Psychologie sociale des médias.

Reviews the book, Psychologie sociale des medias edited by Pascal Marchand (2004). This work consists of two parts, each one having distinct characteristics. The first part presents a summary of traditional and recent research in psychology, which is devoted to various questions concerning the influence of the media. Specifically it covers effects of the television and the representations of violence and sexuality. This part will be of most interest to those concerned with social psychology or of psychology of the media. The second part has as a discussion thread a socio-cognitive orientation and comprises seven chapters which treat more precise questions relating to the psychological aspects of the media and their influence. The various chapters present either mainly theoretical contents, focusing on speech and rhetoric, but in some chapters there is a combination of theoretical discussions and empirical data. The second part is specialized, but also, more "European" in regards to its content. The two parts of the work are distinct. While the first part relates to mainly the effects of the entertainment and the accounts, the second part relates almost exclusively to the media of information, journalism and the great stakes related on the communication and persuasion in the political life and publicity. Although the two parts of the work are different in structure and their content, they adopt both a socio-cognitive prospect essential for theory and research in psychology for the media. Overall, this work is an interesting addition to the fields of social psychology and social cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)