Making Connections

The Fourth Edition has been updated, expanded, and reorganized to reflect the changing field of relational communication. New essays address emerging topics such as anti-comforting messages, friendship in urban tribes, and discourse-dependent families. The new edition also contains a new section on the dark side of communication with articles on topics such as lying and irresolvable conflicts. Three out of four of the essays in the technology section are new, reflecting current thinking in Internet-based interpersonal relationships, communication norms in an online support group, and how student use of technology challenges existent communication theories. A complete subject index has been added. The book also features a new accompanying Instructor's Manual. between basic communication competencies and relationships; feature a developmental approach in terms of initiating, sustaining, and ending relationships; and, reflect direct applications of relational issues within contexts of family, friendship, and technology; explore issues relating to computer-mediated communication and new technologies in everyday life. The editors Galvin and Cooper maintain a similar framework as featured in previous editions, using gender, family, and culture as lenses through which to view and make sense of relational communication.