Communication, Social Organization and the Redefinition of Death A Case Study in the Institutionalization of an Idea

One of the problems of most interest to students of communication is the analysis and conceptualization of the social processes by which our common notions of what exists, what is important and what is legitimate are shaped. These notions are social and cultural meanings -- values, norms, practices -- the stuff of social and cultural reality, and they are sometimes most manifest and perceptible when they are changing.