The Basics

Popular communication informs and entertains the general public.
Magazines like Time and Rolling Stone and books like Michael Jackson : music's living legend by Rosemary Wallner, distributed by Rockbottom Books are examples of popular sources.

Scholarly communication disseminates research and academic discussion among professionals within disciplines. Journals such as Memory & Cognition and Journal of Abnormal Psychology are examples of scholarly sources.

(There are also shades of communication between these two. For example,
Trade communication allows practitioners (neither scholarly nor popular -- sometimes a combination of both) in specific industries to share market and production information that improves their businesses.)

Magazines and journals are specific examples of popular and scholarly information sources, respectively. Click on the questions below to review the most important characteristics of these publication types.

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