This guide is for Dr. Wolburg's COMM 2500 course in fall 2021.  Use it to work on the literature review addressing one of the five questions below:

1. What is the role of the media in shaping audience members’ understanding of a particular issue? Choose a single issue, such as the effects of global warming, the impact of current immigration practices, race relations, effects of the pandemic on social life, etc. Note: The role of the media is not limited to news sources—you can consider the role of movies, TV dramas, etc.
2. What strategies are performing arts organizations using to stay afloat now that life is approaching some level of normality after the pandemic? Or -- how do performing arts organizations compete with other entertainment sources such as movies, sports, etc.?
3. How has technology changed the way professionals in communication do their work? Focus on recent changes, such as in the last 5 years or so. Choose any one profession such as advertising or journalism rather than trying to cover changes across all professions in communication. Also try to focus on one aspect of technology, such as changes in smartphone usage, growth of video-on-demand services, artificial intelligence, or use of social media rather than addressing all forms of technology.
4. What are the challenges of managing a crisis situation for an organization? You can approach this broadly across multiples crises or narrow it to a single crisis and cover multiple players.
5. What are some ethical dilemmas that communication professionals face in their everyday work? Again, you can limit this to one area of communication.

Start with one of these online collections of reference books.  each contains multiple reference books covering diverse topics.

Here are sample encyclopedia articles which may be relevant to the topics assigned.