Media studies Books

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn his 1932 classic dystopian novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley depicted a future society in thrall to science and regulated by sophisticated methods of social control.Trade Review"A brilliant tour de force, Brave New World may be read as a grave warning of the pitfalls that await uncontrolled scientific advance. Full of barbed wit and malice-spiked frankness. Provoking, stimulating, shocking and dazzling" Observer "Such ingenious wit, derisive logic and swiftness of expression, Huxley's resources of sardonic invention have never been more brilliantly displayed" The Times "A fantastical look at the world in the future which made me look differently at the present" -- Katie Melua Observer "Lucid and well-reasoned...one is captivated by Huxley's knowledge and his even more extraordinary intelligence" Sunday Times

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Stand by for fireworks as it hits the shelves'' SUNDAY TIMES''If Orwell were with us today, he''d be writing books like this'' PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE''Breath-taking and jaw-dropping'' PETER FRANKOPAN''A true-life thriller'' ANNE APPLEBAUMFrom the bestselling author of Kleptopia comes a true story about Cuckooland a world where the rich can buy everything including the truth.Everywhere, the powerful are making a renewed claim to the greatest prize of all: to own the truth. The power to choose what you want reality to be and impose that reality on the world.For three years, Tom Burgis followed a lead that took him deeper and deeper into Cuckooland the place where the rich own the truth. The trail snaked from the Kremlin to Kathmandu, Stockholm to the Steppe, from a blood-soaked town square in Uzbekistan to a royal retreat in Scotland. Burgis hunted down oligarchs, developed secret sources and traced vast sums of money flowing between multinational corporations, ex-Soviet dictators and

Read more less

Book Synopsis***PRE-ORDER THE SPECIAL COLLECTOR''S EDITION OF PRECIPICE, THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM ROBERT HARRIS, NOW. PUBLISHING AUGUST 2024, AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE STOCK LASTS AND EXCLUSIVE TO THE FIRST PRINT RUN***''Impossible to stop reading'' OBSERVER''Thrilling, intricate and hilarious'' DAILY MAILAPRIL 1945: From the ruins of Berlin, a Luftwaffe transport plane takes off carrying secret papers belonging to Adolf Hitler. Half an hour later, it crashes in flames.APRIL 1983: In a bank vault in Switzerland, a German magazine offers to sell more than 50 volumes of Hitler''s secret diaries. The asking price is $4 million.40 years from the alleged discovery, Robert Harris chronicles the gripping tale of one of the biggest frauds in history.''Brilliantly chronicled'' NEW STATESMAN''A masterly account'' LITERARY REVIEWTrade ReviewA stunning and compelling story of human folly, duplicity and wishful thinking. Brilliantly researched and narrated, Selling Hitler is as fascinating and as telling today as it was forty years ago -- William Boyd

Read more less

Book SynopsisTubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet by Andrew Blum is...''Utterly engrossing. The year''s most original and stimulating ''travel'' book. Even the most geek-wary of readers will enjoy'' Independent''Entertaining and illuminating. Excels at rooting the Internet in real-world locations. Full of memorable images that make its complex architecture easier to comprehend'' ObserverThe Internet. Home to the most important and intimate aspects of our lives. Our careers, our relationships, our selves, all of them are out there - online. So ... where is that exactly? And who''s in charge again? And what if it breaks?In Tubes Andrew Blum takes us on a gripping backstage tour of the real but hidden world of the Internet, introducing us to the remarkable clan of insiders and eccentrics who own, design and run it everyday. He uncovers the secret data warehouses where our online selves are stored, peels back the wires that tranTrade ReviewUtterly engrossing. The year's most original and stimulating 'travel' book. Even the most geek-wary of readers will enjoy * Independent, Book of the Week *Entertaining and illuminating. Excels at rooting the Internet in real-world locations. Full of memorable images that make its complex architecture easier to comprehend * Observer *An engaging reminder that, cyber-Utopianism aside, the Internet is as much a thing of flesh and steel as any industrial-age lumber mill or factory ... An excellent introduction to the nuts and bolts of how exactly it all works and a timely antidote to oft-repeated abstractions about "cyberspace" or "cloud computing" * Economist *Makes hard-to-grasp concepts easy to understand, even obvious. The history, in particular, is one of the best and most memorable I have ever read * New Scientist *A Quixotic and winning book with a knack for bundling packets of data into memorable observations. This valuable book leaves you with its share of unsettling visions, but there are comic ones too * The New York Times *For a full understanding of the Internet on every level, this book is a must-read * Techzone *A great, playful, wondrous read * ArsTechnica *Blum is perhaps the millennial generation's John McPhee, chronicling an arcane journey of deep relevance to everyday life. For non-techies, the book is a very accessible revelation * Forbes *All too awesome to behold. Andrew Blum's fascinating book demystifies the earthly geography of this most ethereal terra incognita -- Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with EinsteinA brilliantly smart idea executed with investigative skill and flair. Readers will never send an email so carelessly again. * Independent Books of the Year *Compelling and profound. You will never open an e-mail in quite the same way again -- Tom Vanderbilt, author of the New York Times bestseller TrafficOne of our best writers. A compelling story of an altogether new realm where the virtual world meets the physical -- Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker criticThe Internet really IS a series of tubes! Who knew? * David Pogue, Technology Editor of The New York Times *At once funny, prosaic, sinister and wise, Blum's tale is a beautifully written account of the true human cost of all our remote connectivity -- Bella Bathurst, author of The Lighthouse StevensonsWith infectious wonder, Andrew Blum introduces us to the Internet's geeky wizards and takes us on an amiably guided tour of the world they've created ... the Internet that Blum's beautifully lucid prose makes real turns out to be if anything a more marvelous place than the cloudy dreamland we'd imagined -- Donovan Hohn, author of Moby DuckAn illuminating journey of discovery * Sunday Express *Total immersive reading * The Wharf *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA behind-the-scenes look at the struggles between visual journalists and officials over what the public sees--and therefore much of what the public knows--of the criminal justice system. In the contexts of crime, social justice, and the law, nothing in visual media is as it seems. In today''s mediated social world, visual communication has shifted to a democratic sphere that has significantly changed the way we understand and use images as evidence. In Seeing Justice, Mary Angela Bock examines the way criminal justice in the US is presented in visual media by focusing on the grounded practices of visual journalists in relationship with law enforcement. Drawing upon extended interviews, participant observation, contemporary court cases, and critical discourse analysis, Bock provides a detailed examination of the way digitization is altering the relationships between media, consumers, and the criminal justice system. From tabloid coverage of the last public hanging in the US to Karen-shaming videos, from mug shots to perp walks, she focuses on the practical struggles between journalists, police, and court officials to control the way images influence their resulting narratives. Revealing the way powerful interests shape what the public sees, Seeing Justice offers a model for understanding how images are used in news narrative.Trade ReviewImpressive in scope. Thoughtful in approach. Critical in significance. Bock gives us a treasure that expertly illuminates how visual media have historically been used to depict (in)justice and, importantly, provides a roadmap to guide their ethical use into the future. * T.J. Thomson, Queensland University of Technology and author of To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions, and Identities Behind News Images *Through her insight and wisdom gathered through years of work as a professional and a scholar, Mary Angela Bock has produced a much needed book about the role of all stakeholders—'law enforcement, citizens, and journalists'—in shaping visual narratives about the criminal justice system and the people who are voluntarily or involuntarily part of it. This timely book covers a full range of issues, from 'embodied gatekeeping' through misrepresentation and re-contextualization in media. Far too often, the result of these imaging and viewing practices is seeing unjustly. * Julianne H. Newton, Professor of Visual Communication, University of Oregon *Bock provides a sophisticated account of how the press, the state, and its citizens use and produce visual narratives of justice. Moving between theory and practice with eloquence and ease, she makes a compelling case for why mediated citizenship depends on the recognition of visibility and voice. * Sandra Ristovska, University of Colorado Boulder and author of Seeing Human Rights: Video Activism as a Proxy Profession *A remarkable achievement! Informative, insightful and engaging. Seeing Justice is a compelling book that will engage and delight the reader. It exposes the way images about justice are created, contextualized and distributed, and how different social actors struggle for control of those processes. Bock's wry wit is a welcome bonus, too often missing in books of this character." * Shahira S. Fahmy, Professor, School of Journalism, University of Arizona, USA and Visiting Professor, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, The American University in Cairo, Egypt *Table of ContentsPreface Chapter One: Playing with Fire Chapter Two: Images of Discipline Chapter Three: Walks of Shame Chapter Four: Spectacular Trials Chapter Five: What Picture Would They Use? Chapter Six: What's So Special About Video? Chapter Seven: Filming Police Chapter Eight: Police and Image Maintenance Chapter Nine: Everyday Racism and Rudeness Chapter Ten: Playing (Safely) With Fire Appendix Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisDocumentary film can encompass anything from Robert Flaherty''s pioneering ethnography Nanook of the North to Michael Moore''s anti-Iraq War polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, from Dziga Vertov''s artful Soviet propaganda piece Man with a Movie Camera to Luc Jacquet''s heart-tugging wildlife epic March of the Penguins. In this concise, crisply written guide, Patricia Aufderheide takes readers along the diverse paths of documentary history and charts the lively, often fierce debates among filmmakers and scholars about the best ways to represent reality and to tell the truths worth telling. Beginning with an overview of the central issues of documentary filmmaking--its definitions and purposes, its forms and founders--Aufderheide focuses on several of its key subgenres, including public affairs films, government propaganda (particularly the works produced during World War II), historical documentaries, and nature films. Her thematic approach allows readers to enter the subject matter through the kinds of films that first attracted them to documentaries, and it permits her to make connections between eras, as well as revealing the ongoing nature of documentary''s core controversies involving objectivity, advocacy, and bias. Interwoven throughout are discussions of the ethical and practical considerations that arise with every aspect of documentary production. A particularly useful feature of the book is an appended list of 100 great documentaries that anyone with a serious interest in the genre should see. Drawing on the author''s four decades of experience as a film scholar and critic, this book is the perfect introduction not just for teachers and students but also for all thoughtful filmgoers and for those who aspire to make documentaries themselves. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewAlways clear and concise... a welcome addition to the Very Short Introductions series. * The Observer *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis authoritative and up-to-date A-Z covers all aspects of interpersonal, mass, and networked communication in over 3,500 entries, including digital and mobile media, advertising, journalism, social media, and nonverbal communication.Trade Review“Only connect” is the guiding principle of this remarkable work-not only a dictionary of communication and media but also a liberal education that enables users to see interesting relationships between many of the concepts it discusses. Written in an accessible style, authoritative and up-to-date, this new edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Media and Communication is a path breaking work and an essential reference tool. * Arthur Asa Berger *Table of ContentsA-Z Text Biographical Notes

Read more less

Book SynopsisJournalism entered the twenty-first century caught in a paradox. The world had more journalism, across a wider range of media, than at any time since the birth of the western free press in the eighteenth century. Western journalists had found themselves under a cloud of suspicion: from politicians, philosophers, the general public, anti-globalization radicals, religious groups, and even from fellow journalists. Critics argued that the news industry had lost its moral bearings, focusing on high investment returns rather than reporting and analysing the political, economic, and social issues of the day.Journalism has a central and profound impact on our worldview; we find it everywhere from newspapers and television, to radio and the Internet. In the new edition of this thought-provoking and provocative Very Short Introduction, Ian Hargreaves examines the world of contemporary journalism. By looking not only at what journalism has been in the past, but also what it is becoming in the digital age, he examines the big issues relating to reportage, warfare, celebrity culture, privacy, and technology worldwide.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Hargreaves has written a timely and disturbing account of journalism in peril. * Martin Bell, The Times *Ian Hargreaves is a distinguished journalist and academic with a fine track record of editorial integrity and incisive thought. * Chris Cramer, Director of News, CNN *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The power paradox ; 1. Born free: a brief history of news media ; 2. Big brother: journalism and the altered state ; 3. The first casualty: journalists at war ; 4. Star-struck: journalism as entertainment ; 5. Up to a point, Lord Copper's: who owns journalists? ; 6. Hacks v. flacks: journalism and public relations ; 7. Murder is my meat: the ethics of journalism ; 8. Digital: after the deluge ; Further reading ; Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisImagine a world where all the news you see is defined by your salary, where you live, and who your friends are. Imagine a world where you never discover new ideas. And where you can''t have secrets.Welcome to 2011.Google and Facebook are already feeding you what they think you want to see. Advertisers are following your every click. Your computer monitor is becoming a one-way mirror, reflecting your interests and reinforcing your prejudices.The internet is no longer a free, independent space. It is commercially controlled and ever more personalised. The Filter Bubble reveals how this hidden web is starting to control our lives - and shows what we can do about it.Trade ReviewAn illuminating flash-forward of what might be -- Colin Fraser * Scotland on Sunday *Highlights an important and easily overlooked aspect of the internet's evolution that affects everyone who uses it * The Economist *Pariser is an excellent debunker of internet clichés... [he] comes as close as anyone has to explaining the misgivings that a lot of internet users feel -- Christopher Caldwell * The Financial Times *A book designed to agitate us into awareness, because this may be the only way we can first discover and then burst the bubble... a polemic and warning -- Brian Appleyard * The Sunday Times *Explains how insidious customization of the web is limiting our access to information, and narrowing rather than expanding our horizons * Observer *Well-written, thoroughly researched and informative . . . the possibilities become truly amazing - or, if you prefer, scary * Scotsman *Astonishing * Andrew Marr *Explosive * Chris Anderson *

Read more less

Book SynopsisOur gadgets are getting smarter. Technology can log what we buy, customize what we consume and enable us to save and share every aspect of our existence. In the future, we''re told, it will even make public life - from how we''re governed to how we record crime - better. But can the digital age fix everything? Should it? By quantifying our behaviour, Evgeny Morozov argues, we are profoundly reshaping society - and risk losing the opacity and imperfection that make us human.Trade ReviewIf you've ever had the niggling feeling, as you spoon down your google, that there's no such thing as a free lunch, Morozov's book will tell you how you might end up paying for it -- Brian EnoA clear voice of reason and critical thinking in the middle of today's neomania -- Nassim Taleb, author of 'The Black Swan'

Read more less

Book SynopsisTerms and phrases such as the global village and the medium is the message are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan''s theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.This reissue of Understanding Media marks the thirtieth anniversary (1964-1994) of Marshall McLuhan''s classic expose on the state of the then emerging phenomenon of mass media. Terms and phrases such as the global village and the medium is the message are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan''s theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan''s work in the last few years, fueled by the recent and continuing conjunctions between the cable companies and the regional phone companies, the appearance of magazines such as WiRed, and the development of new media models and information ecologies, many of which were spawned from MIT''s Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a new introduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper''s editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan''s work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn in-depth exploration of social media and emergent technology that details the inner workings of modern propagandaTrade Review“A century ago, Walter Lippmann recognized that ‘manufacture of consent’ is a new art in the practice of democracy. By now an outgrowth, ‘manufacturing consensus’ has become a science, a way to ‘leverage computational propaganda to spin information flows over social media.’ We are introduced here to a dazzling array of systems of manufacturing consensus in the digital communication age, with an astonishing variety of actors—and ominous implications.”—Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology“This timely, well-written, and impactful book reintroduces the term propaganda to readers in a relatable and contemporary way. It is exceptionally modern in its approach, and places the term propaganda at center stage of any conversation on politics, democracy, and technology.”—Zizi Papacharissi, University of Illinois Chicago“I always turn to Samuel Woolley’s work in order to understand computational propaganda. This lucid, eye-opening book illuminates the many (sometimes sinister) ways that bot-based influence campaigns operate in the digital world.”—Meredith Broussard, author of More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech“This book is for anyone wanting to understand the complex landscape of online propaganda, including the role of states, algorithmic tools, and social media companies.”—Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI“A thoughtful and often humorous primer on computational propaganda, drawing from cases that crisscross continents. If you want to learn about the intersection of politics and the internet, start here.”—Emerson Brooking, coauthor of Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis thoroughly revised and updated third edition provides a comprehensive introduction to the various approaches to the field, explaining why media messages matter, how media businesses prosper and why media is integral to defining contemporary life.The text is divided into three parts â Media texts and meanings; Producing media; and Media and social contexts â exploring the ways in which various media forms make meaning; are produced and regulated; and how society, culture and history are defined by such forms. Encouraging students to actively engage in media research and analysis, each chapter seeks to guide readers through key questions and ideas in order to empower them to develop their own scholarship, expertise and investigations of the media worlds in which we live. Fully updated to reflect the contemporary media environment, the third edition includes new case studies covering topics such as Brexit, podcasts, Love Island, Captain Marvel, Black Lives MatTrade ReviewIn our deeply mediatised societies, Media Studies has never been more vital or more complex. The authors provide us with an updated, detailed, and decolonised, road-map to lead us through the fast-paced terrain of media change whilst also giving us the tools to respond with finely tuned critical analyses. Read this text to really get a grip of Media Studies as an evolving and exciting field of inquiry and practice.Helen Wood, Lancaster University, UKThis is a great textbook. The breadth and range of chapters is incredibly impressive, proceeding accessibly and logically through the debates, with helpful and interesting contextual and biographical information about the key thinkers which bring their lives into relief for students. The book continues to serve as an extremely valuable teaching resource.Lisa Taylor, Leeds Beckett University, UKThis new, expanded, and enhanced edition of Media Studies is designed to give its readers the conceptual tools and encouragement to create their own vibrant practice of media analysis. Through its focus on the complex ways in which media makes meaning, its detailed attention to theoretical approaches to media studies, and its exploration of a wonderfully wide range of themes and topics, it is a volume from which instructors will learn as much as their students. Highly recommended. Imre Szeman, University of Waterloo, CanadaMedia Studies is a comprehensive and up-to-date textbook on media studies for Anglophone readers. With intriguing examples and cases as well as clear explanations of key terms and theories, the authors expertly guide readers through getting involved in media text, production, consumption, and media in context. The best virtue of this book is how it makes the study of media ‘come alive’ by encouraging readers to try out research strategies for themselves, e.g., thinking aloud, posing questions, conducting your own analyses and even developing your own theories.Younghan Cho, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South KoreaWith a fine critical eye, this new edition of Media Studies by Paul Long, Beth Johnson, Schem Rogerson Bader, Shana MacDonald and Tim Wall produces the sharpest analysis, and clearest explanations of this growing field of study. Their book will inspire and enable many researchers and practitioners to determine a more subtle understanding of how our interactions with media forms and industries are shaping the world. This new edition is as rich and dynamic as the media the authors invoke. Toija Cinque, Deakin University, AustraliaMedia Studies is aimed at inspiring students to become curious about something that is ubiquitous in their life. Building on a rich set of case studies, the authors show the breadth and depth of what we can call the field of media studies. By drawing on examples that may be considered at the periphery of the field as well as canonical work, itguides students to find their own scholarly path rather than suggesting there is only one right way of doing media studies.Tamara Witschge, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the NetherlandsNow in its third edition and thoroughly updated, Media Studies covers a far-reaching range of theoretical foundations and key debates. The chapter summaries, thought-provoking activities, further reading suggestions, historic and contemporary case studies, comprehensive glossary and accessible writing style make this an invaluable text for students and lecturers alike.Michael Bailey, University of Essex, UK'In our deeply mediatised societies, Media Studies has never been more vital or more complex. The authors provide us with an updated, detailed, and decolonised, road-map to lead us through the fast-paced terrain of media change whilst also giving us the tools to respond with finely tuned critical analyses. Read this text to really get a grip of Media Studies as an evolving and exciting field of inquiry and practice.'Helen Wood, Lancaster University, UK'This is a great textbook. The breadth and range of chapters is incredibly impressive, proceeding accessibly and logically through the debates, with helpful and interesting contextual and biographical information about the key thinkers which bring their lives into relief for students. The book continues to serve as an extremely valuable teaching resource.'Lisa Taylor, Leeds Beckett University, UK'This new, expanded, and enhanced edition of Media Studies is designed to give its readers the conceptual tools and encouragement to create their own vibrant practice of media analysis. Through its focus on the complex ways in which media makes meaning, its detailed attention to theoretical approaches to media studies, and its exploration of a wonderfully wide range of themes and topics, it is a volume from which instructors will learn as much as their students. Highly recommended.' Imre Szeman, University of Waterloo, Canada'Media Studies is a comprehensive and up-to-date textbook on media studies for Anglophone readers. With intriguing examples and cases as well as clear explanations of key terms and theories, the authors expertly guide readers through getting involved in media text, production, consumption, and media in context. The best virtue of this book is how it makes the study of media ‘come alive’ by encouraging readers to try out research strategies for themselves, e.g., thinking aloud, posing questions, conducting your own analyses and even developing your own theories.'Younghan Cho, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea'With a fine critical eye, this new edition of Media Studies by Paul Long, Beth Johnson, Schem Rogerson Bader, Shana MacDonald and Tim Wall produces the sharpest analysis, and clearest explanations of this growing field of study. Their book will inspire and enable many researchers and practitioners to determine a more subtle understanding of how our interactions with media forms and industries are shaping the world. This new edition is as rich and dynamic as the media the authors invoke.' Toija Cinque, Deakin University, Australia'Media Studies is aimed at inspiring students to become curious about something that is ubiquitous in their life. Building on a rich set of case studies, the authors show the breadth and depth of what we can call the field of media studies. By drawing on examples that may be considered at the periphery of the field as well as canonical work, itguides students to find their own scholarly path rather than suggesting there is only one right way of doing media studies.'Tamara Witschge, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands'Now in its third edition and thoroughly updated, Media Studies covers a far-reaching range of theoretical foundations and key debates. The chapter summaries, thought-provoking activities, further reading suggestions, historic and contemporary case studies, comprehensive glossary and accessible writing style make this an invaluable text for students and lecturers alike.'Michael Bailey, University of Essex, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction ; Part One: Media texts and meanings ; Chapter 1 How do media make meaning? ; Chapter 2 Organising meaning in media texts: genre and narrative ; Chapter 3 Media representations ; Chapter 4 Reality media ; Part Two: Producing media ; Chapter 5 The business of media ; Chapter 6 Media regulation and policy ; Chapter 7 Media audiences ; Part Three: Media and social contexts ; Chapter 8 Media power ; Chapter 9 Mass society and media ; Chapter 10 Postmodernism and post-truth ; Chapter 11 The consumer society and advertising ; Chapter 12 Media histories ; Conclusion: Doing your media studies

Read more less

Book SynopsisWritten by an academic and researcher with over twenty years'' experience in teaching and convening Media Studies courses, Media Studies: A Complete Introduction is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear jargon-free English, and then providing added-value features like case studies, and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exam.The book uses a structure that mirrors the way Media Studies is taught on many university courses. Chapters include essential coverage of the history, organization and production of the media industries, and regulation of the media. The analysis of media texts is covered in detail, as are the issues of identity and gender, the idea of globalization and the shifting face of social media in its many contexts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe internet is a tool box, not a toy box. Social media platforms are some of the tools we can use for building one another up. This is a guide on handing these tools, carefully. Social media is a tool that can be good. It can connect us with friends and family with an immediacy that previous generations could only wonder at. But it can also be used unwisely. Whether it’s harsh words, regrettable posts, or excessive scrolling, we should think about how God wants us to engage with social media. What does the Bible teach us? Jason Thacker’s helpful guide will help students explore the wisest ways to use social media.Trade ReviewStudents often ask, ‘where do I start?’ when attempting to comprehend and navigate the challenges of our digital age. A Student’s Guide to Social Media provides a solid launching point to understanding the difficulties of the digital age and how to faithfully navigate them while remaining rooted in the Christian faith. -- Katie Frugé (Director of Center for Cultural Engagement & The Christian Life Commission, Baptist General Convention of Texas)To use your tools well, it is crucial that you understand how they will attempt to shape your heart, mind, and soul. For that reason and many more I highly recommend reading A Student’s Guide to Social Media. -- Tim Challies (Author, ‘Seasons of Sorrow’)This is a short, important and a book that will help us all to reflect on our use of social media – or should that be social media’s use of us? -- David Robertson (Well–known pastor and apologist)We are always being discipled; either by culture or Christ. A danger of the world’s discipleship is that it often goes unnoticed. Track: Social Media wonderfully aids us in remaining sober–minded as we engage with social media to ensure that our use of technology conforms us to Christ, not culture. -- J. Garrett Kell (Pastor, Del Ray Baptist Church, Alexandria, Virginia)Jason Thacker is one of today’s foremost experts on ethics and technology. He’s also a godly family man whose love for Christ shines through in his writing. In this new addition to the RYM track series, Thacker helps youth grow in wisdom, giving them a clear framework for thinking theologically and acting ethically in their increasingly confusing online social world. -- Jared Kennedy (Editor, The Gospel Coalition)

Read more less

How bitches, trainwrecks, shrews, and crazy women have taken over pop culture and liberated women from having to be nice.Female characters throughout history have been burdened by the moral trap that is likeability. Any woman who dares to reveal her messy side has been treated as a cautionary tale. Today, unlikeable female characters are everywhere in film, TV, and wider pop culture. For the first time ever, they are being accepted by audiences and even showered with industry awards. We are finally accepting that women are-gasp-fully fledged human beings. How did we get to this point?Unlikeable Female Characters traces the evolution of highly memorable female characters, from Samantha Jones as "The Slut" in Sex and the City to the iconic Mean Girl, Regina George, examining what exactly makes them popular, how audiences have reacted to them, and the ways in which pop culture is finally allowing us to celebrate the complexities of being a woman. Anna Bogutskaya, film programmer, broadcaster, and co-founder of the horror film collective and podcast The Final Girls, takes us on a journey through popular film, TV, and music, looking at the nuances of womanhood on and off-screen to reveal whether pop culture-and society-is finally ready to embrace complicated women.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIf farce follows tragedy, what follows farce? Where does the double predicament of a post-truth and post-shame politics leave artists and critics on the left? How to demystify a hegemonic order that dismisses its own contradictions? How to belittle a political elite that cannot be embarrassed, or to mock party leaders who thrive on the absurd? How to out-dada President Ubu? And, in any event, why add outrage to a media economy that thrives on the same? What Comes After Farce? comments on shifts in art, criticism, and fiction in the face of the current regime of war, surveillance, extreme inequality, and media disruption. A first section focuses on the cultural politics of emergency since 9/11, including the use and abuse of trauma, paranoia, and kitsch. A second reviews the neoliberal makeover of art institutions during the same period. Finally, a third section surveys transformations in media as reflected in recent art, film, and fiction. Among the phenomena explored here are "machine vision" (images produced by machines for other machines without a human interface),"operational images" (images that do not represent the world so much as intervene in it), and the algorithmic scripting of information so pervasive in our everyday lives.Trade ReviewEvery word cuts to the quick in this extraordinary book. Foster shows that true criticism must be swift and surgical, but it must also hurt. He casts his relentless and unflinching gaze on the crises of our time, from new fundamentalisms to alternative facts, from cultural imperialism to perpetual war. And yet these essays do not pose the twenty-first century as a cycle of tragedy and farce, doomed to repeat itself, but as a threshold-through which art can, and perhaps must, take us * Michelle Kuo *What Comes After Farce confirms what many have known for a long time: Hal Foster is indisputably the most important cultural critic writing in English today. No one else consistently offers such nuanced and cogent analyses of the tangled trajectories of the arts and media in this era of globalized financial capitalism. At the same time, few come close to Foster's discerning familiarity with the work of the most venturesome artists, novelists, filmmakers, and architects or to his critical understanding of the difficulties and challenges now facing them in our current state of emergency. -- Jonathan Crary, author of 24/7These essays, mostly on art (and culture and politics and violence and technology), read as one seamless and disturbing account of a catastrophic historical epoch: our own. Hal Foster offers no solace but instead his deft and trenchant wisdom on how we got here. -- Rachel KushnerIlluminating, theoretically informed criticism of contemporary art. -- Kevin Brazil * art-agenda *The rapid pace of Foster's prose captures the frenzied historical moment he is exploring, and his reluctance to offer simple answers acknowledges that multiple possibilities for reshaping our culture are currently ranged against each other. ... [this] lively and eloquent book convinces us that provocative artistic interventions remain possible. -- Oliver Eagleton * Guardian *Foster traces how artists have responded to the political situation, while also asking how art criticism should respond to artworks and, through them, the broader moment ... The title [What Comes After Farce?] is apt, not only because it invokes a great problem facing the left-how to imagine a future amid this mess-but also because it reflects the interrogative quality of the book's texts. -- Erika Balsom * Art in America *The clarity of his prose is satisfying in itself ... While I was reading What Comes After Farce? I felt that I was in the hands of one of the most skillful critics at work today. -- Barry Schwabsky * The Nation *Foster's various texts move smartly and broadly across spheres ranging from sculpture and painting to cinema and literature, but most consistently he choreographs a dance between art and the larger culture that is its cradle. The articulation of one always imprints the other. Time and again in this respect, Foster is a pleasure to read for his sweeping statements that are still earned in their matter-of-factness, as when he makes short work of the contemporary art world's spiraling expansion in tandem with shifting economic structures. -- Tim Griffin * Artforum *Magisterial ... [Foster possesses] a breathtaking erudition that he wears lightly. -- PopMatters * Vince Carducci *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRaymond Williams' seminal exploration of the history of meaning of some of the most important words in the English language.First published in 1976, and expanded in 1983, KEYWORDS reveals how the meanings of 131 words including art', class', family', media', sex' and tradition' were formed and subsequently altered and redefined as the historical contexts in which they were used changed.Neither a defining dictionary or glossary, KEYWORDS is rather a brilliant investigation into how the meanings of some of the most important words in the English language have shifted over time, and the forces that brought about those shifts.Trade Review‘A revelatory unpacking of the complicated disputes that lay – dormant, as it were – within familiar words’ Guardian ‘Williams’s essential point about the social and political stakes in simple words and phrases is as true today as it was in the 1970s: think of the many battles that have erupted around terms like “liberal,” “torture,” “pro-life” or “intelligent design”’ New York Times ‘This book is an erudite, elegant, and awful warning to anybody tempted to lay down the lexicographical law, in order to apply one authoritative fixed sense to a highly variable and controversial value word’ The Times ‘Keywords is useful and stimulating to all who work with words or merely love them’ Wall Street Journal ‘The book’s greatest value, perhaps, is its exemplification of how all of us should respond to the words we hear and use: with surprise, distrust, curiosity, and unflagging vigilance’ Yale Review ‘An invaluable book … A unique coda to the words of one of our most original and provocative thinkers’ Harpers

Read more less

Book SynopsisA David and Goliath story about Ireland's role as prime real estate for the world's largest tech multinationals, and the considerable impact it has had on us as individuals.At the start of the millennium, the Tech giants landed on Ireland's shores. Dublin, once one of Europe's poorest cities, became a beacon of Silicon Valley's promise of progress and power. As the face of the capital was remade in the image of Big Tech, Irish society embraced technology like no other. Romantic Ireland was dead and gone: social media was here to stay.In this provocative account, Aoife Barry explores the human cost of Ireland's Faustian pact with Big Tech, from the local communities uprooted by Google to the traumatised moderators squirrelled in the capital's pockets, keeping the internet safe at a terrible price. Unsettling, insightful, and wryly funny, she paints a portrait of a country addicted to the internet, refreshing the news, refreshing Twitter, scrolling and scrolling towards a feverish future

Read more less

Book SynopsisAS SEEN ON ARMCHAIR EXPERT WITH DAX SHEPARD AND IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK TIMES AND THE TIMES**A COSMOPOLITAN BEST NEW NON-FICTION BOOK TO ADD TO YOUR TBR IN 2023****A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST-READ**Rediscover your ability to pay attention with this groundbreaking new approach from the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking' (Cal Newport).We spend an average of just 47 seconds on any screen before shifting our attention. It takes 25 minutes to bring our attention back to a task after an interruption. And we interrupt ourselves more than we''re interrupted by others.In Attention Span, psychologist Gloria Mark reveals these and more surprising results from her decades of research into how technology affects our attention. She shows how much of what we think we know is wrong, including insights such as: Why multitasking hurts rather than helps productivity How social media and modern entertainment amplify our short attention spans What drains our mental resources and Trade Review‘Solutions to the mania of modern life’ The Times ‘In focusing on practical strategies rather than silver-bullet or short-term solutions like “digital detoxes”, Attention Span is a valuable guide to how to balance work and well-being in a world increasingly dependent on tech.’ New Scientist ‘In Attention Span, Mark makes the case for a new, evidence-based approach to attention, one that works with our tech-riddled modern world and tendencies towards distraction, instead of trying to squeeze the genie back in the bottle.’ Guardian ‘Gloria Mark is the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking in our increasingly digital world. Her book is a must-read for anyone concerned about our diminishing attention span’ Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of A World Without Email and Deep Work ‘This book covers decades of Gloria Mark’s fascinating research journey into how the rise of computing has affected our personal lives: how we are overstressed, we multitask too much, we are constantly interrupted even by ourselves, and our attention spans have declined to an astonishing 47 seconds. If you are interested in your well-being and how to gain agency in this digital age then you need to read this book.’ Susan David, bestselling author of Emotional Agility ‘Gloria Mark's book is a thorough review of the impact interruptions have on our lives and mental health. Some interruptions are welcomed, deliberately self-created. Most, however, are not. All interruptions impact the focus of attention, and attention is a critically limiting aspect of human cognition. Don't be distracted by my review – go read the book. It is an important and valuable contribution to living in this world of interruptions.’ Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis“The Present Age shows just how original Kierkegaard was. He brilliantly foresaw the dangers of the lack of commitment and responsibility in the Public Sphere. When everything is up for endless detached critical comment as on blogs and cable news, action finally becomes impossible.”— Hubert L. Dreyfus, University of California, BerkeleySoren Kierkegaard’s stunningly prescient essay on the dangers of mass media—particularly advertising, marketing, and publicity. An essential read as we reckon with, and try to understand, the media forces that have helped create our present political moment.In The Present Age (1846), Søren Kierkegaard analyzes the philosophical implications of a society dominated by the mass-media. What makes the essay so remarkable is the way it seems to speak directly to our time—i.e. the Information Age—where life is dominated by mere “information” not true “knowledge.” Kierkegaard even goes so far as to say that advertising and publicity almost immediately co-opts and suppresses revolutionary actions/thoughts.A stunningly prescient essay that foresaw the rise of twenty-four-hour news and social media, The Present Age examines the philosophical and political implications of a culture of endless, inconsequential commentary and debate.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1985, Neil Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects...

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe newly born League of Nations confronted the post-WWI worldfrom growing stateless populations to the resurgence of right-wing movementsby aiming to create a transnational, cosmopolitan dialogue on justice. As part of these efforts, a veritable army of League personnel set out to shape global public opinion, in favor of the postwar liberal international order. Combining the tools of global intellectual history and cultural history, A Violent Peace reopens the archives of the League to reveal surprising links between the political use of modern information systems and the rise of mass violence in the interwar world. Historian Carolyn N. Biltoft shows how conflicts over truth and power that played out at the League of Nations offer broad insights into the nature of totalitarian regimes and their use of media flows to demonize a whole range of others. An exploration of instability in information systems, the allure of fascism, and the contradictions at the heart of a global modernity, Trade Review"Historians usually remember the League of Nations—if at all—for its failure to prevent World War II. Historian Biltoft has a different, far more interesting story to tell. She examines the League as a creator of the news—even 'truth'—and a restless promotor of liberalism in the increasing illiberal interwar world. In this short but illuminating work, Biltoft argues that the League attempted to 'rebrand the world' to encourage discussion rather than war, provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, and ultimately create a new, healthier—and less violent—international order. . . . For an age still plagued by 'fake news' from Moscow to Florida, this book is required reading. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"This book is short, but its length belies the complexity and range of its ambition. A Violent Peace tackles the technological and cultural ruptures of the interwar era in truly original fashion, making a valuable addition to the growing literature assessing the League in its own right as an experiment in international order." * International Affairs *"Carolyn Biltoft's A Violent Peace provides a useful, timely, and poetic overview of interwar preoccupations with truth and reality, and of their consequences for people's lives then and now. . . . This book offers a compelling picture of the period and the issues under examination and will inspire others to pursue the vital avenues of historical inquiry it undertook. . . . Truly, any reader interested in such debates would find this book useful and likely be impressed by its erudition, clarity, and flair." * Canadian Journal of History *“With bold originality and a keen eye for the telling detail, Biltoft recasts the history of the League of Nations, dedicated to elevating the word over the sword, as a quest for symbolic capital in the chaotic interwar world. Focusing on questions of language, money, and the control of information flows, she shows how the challenges faced by the League continue to bedevil us today.” * Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley *“Fascinating and utterly original, A Violent Peace is an impressive study of superior scholarship. Biltoft offers a fresh perspective on this topic by shifting the lens from an investigation into the geopolitical coordinates of the League of Nations to the more ephemeral but equally important role of media and communication strategies that underlay the project. Accessible to both specialists and generalists, this exciting book will find a wide cross-section of readers in history, critical theory, government, and beyond.” * Ethan Kleinberg, Wesleyan University *Table of ContentsPreface: Truth, Lies, and Violence, Then and Now 1. As Seen at the League of Nations: Global Media, Competing Truths, and the Allure of Fascism 2. Rebranding the World (Picture) 3. On True and False Tongues 4. Fabricating Currencies: Paper, Gold, and Other Facsimiles 5. Fiat Lux? False News and Hidden Flesh 6. The Word and the Sword Revisited Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis groundbreaking book explains why and how so many people consume little or no news despite unprecedented abundance and ease of access.Trade ReviewThis is urgent, necessary reading for anyone in the business of news, for anyone who cares about the news, and for anyone who wants to ensure a future of fair access to knowledge and information for all. We ignore this meticulously researched and empathetically reported book at our own peril. -- Melissa Bell, publisher of Vox MediaNews avoiders are one of the most neglected topics in communications research, yet listening to and understanding them may be absolutely crucial for the health of democratic culture. This precisely grounded, sociologically rigorous, and searching three-country study sets completely new standards for pursuing this elusive topic. -- Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political ScienceThis is a beautifully written book that teaches us so much about the nature of our relationships to news by looking in closely at the lives and understandings of people who choose to avoid it. -- Katherine Cramer, University of Wisconsin-MadisonThis book is a wide-ranging investigation of not only the quantitative data about news avoidance but also, most importantly, the sentiments of those who have opted out of quality journalism. If journalists want to regain these readers, then it is crucial that we understand them first. This book serves as an important first step. -- Clara Jiménez Cruz, CEO of Maldita.es and chair of the European Fact-Checking Standards NetworkA deep dive into the complicated reasons that people distrust the news. A must-read for any journalist who wants to serve the people, meaning all the people—not just their friends and colleagues. -- Amanda Ripley, Washington Post columnistHighly recommended. * Choice Reviews *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. Is Ignorance Bliss?2. Who Are Consistent News Avoiders?3. Why News Avoiders Say They Don’t Use News4. Identities: How Our Relationships to Communities Shape News Avoidance5. Ideologies: How Beliefs About Politics Shape News Avoidance6. Infrastructures: How Media Platforms and Pathways Shape News Avoidance7. News for All the People?Appendix A: Studying News Avoidance Using Interpretive MethodsAppendix B: Summary Tables Describing Study ParticipantsAppendix C: Interview Protocols for In-Depth InterviewingNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisA leading cognitive scientist and philosopher offers a new framework for recognizing and countering misleading claims by exploring the ways that information works—and breaks down.Trade ReviewIn this important book, renowned philosopher Paul Thagard doesn’t beat around the bush: misinformation kills. But what is misinformation exactly? Thagard offers not only a bold new theory but also actionable solutions. A timely and compelling read. -- Sander van der Linden, author of Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build ImmunityPaul Thagard has done a great public service by writing such an accessible, comprehensive book on what many feel is the great scourge of our age: misinformation. I am delighted to see a philosopher of such stature take on this problem, bringing logic, crystal-clear prose, and a little hope to a topic that affects us all. This is public philosophy at its finest. -- Lee McIntyre, author of On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect DemocracyFalsehoods Fly gives a novel framework for thinking about the various mechanisms involved in the spread of misinformation. By breaking this process down into concrete stages, Thagard helps identify what makes people susceptible to false beliefs. He draws on the latest in cognitive science to identify where the processes of misinformation can best be interrupted and stopped. A range of current examples, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Russia-Ukraine war, helps situate his arguments. This insightful book can help us all better understand ourselves and improve our ability to form good beliefs. -- Cailin O'Connor, coauthor of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs SpreadIn his signature lucid and witty style, Paul Thagard offers a novel theory of misinformation—how it is generated and spread and how it can be fixed. His theory is rooted in a solid foundation and comes with a healthy dose of optimism that bullshitters and their "alternative facts" will not prevail. A refreshing perspective and satisfying read. -- Olaf Dammann, Tufts University School of MedicineTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Lies Kill: The Perils of Misinformation2. Information and Misinformation: How They Work3. Believing What You Want: Motivated Reasoning, Emotion, and Identity4. Plagues: COVID-19 and Medical Misinformation5. Storms: Climate Change and Scientific Misinformation6. Plots: Conspiracy Theories and Political Misinformation7. Evils: Inequality and Social Misinformation8. Misinformation Self-Defense: A Manual Illustrated by the Russia-Ukraine War9. Reality Rescued: Beyond Post-TruthGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“A fascinating book—beautifully written, admirably organized, with a mass of information about even the most recondite means of collecting and transmitting news before 1800.”—Alastair Hamilton, TLS -- Alastair Hamilton * TLS *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTable of Contents1. A First Look at Interpersonal Communication. 2. Interpersonal Communication and Social Media. 3. Communication and Identity: Creating and Presenting the Self. 4. Perception: What You See Is What You Get. 5. Emotions: Feeling, Thinking, and Communicating. 6. Language: Words and Worlds of Relating 7. Nonverbal Communication: Messages Beyond Words. 8. Listening: More Than Meets the Ear. 9. Communication and Relational Dynamics. 10. Communication in Close Relationships. 11. Improving Communication Climates. 12. Managing Interpersonal Conflicts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisChina's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 ignited a race to capture new global media audiences. This book examines this compelling dynamic, where the distinctions between Hollywood's dream factory and the PRC's Chinese dream of global influence become increasingly blurred.Trade Review"Timely and informative." * H-Diplo *"Hollywood Made in China is a timely contribution to film studies, media studies, and communication studies... impressive, far-reaching." * China Review *"Hollywood Made in China is an elegant account of Hollywood’s evolving engagements in China’s commercial film environment... an accessible, intriguing study of an unlikely liaison." * Modern Chinese Literature and Culture *"Like High Concept, scholar and industry consultant Justin Wyatt’s landmark 1994 book about Hollywood’s pivot towards packaged promotion - and merchandising-ready properties, Aynne Kokas’s Hollywood Made in China will be the seminal guidebook to understanding media in the era of the world’s pivot to China." - Karen Fang, University of Houston * China Review International *"A concise and lucid analysis." * China Quarterly *"...an informative book with updated real-world cases and textual analysis on Sino-US film co-production. For those less familiar with the topic, this book serves as a great introduction and resource." * Global Media and Communication *“Kokas’ work provides an insightful analysis of Sino-US co-ventures, and exemplifies an important approach to global media industries in general. . . .this is a groundbreaking book with an analysis that helps us understand how the Chinese government’s policy-making and Hollywood’s economic ambitions in the Chinese market complicate Sino-US media collaborations and construct ‘multilayered systems that unite the American and Chinese economies’.” * Asian Journal of Communication *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Policy and Superheroes: China and Hollywood in Sino-US Relations 2. Hollywood's China: Mickey Mouse, Kung Fu Panda, and the Rise of Sino-US Brandscapes 3. Soft Power Plays: How Chinese Film Policy Influences Hollywood 4. Whispers in the Gallery: How Industry Forums Build Sino-US Media Collaboration 5. Compradors: How Above-the-Line Workers Brand Sino-US Film Production 6. Farm Labor, Film Labor: How Below-the-Line Workers Shape Sino-US Film Production Conclusion Appendix 1: Examples of Sino-US Film Collaboration by Type Appendix 2: Chinese Character Glossary Notes Filmography Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA heroic narrative.One of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2023A detailed examination of . . . the landmark 1964 Supreme Court decision that defined libel laws and increased protections for journalists.The New York Times Book ReviewA deeply researched legal drama that documents this landmark First Amendment rulingone that is more critical and controversial than ever. Actual Malice tells the full story of New York Times v. Sullivan, the dramatic case that grew out of segregationists' attempts to quash reporting on the civil rights movement. In its landmark 1964 decision, the Supreme Court held that a public official must prove actual malice or reckless disregard of the truth to win a libel lawsuit, providing critical protections for free speech and freedom of the press. Drawing on previously unexplored sources, including the archives of the New York Times Company and civil rights leaders, Samantha Barbas tracks the saga behind one of the most important First Amendment rulings in history. She situates the case within the turbulent 1960s and the history of the press, alongside striking portraits of the lawyers, officials, judges, activists, editors, and journalists who brought and defended the case. As the Sullivan doctrine faces growing controversy, Actual Malice reminds us of the stakes of the case that shaped American reporting and public discourse as we know it.Trade Review"A law professor puts forth a detailed examination of New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 Supreme Court decision that defined libel laws and increased protections for journalists, in the context of the civil rights movement." * The New York Times Book Review *"A new book, Actual Malice, by Samantha Barbas, a law professor and historian, unfurls the story of the case and reminds readers that the triumph of press freedom was an outgrowth of the civil-rights struggle. Versions of the story have been told before, perhaps most famously in Anthony Lewis’s "Make No Law" more than three decades ago. Yet Barbas deftly employs archival sources—notably from the Times, from the Martin Luther King, Jr., papers, and from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference—to shed new light. Her book illuminates the effect of libel suits on journalists’ ability to cover the movement, the legal strategies used against those suits, and the impact of the case on the civil-rights movement itself. A heroic narrative in which the litigation helped vanquish segregationists serves to underscore what Barbas calls the 'centrality of freedom of speech to democracy.'" * The New Yorker *“Barbas’s endorsement of the Sullivan decision is more nuanced than those of [Anthony] Lewis and [Aimee] Edmondson, and more reflective of the current moment. She appreciates the need for libel lawsuits at a time when ‘damaging falsehoods can spread online with a click, and reputations [can be] destroyed instantly.’ But she recognizes that the protections of Sullivan are needed as much, or more, by individuals as by media companies. The story of Sullivan, and of the precedent’s possible demise, reveals as much about our own times as it does the 1960s.” -- Jeffrey Toobin * The New York Review of Books *"One might think that another book-length history and analysis of New York Times v. Sullivan would be superfluous, given the quality of Lewis’s Make No Law and Hall and Urofsky's New York Times v. Sullivan: Civil Rights, Libel Law, and the Free Press. Actual Malice, however, may become the go-to book for combining both perspectives in a single volume and enhancing them with some archival sources that the other two books did not use." * Choice Reviews *"Actual Malice is concise yet thorough, crisply written, brimming with sharp observations, amply documented, and admirably acknowledges different points of view." * Law and Liberty *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. All the News That's Fit to Print 2. Libel and the Press 3. The Paper Curtain 4. Heed Their Rising Voices 5. Montgomery v. The New York Times 6. Birmingham v. The New York Times 7. Doing Business in Alabama 8. "This New Weapon of Intimidation" 9. A Civil Rights Crisis 10. The Iron Curtain 11. Make No Law 12. Herbert Wechsler 13. Before the Court 14. Arguments 15. Actual Malice 16. Free, Robust, and Wide Open Acknowledgments Notes Archival Collections Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisFusing digital humanities with media studies and graphic design history, Graphesis offers a critical language for analysis of graphical knowledge and argues for studying visuality from a humanistic perspective, exploring how graphic languages can serve fields where qualitative judgments take priority over quantitative statements of fact.Trade ReviewThe pages of Graphesis teem with color reproductions of 5,000 years’ worth of various modes of visually rendered knowledge—showing how they have emerged and developed over time, growing familiar but also defining or reinforcing ways to apprehend information… I suspect Graphesis may prove to be an important book. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *Graphesis is a significant contribution to the field, every bit as important as Drucker’s The Visible Word. Indeed, the world has changed, and information design has shifted significantly with it. In this text, Drucker should be applauded for taking a broad view of her subject, tackling little-studied imagery as well as visual systems of thinking. -- Elizabeth Guffey, Professor of Art and Design History, Purchase College, State University of New YorkGraphesis is a sophisticated critique of some of the foundational assumptions of HCI (human–computer interaction), interaction design, and information visualization. Drucker makes a compelling case for the value of humanistic inquiry into subjects that have traditionally belonged solely to computer experts and social scientists. -- Maria Engberg, Assistant Professor of Media Technology, Malmö University, and Jay David Bolter, Professor of Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology

Read more less

Book SynopsisMillions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, finTrade ReviewWinner of the 2009 Dorothy Lee Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Ecology of Culture, Media Ecology Association Honorable Mention for the 2008 PROSE Award in Media and Cultural Studies, Association of American Publishers One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009 "The gap between the virtual and the physical, and its effect on the ideas of personhood and relationships, is the most interesting aspect of Boellstorff's analysis... Boellstorff's portrayal of a virtual culture at the advent of its acceptance into mainstream life gives it lasting importance, and his methods will be a touchstone for research in the emerging field of virtual anthropology."--David Robson, Nature "Boellstorff applies the methods and theories of his field to a virtual world accessible only through a computer screen...[He] spent two years participating in Second Life and reports back as the trained observer that he is. We read about a fascinating, and to many of us mystifying, world. How do people make actual money in this virtual society? (They do.) How do they make friends with other avatars? The reader unfamiliar with such sites learns a lot--not least, all sorts of cool jargon...Worth the hurdles its scholarly bent imposes."--Michelle Press, Scientific American "Boellstorff's book is full of fascinating vignettes recounting the blossomings of friendships and romances in the virtual world, and musing fruitfully on questions of creative identity and novel problems of etiquette."--Steven Poole, Guardian "If you thought a virtual world like Second Life was a smorgasbord of experimental gender swaps, nerd types engaging in kinky sex or entrepreneurs cashing in on real world money making possibilities, think again...Could Boellstorff be right that we're all virtual humans anyway, viewing the world as we do through the prism of culture?"--New Scientist "Boellstorff's anthropologist's insight into advanced societies helps us to see them anew."--Art Review "Where many of his colleagues insist on making a mystery of things that are straightforward (so to neglect mysteries real and pressing), Boellstorff is a likeable, generous, accessible voice... This book, once it gets down to it, does truly offer a detailed and deeply interesting investigation of Second Life."--Grant McCracken, Times Higher Education "Boellstorff makes important contributions to ethnographic theory and method while providing a fascinating excursion into a virtual world, Second Life, inhabited by graphic manifestations of real-life people who interact with one another in localized parts of a vast virtual landscape that they themselves have largely created... In classic anthropological fashion, Boellstorff entered Second Life, conducted ethnographic research within it as an avatar, and has written a vivid, highly engaging account of that world for real-life readers."--A. Arno, Choice "While it is geared toward anthropologists, the book will be of interest to a wide general audience, with the caveat that it may be helpful to keep a dictionary handy to decode some jargon... [Tom Boellstorff] provides us with a solid foundation for important discussions about he value of technology in our everyday lives."--Peter Crabb, Centre Daily Times "This is a remarkable book. Tom Boellstorff has successfully achieved the extremely difficult task of writing a book that will appeal equally to the general reader and scholar alike. Coming Of Age In Second Life is well written, very well researched and whilst it does not get bogged down in academic detail and theory, it does provide reference to such theories that undergird the author's research."--Rob Harle, Metapsychology "One can almost guarantee this book will become one of those contemporary classics in anthropology that travel beyond the discipline as well."--Marilyn Strathern, European Legacy "The book is absolutely invaluable for anyone who wants to understand what's happening with virtual worlds. Like the very best of ethnography, it transports; it is classically thick with descriptions of everything from the linguistic and the proxemic to the metaphysical and the erotic."--Christopher M. Kelty, Current Anthropology "The monograph is an elegant tribute to the relevance and strengths of anthropology in the study of virtual worlds, a field of growing social significance that younger generations in particular are keen to investigate more fully. This was evident when I introduced the book to students in a recent course on digital anthropology, who could relate it to their own online every day experiences. As one of the early Internet ethnographers, I can but appreciate Boellstorff's efforts in strengthening this important domain of research, while crafting analytical tools with which to better understand the virtual essence of the human condition, as exposed to us through Internet-mediated virtual worlds."--Paula Uimonen, Social AnthropologyTable of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface to the New Paperback Edition xi Acknowledgments xxix PART I: Setting the Virtual Stage 1 CHAPTER 1: The Subject and Scope of This Inquiry 3 Arrivals and departures--Everyday Second Life--Terms of discussion--The emergence of virtual worlds--The posthuman and the human--What this, a book, does. CHAPTER 2: History 32 Prehistories of the virtual--Histories of virtual technology--A personal virtual history--Histories of virtual worlds--Histories of cybersociality research--Techne. CHAPTER 3: Method 60 Virtual worlds in their own terms--Anthropology and ethnography--Participant observation--Interviews, focus groups, and beyond the platform--Ethics--Claims and reflexivity. PART II: Culture in a Virtual World 87 CHAPTER 4: Place and Time 89 Visuality and land--Builds and objects--Lag--Afk--Immersion--Presence. CHAPTER 5: Personhood 118 The self--The life course--Avatars and alts--Embodiment--Gender and race--Agency. CHAPTER 6: Intimacy 151 Language--Friendship--Sexuality--Love--Family--Addiction. CHAPTER 7: Community 179 The event--The group--Kindness--Griefing--Between virtual worlds--Beyond virtual worlds. PART III: The Age of Techne 203 CHAPTER 8: Political Economy 205 Creationist capitalism--Money and labor--Property--Governance--Inequality--Platform and social form. CHAPTER 9: The Virtual 237 The virtual human--Culture and the online--Simulation--Fiction and design--The massively multiple--Toward an anthropology of virtual worlds. Glossary 251 Notes 255 Works Cited 271 Index 303

Read more less

Book SynopsisA fully updated edition of one of the world's bestselling journalism handbooksTrade Review'Easily the best introduction to being a reporter' -- Paul Jones, Press Association'What I admire about this book is that it is not simply a 'how to' manual, it is also a wise, witty and extremely entertaining read. Anyone who aspires to be a journalist should read it' -- Dame Ann Leslie, 'British Journalism Review''The go-to guide for any up and coming journalist, shining a light on every element of the job in an engaging, insightful way. And with the likes of social media and data covered too, it's also a compelling read for the established reporter' -- Peter Clifton, Editor-in-Chief, PA TrainingTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface 1. Journalism in an Age of Social Media 2. What Makes A Good Reporter? 3. The Limitations of Journalism 4. What Is News? 5. Where Do Good Stories Come From? 6. Research 7. Handling Sources, Not Them Handling You 8. Questioning 9. Reporting Numbers and Statistics 10. Investigative Reporting 11. How to Cover Major Incidents 12. Mistakes, Corrections and Hoaxes 13. Ethics 14. Writing News and Features 15. Intros 16. Construction and Description 17. Handling Quotes 18. Different Ways To Tell A Story 19. Comment, Intentional and Otherwise 20. How To Be A Great Reporter Reading for Journalists Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA vivid, intellectual journey through the works of the renowned writerTrade Review'A scholar of unique range, learning, and originality' -- Jacqueline Rose, author of The Last Resistance (Verso, 2007)'Authoritative, knowledgeable, and fascinating ... an essential addition to understanding the nature of Israel and the conflict its establishment has created, not just for Palestinians but also for the Mizrahi or 'Arab Jews'. Poignant and thought-provoking' -- Ghada Karmi, author of Return: A Palestinian Memoir (Verso, 2015)'In this rich and wide-ranging collection, Ella Shohat demonstrates subtlety, imagination, and the potential of engaged writing. Although it probes many aspects of loss and dislocation, this work is sustained, in the end, by a profound sense of hope' -- Ahdaf Soueif, author of Cairo: Memoir of a City Transformed (Bloomsbury, 2014)'Ella Shohat is a gifted cultural critic who writes about complex issues with great clarity, wisdom, and insight. In this collection of essays she tackles a wide range of Middle Eastern topics from a refreshingly original and radical perspective. She is a wrecking-ball of Zionist orthodoxies' -- Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World'The volume is so rich in content and perspective on the changing patterns of ethnicity and its interaction with historical circumstance that I hardly know where to begin ... A genuine and enduring achievement.' -- Peace News'[A] profoundly important collection ... of enormous importance in understanding not only the tragedy of the post-1947 “population exchange” but the ethnic conflicts tearing apart the Middle East and North Africa today' -- CounterpunchTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: The Question of the Arab-Jew 1. Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims 2. Dislocated Identities: Reflections of an Arab-Jew 3. Breaking the Silence 4. Mizrahi Feminism: The Politics of Gender, Race and Multiculturalism 5. The Invention of the Mizrahim 6. Remembering a Baghdad Elsewhere: An Emotional Cartography Part II: Between Palestine and Israel 7. The Trouble with Hanna (with Richard Porton) 8. In Defence of Mordechai Vanunu: Nuclear Threat in the Middle East (with Yerach Gover) 9. Anomalies of the National: Representing Israel/Palestine 10. Territories of the National Imagination: Intifada Observed 11. Exile, Diaspora and Return: The Inscription of Palestine in Zionist Discourse 12. The Alphabet of Dispossession 13. On Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation (Interview Conducted by Jadaliyya) 14. In Memory of Edward Said, the Bulletproof Intellectual 15. A Voyage to Toledo: Twenty-Five Years After the “Jews of the Orient and Palestinians” Meeting Part III : Cultural Politics of the Middle East 16. Egypt: Cinema and Revolution 17. Gender in Hollywood’s Orient 18. The Media’s War 19. The Carthage Film Festival (with Robert Stam) 20. The Cinema of Displacement: Gender, Nation and Diaspora 21. Reflections on September 11 22. Anti-Americanism: The Middle East (A Conversation with Rashid Khalidi) 23. Postscript to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth 24. On the Margins of Middle Eastern Studies: Situating Said’s Orientalism Part IV: Muslims, Jews and Diasporic Readings 25. Rethinking Jews and Muslims: Quincentennial Reflections 26. 'Coming to America': Reflections on Hair and Memory Loss 27. Diasporic Thinking: Between Babel and Babylon (A Conversation Conducted by Christian Höller) 28. Arab-Jews, Diasporas and Multicultural Feminism (A Conversation Conducted by Evelyn Alsultany) 29. Forget Baghdad: Arabs and Jews – the Iraqi Connection (A Conversation Conducted by Rasha Salti and Layla Al-Zubaidi) 30. Bodies and Borders (An Interview Conducted by Manuela Boatc and Sérgio Costa) 31. Don’t Choke on History: Reflections on Dar al Sulh, Dubai, 2013 (A Joint Conversation with Michael Rakowitz and Regine Basha) Notes Index About the Book and the Author

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Combining superb scholarship, a palpable passion for his subject, and a singular sensibility for the art of the moving image, Thomas Lamarre has produced a landmark work in cultural theory and media history. The Anime Machine navigates the intercultural and transmedia complexities of the worlds of anime with expertise and originality. Everyone from the anime enthusiast to the philosopher will come away with a heightened appreciation of one of the defining art forms of our era.” —Brian Massumi, author of Parables for the Virtual“With the help of thinkers such as Deleuze and Guattari, Thomas Lamarre identifies in anime an originary machinic force, one that traverses both animation and cinema, with a capacity for heteropoeisis through technological practices. This is an inspiringly sophisticated and imaginative book.” —Rey Chow, author of Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese FilmsTable of ContentsPreface Introduction: The Anime Machine Part I. Multiplanar Image 1. Cinematism and Animetism 2. Animation Stand 3. Compositing 4. Merely Technological Behavior 5. Flying Machines 6. Full Animation 7. Only a Girl Can Save Us Now 8. Giving Up the Gun Part II. Exploded View 9. Relative Movement 10. Structures of Depth 11. The Distributive Field 12. Otaku Imaging 13. Multiple Frames of Reference 14. Inner Natures 15. Full Limited Animation Part III. Girl Computerized 16. A Face on the Train 17. The Absence of Sex 18. Platonic Sex 19. Perversion 20. The Spiral Dance of Symptom and Specter 21. Emergent Positions 22. Anime Eyes Manga Conclusion: Patterns of Serialization Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom his arrival in Britain in the 1950s and involvement in the New Left, to founding the field of cultural studies and examining race and identity in the 1990s and early 2000s, Stuart Hall has been central to shaping many of the cultural and political debates of our time. Essential Essays—a landmark two-volume set—brings together Stuart Hall''s most influential and foundational works. Spanning the whole of his career, these volumes reflect the breadth and depth of his intellectual and political projects while demonstrating their continued vitality and importance.Volume 1: Foundations of Cultural Studies focuses on the first half of Hall''s career, when he wrestled with questions of culture, class, representation, and politics. This volume''s stand-out essays include his field-defining “Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies';the prescient “The Great Moving Right Show,” which first identified the emergent mode of authoTrade Review"Anyone whose work is informed, 'in the last instance,' by Cultural Studies will find much that is helpfully familiar in it as well as new connections, new applications, new ways of '[penetrating] the disorderly surface of things to another level of understanding,' as Hall says, invoking Marx, in the epilogue. This seems especially urgent as the ascendancy of the far Right coincides with the wholesale neoliberalization of the humanities, as Hall predicted in his 'Theoretical Legacies' lecture. It is obviously not a question of 'going back' to Hall for a truer or more 'authentic' form of Cultural Studies than that in practice today. But there is much in his legacy that illuminates the dynamics of the present, and much to put into dialogue with contemporary scholarship and practice. Morley's collection reminds us how important it is for genuine intellectual work to articulate competing and contradictory paradigms together, to work, as Hall did, from the points of contestation and conflict rather than seek solace in abstractions. This, finally, is the 'essential' in the essays assembled here." -- Liane Tanguay * American Book Review *“Along with the other volumes that Duke University Press has published, these two books of collected essays are to be welcomed. They allow us to see a fertile mind in action, engaged in and with the real world. It is a model well worth emulating.” -- Michael W. Apple * Educational Policy *“As one of the foremost intellectuals of his generation, [Hall] has made an enormous contribution to cultural and political thought, and his work has had a lasting impact in both social sciences and the humanities…. This collection is a treasure trove of Hall’s intellectual and political offerings; I recommend it highly.” -- Avtar Brah * New West Indian Guide *"I have also narrated the effort it took for me to access his work to illustrate the importance of the Selected Writings now being released by Duke University Press. It is an event of profound historical significance that a new generation will be able to begin its political and theoretical education with systematic access to Hall’s writing. . . . The two-volume Essential Essays shows the broad scope of his work." -- Asad Haider * The Point *"It was one of Hall’s unique gifts to offer analysis of the moment as it unfolded before our eyes. I am sure I am not alone in having found his talks exhilarating in ways I could never quite understand, given that the news he relayed with such energy was almost unremittingly dire. Hall offered his readings as interpretation and self-commentary, tracing his own intellectual path." -- Jacqueline Hall * New York Review of Books *Table of ContentsA Note on the Text vii Acknowledgments ix General Introduction: A Life in Essays 1 Part I. Cultural Studies: Culture, Class, and Theory Introduction 27 1. Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy, and the Cultural Turn [2007] 35 2. Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms [1980] 47 3. Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies [1992] 71 Part II. Theoretical and Methodological Principles: Class, Race and Articulation 4. The Hinterland of Science: Ideology and the Sociology of Knowledge [1977] 111 5. Rethinking the "Base and Superstructure" Metaphor [1977] 143 6. Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance [1980] 172 7. On Postmodernism and Articulation: An Interview with Stuart Hall by Larry Grossberg and Others [1986] 222 Part III. Media, Communications, Ideology, and Representation 8. Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse [originally 1973; republished 2007] 257 9. External Influences on Broadcasting: The External/Internal Dialectic in Broadcasting—Television's Double-Blind [1972] 277 10. Culture, the Media, and the "Ideological Effect" [1977] 298 Part IV. Political Formations: Power as Process 11. Notes on Deconstructing "the Popular" [1981] 347 12. Policing the Crisis: Preface to the 35th Anniversary Edition [2013] (with Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke, and Brian Roberts) 362 13. The Great Moving Right Show [1979] 374 Index 393 Place of First Publication 411

Read more less

Book SynopsisBy foregrounding the ways that human existence is bound together with the lives of other entities, contemporary cultural theorists have sought to move beyond an anthropocentric worldview. Yet as Eva Haifa Giraud contends in What Comes after Entanglement?, for all their conceptual power in implicating humans in ecologically damaging practices, these theories can undermine scope for political action. Drawing inspiration from activist projects between the 1980s and the present that range from anticapitalist media experiments and vegan food activism to social media campaigns against animal research, Giraud explores possibilities for action while fleshing out the tensions between theory and practice. Rather than an activist ethics based solely on relationality and entanglement, Giraud calls for what she describes as an ethics of exclusion, which would attend to the entities, practices, and ways of being that are foreclosed when other entangled realities are realized. Such an ethics oTrade Review“What Comes after Entanglement? is an exciting and novel book. It is unique in its combination of innovative theoretical explorations of activism and social change with suggestions for practical political interventions. Crucially, Eva Haifa Giraud explores the messy practicalities of activism. The findings and significance of her book go far beyond the case study focus on a broad variety of animal activism since the 1980s, which weaves together different times and places in really interesting ways.” -- Jenny Pickerill, author of * Cyberprotest: Environmental Activism Online *“Eva Haifa Giraud does not accept relationality theory without question. The force of her work is her seeing theory as in need of a thinking-through that does not simply apply it to situations, but instead sees the situated work of activism as rendering our notion of theory and relationality in a more nuanced fashion. I don't know of any other text that follows through on the activist potentials in the theories Giraud draws from as much as this one does. An impressive work.” -- Claire Colebrook, author of * Death of the PostHuman: Essays on Extinction *“When reading this stimulating text, I wished that I could have joined Giraud in kitchen table discussions as she wrestled with this wealth of material. Overall, this is a really well-structured text which builds its argument iteratively and holds in tension the productive ambivalence that Giraud illuminates.” -- Joan Haran * BioSocieties *“Eva Haifa Giraud’s book, What Comes after Entanglement?, offers what she calls a ‘sympathetic critique’ of ‘more than human, relational ethics.’ This critique is aimed at the new materialisms and the broader turn to relational ontology…. Giraud’s emphasis on the ethics of exclusion is something to which scholars of many kinds might well attend.” -- Samuel Diener * Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *“Eva Haifa Giraud’s book is an important contribution to recent moves within environmental political theory to expand environmental politics to the more-than-human. In particular, it addresses relevant questions of politics in non-anthropocentric environmental theory…. The book will be valuable to scholars of science and technology studies, ecofeminism, new materialism, media and communication studies, and related fields. Scholars focusing on environmental activism and campaigning will find Giraud’s attention to the conceptual significance of everyday practical problems inspiring, specifically the way she teases out some of the barriers to translating theory into practice and the context-specific tactics for negotiating these barriers.” -- Magdalena S. Rodekirchen * Environmental Politics *“What Comes After Entanglement? offers media scholars an insightful analysis of what materialist theory is doing on the ground and helps to clarify the stakes of posthumanism, for human and nonhuman animals alike.... Giraud is a well-balanced critic who pays attention to representation and infrastructure, theory and practice.” -- Cynthia Rosenfeld * Critical Studies in Media Communication *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Articulations 21 2. Uneven Burdens of Risk 46 3. Performing Responsibility 69 4. Hierarchies of Care 98 5. Charismatic Suffering 118 6. Ambivalent Popularity 142 Conclusion: An Ethics of Exclusion 171 Notes 183 Bibliography 225 Index 241

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Media Hot and Cold Nicole Starosielski examines the cultural dimensions of temperature to theorize the ways heat and cold can be used as a means of communication, subjugation, and control. Diving into the history of thermal media, from infrared cameras to thermostats to torture sweatboxes, Starosielski explores the many meanings and messages of temperature. During the twentieth century, heat and cold were broadcast through mass thermal media. Today, digital thermal media such as bodily air conditioners offer personalized forms of thermal communication and comfort. Although these new media promise to help mitigate the uneven effects of climate change, Starosielski shows how they can operate as a form of biopower by determining who has the ability to control their own thermal environment. In this way, thermal media can enact thermal violence in ways that reinforce racialized, colonial, gendered, and sexualized hierarchies. By outlining how the control of temperature reveals powTrade Review“Nicole Starosielski awakens our senses from their thermal slumber. Hot and cool, warm and cold are not only metaphors; they shape worlds. I finished this book with the caloric throb of the universe humming in my ears. Starosielski's media analysis is wonderfully both elemental and critical: temperature reveals both ontology and injustice. Media Hot and Cold invites us to a noncoercive rearrangement of affect.” -- John Durham Peters, Yale University“In this dynamic and intellectually dazzling book, Nicole Starosielski grapples with complex technical principles of communication while framing them as historically and culturally conditioned and as politically and economically motivated. Starosielski's reconsideration of foundational communication models—looking beyond sender-receiver toward a more ambient and atmospheric sensibility—is necessary in an age when ubiquitous, continuous computing is fundamentally altering the atmosphere that hosts its signals. Media Hot and Cold is a model of innovative and masterful interdisciplinarity.” -- Shannon Mattern, author of * A City is not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences *"The intense media focus on climate change makes this meditation on the cultural significance of temperature coolly topical." -- Andrew Robinson * Nature *“Apart from media studies students and scholars, anyone interested in temperature and how it is managed, controlled, manipulated, and distributed will find Media Hot and Cold an incredible story of how temperatures determine lived experience. In this final call to arms, Starosielski polemicizes a future for media studies attendant to its world-building and world-sustaining capacities.” -- Samir Bhowmik * Film Quarterly *"To walk into the world of Nicole Starosielski’s Media Hot and Cold is to see familiar shapes with new intensities." -- Kyle Stine * ISLE *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Preface: Of Temperature xiii Introduction: Media Hot and Cold 1 Part I 1. Thermostat: The Thermal Subjects of Broadcast Temperature 31 2. Coldsploitation: The Thermal Attractions of Cool Air 72 3. Sweatbox: The Thermal Violence of Weaponized Heat 109 Part II 4. Heat Ray: The Thermal Circuits of Radiant Media 135 5. Infrared Camera: The Thermal Vision of Heat Images 166 6. Computer: The Coldward Course of Media 191 Conclusion: Media after the Melt 219 Notes 225 Bibliography 255 Index 273

Read more less

Book SynopsisKathy E. Ferguson explores the importance of anarchist letterpress printers and presses, whose printed materials galvanized anarchist movements across the United States and Great Britain from the late nineteenth century to 1940s.Trade Review“By focusing on letterpress Ferguson presents a novel way of looking at the history of Anarchism. Letterpress as a way of working generates an active hands-on ambition to build and embody new and creative ideas. . . . Ferguson’s history promotes the message that meaningful radical development builds from face-to-face, hand-to-hand, cooperative endeavour.” -- Peter Good * Kate Sharpley Library *"Ferguson's half-century of involvement in radical politics and her painstaking research in anarchist collections (many of them ill organized) qualifies her to write this dense but compelling history. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." -- T. S. Martin * Choice *"In fluid prose, Ferguson offers a fresh historical look at the anarchist movement through a focus on lesser-known figures and their lesser-known labours, including printing and letter-writing." -- Layla Saleh * LSE Review of Books *"Letterpress Revolution is essential reading. It is a result of exhaustive and detailed research that clarifies instead of obscures. ... It enriches anarchist history allowing us to appreciate the nuances and bravery of people as well as their complexities." -- Barry Pateman * KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. Anarchist Letters 1 1. Printers and Presses 21 2. Epistolarity 83 3. Radical Study 129 4. Intersectionality and Thing Power 185 Appendix A. Compositors, Pressmen, and Bookbinders 215 Appendix B. Brief Biographies 225 Appendix C. Printers Interviewed 231 Notes 233 Letters Referenced 281 Bibliography 287 Index 317

Read more less