William Leiss

A revision of the author's thesis, University of California, San Diego. Bibliography: p. 223-231.

Domination of Nature

Stephen Kline

Jackie Botterill

Sut Jhally

Now available in a significantly updated third edition to address new issues such as the Internet and globalization, Social Communication in Advertising remains the most comprehensive historical study of advertising and its function within contemporary society. It traces advertising's influence within three key social domains: the new commodities industry, popular culture, and the mass media that manages the constellation of images that unifies all three. The third edition includes: * discussion of new technologies and issues, from the Internet to globalization * updated and expanded examples and illustrations * revisions throughout to address recent developments in advertising scholarship and the latest trends in advertising practice

Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace

Social Communication in Advertising

Kyle Asquith

Newly updated for the digital era, this classic textbook provides a comprehensive historical study of advertising and its function within contemporary society by tracing advertising's influence throughout different media and cultural periods, from early magazines through to social media. With several new chapters on the rise of the Internet, mobile, and social media, this fourth edition offers new insights into the role of Google, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube as both media and advertising companies, as well as examining the role of brand culture in the 21st century.

Douglas Alan Powell

The text outlines the crucial role of risk management in dealing with public controversies and analyses risk communication practice and malpractice to provide a set of lessons for risk managers and communicators. This second edition adds new case studies on mad cow disease in North America, climate change, and genetics technologies. All of the case studies emphasize the need for effective communication about risks to allow effective dialogue by informed publics on health and environmental risks.

The Perils of Poor Risk Communication

Mad Cows and Mother's Milk, Second Edition

Communicating the nature and consequences of environmental and health risks is still one of the most problematic areas of public policy in Western democracies. "Mad Cows and Mother's Milk" outlines the crucial role of risk management in dealing with public controversies and analyses risk communication practice and malpractice to provide a set of lessons for risk managers and communicators. This second edition adds new case studies on mad cow disease in North America, climate change, and genetics technologies. The first of the new case studies brings the story of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in the United Kingdom in the 1980s up-to-date. Mad cow disease is still being discovered in UK herds and cases of mad cow disease have been found in twenty countries across the European continent and as far away as Japan with devastating consequences for the food industry. BSE has now been discovered on the North American continent in two cows born in Canada. The original cause of these two new cases is almost certainly importation of infected cattle, cattle feed, or both from Britain. Canadian government regulators and those in the cattle industry have failed to correctly assess the risks of the disease in the Canadian herd, take the precautionary measures needed to prevent the spread of disease, and communicate risks and precautionary measures to the public. The second new study deals with global warming. Not only is every aspect of this risk debate both contentious and difficult for the public to understand but the potential consequences of the risks extend all the way to global catastrophe for human civilization. A new chapter outlines the many dimensions of risk debate in the context of the need for effective and sustained dialogue by an informed public. The last new case study provides an introduction to genomic science, which is placed in the context of both the health benefits expected from genetic manipulation and some of the risk factors associated with it. One example is gene therapy, which can be used to eliminate inherited genetic diseases (i.e. cystic fibrosis), enhance human traits (i.e. athletic performance), and perhaps double life-spans. Gene technologies are relevant to some of the most fundamental human values. This new chapter suggests that we must think about the range of new risks introduced by these technologies as well as the potential benefits - and that we should do this collective thinking soon, since, given the furious pace of genomics discoveries, the possibilities will be with us sooner than we imagine. All of the case studies emphasize the need for effective communication about risks to allow effective dialogue by informed publics on health and environmental risks.

The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.

Mad Cows and Mother's Milk

An evaluation of the role of risk communication in dealing with public controversies - this text presents a number of case studies of risk including the "mad cow crises" in 1996 and what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E.coli bacterium.

Leiss shows that both risk management and risk communication, when properly constructed, require an elaborate process because the very things that can cause harm are in most cases the same things that bring us great benefits, such as paper mills, electricity from nuclear power generating stations, or wireless telecommunications.

Understanding Risk Controversies

In the Chamber of Risks

Annotation Crawford Brough Macpherson, an extremely influential writer and teacher and Canada's pre-eminent political theorist, won an international reputation for his controversial interpretation of liberalism. In the first book to examine the entire range of Macpherson's writings, William Leiss seeks to place that interpretation of liberalism within the overall framework of Macpherson's intellectual development. Focusing on two key themes - property and the state - Leiss tracks Macpherson's analysis of the contradictions of liberal-democracy through all of his writings, beginning with his 1935 M.A. thesis supervised by Harold Laski at LSE. His concluding chapter critically examines the core of Macpherson's political philosophy - the distinction between extractive and developmental powers - against the background of social change in the democracies of the West in the period since the end of the Second World War. A new preface by the author reviews books and articles on Macpherson published in the period since this book first appeared in 1988.

Dilemmas of Liberalism and Socialism

C. B. Macpherson

In In the Chamber of Risks William Leiss demonstrates that case studies of risk controversies show that those instincts are unreliable guides to effective risk management and that in all cases the opposite position is a far better guide. As risk management is inherently disputable, public perceptions of risk should be seen as legitimate and treated as such and the public should always be involved in discussions about risk evaluations made by scientists and risk managers. ; Leiss chronicles the erratic course of risk management and communication in environmental management in Canada, discussing the notable controversies that have arisen over pesticides and breast cancer, vinyl toys, genetically engineered food crops, cellular telephones, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, among many others. He focuses on risk management – how we make decisions about and assess hazards in the environment – and on risk communication – social dialogue that deals with both our intuitive feelings of concern about substances or activities that might hurt our health or the environment, and the scientific and probabilistic description of them. ; Leiss shows that both risk management and risk communication, when properly constructed, require an elaborate process because the very things that can cause harm are in most cases the same things that bring us great benefits, such as paper mills, electricity from nuclear power generating stations, or wireless telecommunications. ;

Now available in a significantly updated second edition featuring two new chapters, Social Communication in Advertising remains the most comprehensive historical study of advertising and its function within contemporary society. It traces advertising's influence within three key social domains: the new commodities industry; popular culture; and the mass media which manages the constellation of images that unifies all three.

Persons, Products & Images of Well-being

At a time when the supply of resources is a problem, William Leiss analyses demand and consumption. Why do we need so much? Does the ability to choose from such a wide range of commodities give us more satisfaction? Why do we accept being pushed into buying products about which we know little because they promise to give us a particular characteristic - freshness, happiness, sex appeal?

William Leiss

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