possible.
WMark L. Knapp is the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Professor Emeritus and a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin. He is internationally known for his research and writing on nonverbal communication and communication in developing relationships. He has also done research and published books on lying and deception. The Mark L. Knapp Award for career contributions to the study of interpersonal communication is awarded annually by the National Communication Association. The Mark L. Knapp Professorship, Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, was established in 2017.
WPaul Martin Lester is a Clinical Professor at the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (ATEC) and a Professor Emeritus from California State University, Fullerton.
WNiklas Luhmann was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory, who is considered one of the most important social theorists of the 20th century.
WHerbert Marcuse was a German-American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and then at Freiburg, where he received his PhD. He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based Institute for Social Research – what later became known as the Frankfurt School. He was married to Sophie Wertheim (1924–1951), Inge Neumann (1955–1973), and Erica Sherover (1976–1979). In his written works, he criticized capitalism, modern technology, Soviet Communism and entertainment culture, arguing that they represent new forms of social control.
WAlice E. Marwick is a communication scholar, academic, and author, who currently works as an Associate Professor in the Communication department and Principal Researcher at the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an affiliated researcher with the Data and Society Research Institute. Marwick has written for publications such as the New York Times, and the Guardian. Her works include the examination of politics, race, social media and gender. She has been a keynote speaker for various universities throughout the United States.
WEric McLuhan was a communications theorist and media ecologist, son of Marshall McLuhan.
WGeorge Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of symbolic interactionism and of what has come to be referred to as the Chicago sociological tradition.
WSylvie Merzeau was a French academic, university professor at the Paris Nanterre University and a photographer.
WMatthew C. Nisbet is professor of Communications and Public Policy at Northeastern University. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Communication and Senior Editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication. His columns regularly appear in science periodicals.
WCharles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism".
WIvor Armstrong Richards, known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, and rhetorician. His work contributed to the foundations of the New Criticism, a formalist movement in literary theory which emphasized the close reading of a literary text, especially poetry, in an effort to discover how a work of literature functions as a self-contained and self-referential æsthetic object.
WDouglas Mark Rushkoff is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems.
WMelissa Satta is an Italian television presenter. She was a showgirl in the Italian satirical series Striscia la notizia. Satta has appeared in Maxim magazine and was featured in the 2010 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Satta lives and works in Italy.
WDeborah Frances Tannen is an American author and professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Best known as the author of You Just Don't Understand, she has been a McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences following a term in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.