Identity and Communication

Dominic Lasorsa is an associate professor in the School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses in social science theory, writing, and reporting. He co-authored How to Build Social Science Theories (Sage, 2004) and the three-volume National Television Violence Study (Sage, 1997-8). He has published in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Journal of Media Economics, Journalism Practice, Journalism Studies, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, and other research journals. He has written entries for the Encyclopedia of International Media & Communications, Encyclopedia of Political Communication, International Encyclopedia of Communication, and Historical Dictionary of Political Communication. He served as book review editor of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from St. Bonaventure University, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas, and a doctoral degree in communication from Stanford University. Before entering academe, he worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in New York, Kansas and Texas.

América Rodriguez, formerly a correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), is an associate professor of Communication in the Departments of Radio-TV-Film and Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. She has published articles on the history and marketing of the US Hispanic audience and on US Latino journalism in Critical Studies of Mass Communication, Communication Review, Aztlan: a Journal of Chicano Studies, and other scholarly journals, as well as mass communication anthologies. She received a B.A. in English and Spanish Literature from Swarthmore College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California at San Diego.