Media studies Books

Book SynopsisThis book provides students, researchers, and practitioners of speechwriting with a unique insight in the theory, history, and practice of speechwriting. The combination of theory and practice with case studies from the United States and Europe makes this volume the first of its kind. The book offers an overview of the existing research and theory, analysing how speeches are written in political and public life, and paying attention to three central subjects of contemporary speechwriting: convincing characterization of the speaker, writing for the ear, and appealing with words to the eye. Chapters address the ethics and the functions of speechwriting in contemporary society and also deliver general instructions for the speechwriting process. This book is recommended reading for professional speechwriters wishing to expand their knowledge of the rhetorical and theoretical underpinnings of speechwriting, and enables students and aspiring speechwriters to gain an understanding of speechwriting as a profession.Trade Review“Speechwriters have hoped for a long time to see a book like this appear in print. Speechwriting in Theory and Practice's 13 chapters are grounded in a combination of academic perspectives on the evolution of rhetoric and persuasive speech, alongside a close study of how speechwriters and speakers collaborate, in the real world, to prepare remarks for delivery. … Speechwriting in Theory and Practice fully acknowledges this fascinating continuity in rhetorical practice over the centuries … .” (Neil Hrab, Vital Speeches of the day, vsotd.com, June 26, 2019)Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction: The Case for SpeechwritingChapter 2 Speechmaking in the 21st CenturyChapter 3 The Beginning of SpeechwritingChapter 4 Research and Theory on SpeechwritingChapter 5 The Rhetorical Canons of SpeechwritingChapter 6 Genres of SpeechwritingChapter 7 How Speeches are WrittenChapter 8 Characterizing the SpeakerChapter 9 Writing for the EarChapter 10 Writing for the Eye: Pictures, Visions, and PowerPointChapter 11 The Ethics of SpeechwritingChapter 12 The Functions of Speechwriting in Contemporary Society Chapter 13 The General Steps in the Speechwriting Process

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Book SynopsisAt a time of hyper-partisanship, media fragmentation and "fake news", the work of investigative journalism has never been more important. This book explores the history and art of investigative journalism, and explains how to deal with legal bullies, crooked politicians, media bosses, big business and intelligence agencies; how to withstand conspiracy theories; and how to work collaboratively across borders in the new age of data journalism. It also provides a fascinating first-hand account of the work that went into breaking major news stories including WikiLeaks and the Edward Snowden affair.Drawing on over 40 years of experience with world-leading investigative teams at newspapers including the Guardian and The Washington Post, award-winning journalist David Leigh provides an illuminating insight into some of the biggest news events of the 20th and 21st centuries. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes work of journalists and news organizations. It also acts as an essential practical toolkit for both aspiring and established investigative journalists.Table of Contents1. Introduction2. A Short History of Investigative Journalism3. Two Case Histories: Jonathan Aitken and BAe4. Investigative Journalists and their Bosses5. Journalists versus the Law6. Dealing with Spies and Spooks7. Conspiracy Theories8. Bad Practice and Good Practice9. Cross-border collaboration10. Fake News in Mainstream Journalism11. Trafigura – a Classic Investigation12. Conclusion: A Golden Age for Investigative Journalism?

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a theoretically driven, empirically grounded survey of the role visual communication plays in political culture, enabling a better understanding of the significance and impact visuals can have as tools of political communication. The advent of new media technologies have created new ways of producing, disseminating and consuming visual communication, the book hence explores the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of visual political communication in the digital age, and how visual communication is employed in a number of key settings. The book is intended as a specialist reading and teaching resource for courses on media, politics, citizenship, activism, social movements, public policy, and communication.Trade Review“This collection is a welcome intervention that, in the editors’ words, places visuals at the ‘epicenter’ of the relationship between political communicators and audiences. The various chapters draw our attention to a number of important developments, in particular, the rise of social media, and go some way to addressing what remains an ‘under researched area’ in political communication, providing a theoretical framework and methodological guidelines to aid future studies. I would recommend this collection to all those interested in understanding and analyzing political visuals in contemporary democracies.” (James Stanyer, The International Journal of Press-Politics. Vol. 26 (1), January 1, 2021)Table of Contents1. Introduction: Visual Political CommunicationDarren G. Lilleker, Anastasia Veneti, Daniel JacksonPart I: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Visual Political Communication2. The Digital Transformation of Visual PoliticsPaul Messaris3. The power of visual political communication: pictorial politics through the lens of communication psychologyDarren G. Lilleker4. The Interdisciplinary Roots and Digital Branches of Visual Political Communication ResearchRoman Gerodimos5. Visual Methods for Political Communication Research: Modes and AffordancesLuc Pauwels, University of AntwerpPart II: The Use of Visuals in Political Campaigning6. From Analogue to Digital Negativity ‒ Attacks and Counter-Attacks, Satire and Absurdism on Election Posters Offline and OnlineBengt Johansson, Christina Holtz-Bacha7. Political parties and their pictures. Visual communication on Instagram in Swedish and Norwegian election campaignsUta Russmann, Jakob Svensson, Anders Olof Larsson8. Visual Political Communication in Italian electoral campaignsEdoardo NovelliPart III: Visual Governance9. The Visual Presidency of Donald Trump First Hundred Days: Political Image Making and Digital MediaRyan T. Strand, Dan Schill10. Greek Political Leaders on Instragram: Between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ personalisation Stamatis Poulakidakos, Iliana Giannouli11. The political power of smiling. How politicians’ displays of happiness affect viewers’ gaze behavior and political judgments Michael Sülflow, Marcus MaurerPart IV: Citizen-led Forms of Visual Political Communication12. #MoreInCommon: Collective Mourning Practices on Twitter and the Iconisation of Jo CoxKaty Parry13. Picturing the political: Embodied visuality of protest imageryBolette B. Blaagaard14. Connective Politics, Videos and Algorithms: YouTube’s Mediation of Audiovisual Political CommunicationAndrea Medrado, Simone do Vale, Adilson Cabral

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Book SynopsisThis collection of essays discusses genre fiction and film within the discursive framework of the environmental humanities and analyses the convergent themes of spatiality, climate change, and related anxieties concerning the future of human affairs, as crucial for any understanding of current forms of “weird” and “fantastic” literature and culture. Given their focus on the culturally marginal, unknown, and “other,” these genres figure as diagnostic modes of storytelling, outlining the latent anxieties and social dynamics that define a culture’s “structure of feeling” at a given historical moment. The contributions in this volume map the long and continuous tradition of weird and fantastic fiction as a seismograph for eco-geographical turmoil from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, offering innovative and insightful ecocritical readings of H. P. Lovecraft, Harriet Prescott Spofford, China Miéville, N. K. Jemisin, Thomas Ligotti, and Jeff VanderMeer, among others. Table of ContentsForeword: Weird Geographies, Fantastic Maps Robert T. Tally, Jr. Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: Ecologies and Geographies of the Weird and the Fantastic Julius Greve and Florian Zappe 2 Naturhorror and the Weird Eugene Thacker 3 Uncanny New Worlds in Harriet Prescott Spofford’s “D’Outre Mort” and “The Black Bess” Michaela Keck 4 The Weird and the Wild: Media Ecologies of the Outré-Normative Julius Greve 5 Queering the Weird: Unnatural Participations and the Mucosal in H. P. Lovecraft and Occulture Patricia MacCormack 6 Geological Insurrections: Politics of Planetary Weirding from China Miéville to N. K. Jemisin Moritz Ingwersen 7 “Indifference would be such a relief”: Race and Weird Geography in Victor LaValle and Matt Ruff’s Dialogues with H. P. Lovecraft James Kneale 8 The Oceanic Weird, Wet Ontologies, and Hydro-Criticism in China Miéville’s The Scar Jolene Mathieson 9 “Through the eyes of Area X”: (Dis)locating Ecological Hope via New Weird Spatiality Gry Ulstein 10 Inexistent Ink: Michael Cisco and Quentin Meillassoux on Writing Worlds Ben Woodard 11 Notes on the Alluring Weirdness of (Materialist) Rumination and Regurgitation: Reading Ariana Reines and Jamie Stewart Marius Henderson 12 Spaces of Communal Misery: The Weird Post-Capitalism of Beasts of the Southern Wild Marlon Lieber Contributors

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Book SynopsisThis volume engages new films and modes of scholarly research in Arab cinema, and older, often neglected films and critical topics, while theorizing their structural relationship to contemporary developments in the Arab world. The volume considers the relationship of Arab cinema to transnational film production, distribution, and exhibition, in turn recontextualizing the works of acknowledged as well as new directorial figures, and country-specific phenomena. New documentary and experimental practices are referenced and critiqued, while commercial cinema is covered both as an industrial product and as one of several instances of contestation. The volume thus showcases the breadth and depth of Arab film culture and its multilayered connections to local conditions, regional affiliations, and the tendencies and aesthetics of global cinema.Trade Review“One of the many merits of this volume is that it approaches cinema in its sociohistorical dimension, thus shedding as much light on the circumstances (social, historical, economic, etc.) under which films are produced and consumed as on the films themselves. … The contributions in this collection present a series of possibilities and case studies in how to approach a field that remains both understudied and oversimplified … .” (Giovanni Vimercati, Film Quarterly, Winter, 2020)Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the role of hook-up apps in the lives of gay, bi, trans, and queer immigrants and refugees, and how the online culture of these platforms promotes belonging or exclusion. Within the context of the so-called European refugee crisis, this research focuses on the experiences of immigrants from especially Muslim-majority countries to the greater Copenhagen area, a region known for both its progressive ideologies and its anti-immigrant practices. Grindr and similar platforms connect newcomers with not only dates and sex, but also friends, roommates and other logistical contacts. But these socio-sexual platforms also become spaces of racialization and othering. Weaving together analyses of real Grindr profile texts, immigrant narratives, political rhetoric, and popular media, Immigrants on Grindr provides an in-depth look at the complex interplay between online and offline cultures, and between technology and society.Table of Contents1. The Politics of Rescuing Gay Immigrants in Denmark: "We all have a responsibility... to save them...".- 2. Reflections on Ethnographic Work About and Via Grindr: "Your skin is white... You will receive like 14 messages in one hour".- 3. Newcomers and Logistical Uses of Socio-Sexual Media: "Looking for friends and maybe more".- 4. Racist Speech in a Socio-Sexual Culture: "Looking for North Europeans only".- 5. Drop-down Menus, Racial Identification and the Weight of Labels: "White is a colour, Middle Eastern is not a colour".- 6. Challenging Political and Socio-Sexual Online Cultures: "Vi Hygger Os".

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Book Synopsis“Women’s sports have typically been grossly under-represented in sports media coverage. Although elite lesbian athletes far outnumber ‘out’ male athletes, media scrutiny of their experiences remains largely non-existent. Largely situated in the context of improved cultural attitudes toward sexual minorities across the West, Bill Cassidy’s Sports Journalism and Women Athletes: Coverage of Coming Out Stories is, therefore, a valuable contribution to the study of sports journalism and media, offering – for the first time – a dedicated and detailed account of the coming out of some of sports’ most high-profile lesbian athletes.”- Dr. Rory Magrath, Solent University, UKThis book examines sports journalism coverage of the coming out stories of three prominent women athletes: tennis legend and feminist icon Billie Jean King, Basketball Hall of Fame Member Sheryl Swoopes and WNBA champion Brittney Griner. When King was outed in 1981 it marked a pivotal moment in which journalists were forced to discuss lesbian athletes in sports for the first time. Swoopes’ 2005 coming out was hailed as a historic moment due to her status as one of the best women’s basketball players of all time, while Griner’s casual public acknowledgment of her sexuality came during what many have called a more receptive environment for gay and lesbian athletes. By directly analysing and comparing the media attention given to these three superstars, Cassidy provides a comprehensive overview of how journalists have historically addressed women and lesbian athletes in professional sports. This book will appeal to readers interested in sports journalism, the role of sport in society, and media coverage of gay athletes.Trade Review“Cassidy’s book is meticulously researched and firmly grounded in established theory and practice. … Cassidy’s research quantifies what many may have already suspected about differences in how male and female sports figures are treated in sports media and in particular how the coming-out stories of male and female athletes differ in quantity and perhaps quality. Thus, Sports Journalism and Women Athletes meaningfully expands previous analysis of news coverage of gay and lesbian athletes … .” (Michael Tsai, Biography, Vol. 45 (1), 2022)Table of ContentsChapter 1—From Scandalous Outing to Casual Acknowledgement.- Chapter 2—Media Coverage of Lesbian Athletes.- Chapter 3—Comparing Coverage of King, Swoopes and Griner.- Chapter 4—It’s About the People

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Book SynopsisThis book presents the main findings of an empirical exploration of media discourses on social representations of “otherness” in seven European countries. It focuses on the analysis of press discourses produced over a fifteen-year period (2000–2015) on three contemporary figures of otherness that challenge the identity of European societies, question the attitudes towards diversity, and pose significant challenges for policy-makers: immigration, Islam, and LGBT. The book provides a comprehensive and articulate map of how national media addresses such themes from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, revealing patterns of continuity and discontinuity across time and space. Lastly, it discusses these patterns in the light of their cultural meanings and their influence on social and political collective behaviours.Table of ContentsIntroduction.- Part I: The identity-otherness dynamics.- Chapter 1. Identity, otherness, and sociocultural dynamics (Sergio Salvatore).- Chapter 2. Theories and methods (Alessia Rochira).- Part II: Maps of Otherness.- Chapter 3. Immigration (Giuseppe A. Veltri).- Chapter 4. Islam (Gordon Sammuta).- Chapter 5. LGBT (Alina Pop).- Part III: Symbolic resources for the representation of otherness.- Chapter 6. The semiotic construction of Otherness (Sergio Salvatore).- Chapter 7. An interpretative model: Semiotic fields and semiotic forces (Sergio Salvatore).- Chapter 8. Implications for policy-making and further developments (Giuseppe Veltri).

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Book SynopsisWhile pornography is stigmatized as “dirty work," it faces many of the same operational considerations as traditional industries. From increasing competition, new technology that impacts services, to health and workplace safety issues, the pornography industry also utilizes and applies HRM strategies that include recruiting, selecting and retaining the best (sex) workers. As a follow up to his last book on the social history of training and development (2018), Kopp writes this final installment of a system contained within an unconventional setting as he reflects and distills the facets of human resource management found in the pornography industry. Specifically, this book explores traditional human resource management processes and practices, and examines how common HRM systems are contextualized in an “organization-as-pariah” venue. Topics covered include recruiting, career development, performance management and workforce diversity, offering readers a value-neutral, analytical assessment of the HR practices in the unconventional industry and stigmatized trade that is pornography. Table of Contents1) Introduction – In this introductory chapter, the author will establish the context by first providing an overview of the ubiquitous pornography industry, including a modern history, definitions (e.g., Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, “I know it when I see it.”), as well as, describing the traditional business operation, which will introduce the reader to the human resource management (HRM) practices and how these traditional HR practices are utilized within this non-traditional industry. The chapter will also introduce the reader to the construct of so-called “dirty work” and the organization-as-pariah. This chapter will give the reader an overview of the discipline of Human Resource Management (see above graphic) and will serve as a good primer for the rest of the following chapters. 2) Recruiting, Selecting, and Retaining Talent - In this chapter, the author will describe the processes of how workers in pornography are recruited (e.g., Craigslist) and/or endeavor to work in the porn industry, both in front and behind the camera. As the author has seen, like in traditional organizations, employers in pornography are looking for workers who are motivated, have a great attitude and good work ethic. For example, according to Berg’s (2015) field work, before they cast someone, producers of pornography want to tell a little bit about a prospect’s psychological state, too. How eager they are to do it? How motivated by money they are to do it, as opposed to the fun aspect. As former adult film actress, Aurora Snow, also expressed, Just like any other job, punctuality and preparation are necessary for long-term success. Showing up for work two or three hours late won’t get a performer fired, but word spreads quickly. And this occupation doesn’t have defined shifts. A day’s work can be anywhere from three to 22 hours long, depending on the scene. And forget about anything resembling cancellation fees. If a scene is called off, not only does no one get paid, the companies lose money on location rental and kill fees. (Snow, 2016).[1] Specific worker profiles will be explored, as well as, worker turnover and retention. 3) Managing Performance – In this chapter, the author will explore performance management and the skill sets needed to perform in adult films. Male performers, for example, have their own unique set of challenges. According to adult film producer and director, Dan Leal, “Every man is on penis pill supplements or injects; you have to be, and any guy who says he isn’t is lying. In the real world, you don’t have sex for this long; that’s the reality[2].” The author will also explore how performers train and keep in form. That is, similar to professional athletes, performers develop routines. While performing, actors must focus on such things as timing, where the camera is, and what angle might be best for the camera. The author will seek out additional interviews using narrative inquiry to glean a day in the life of an adult performer and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) required to do the job. However, to be clear, the larger inquiry in this Performance chapter will be to not only underscore the operational side of this stigmatized industry, but also analysis of performance standards in the industry, per se. The author will spend much time in this chapter analyzing the aspects of training and performance standards for adult entertainment workers. That is, similar to professional athletes, performers develop routines, too, to stay at the top of their game. After his field research, the author will analyze a day in the life of an adult performer vis-à-vis to the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) required to perform (on) the job. For example, a fundamental part of HR systems is performance management and analysis including the metrics that distinguish between “good” performance (e.g., meeting or exceeding expectations) and “bad” performance (e.g., actual performance is less than expected performance.) The example used in the Leal quote was just an attempt, by way of anecdote, to better understand how adult entertainment workers try to attain and ensure that the required, expected performance is achieved. 4) Career Development - In this chapter, career development aspects will be explored. Many workers in pornography endeavor to leave performing to become producers and directors in the adult film business, as well as, start their own pornography companies. Some performers even go onto mainstream movies and entertainment like Jenna Jameson and Traci Lords. Also explored is how mainstream celebrities became more popular or discovered because of the release of a sex tape. Examples of this are with Pamela Anderson & Tommy Lee, Montana Fishburne and in the case of Kim Kardashian, a sex tape led to an empire. Career Planning and Development is a vital aspect to Human Resources (HR). The anecdotes provided on how pornography actors and actresses became directors and producers of pornography movies or how adult entertainment workers become more popular or discovered because of the release of their sex tape were examples of career development in the pornography industry. Becoming “mainstream” is an aspiration of many in the porn industry. Further analysis will be done regarding Career Development and Planning in this stigmatized industry. 5) Diversity and Multiculturalism – In this chapter, the author investigates the state of diversity in the pornography workplace. According to Flory (2015), the pornography industry has a diversity problem[3]. This hierarchy usually proceeds according to which sex acts are considered most taboo and, sometimes, most physically demanding for the female performer. However, “interracial” porn, which is frequently seen as the ultimate feat for an actress, is held out as more extreme not because of which body part goes where, but because the adult industry reflects the old attitude society still holds on to: that the color of a sexual partner's skin can by itself make the act forbidden. The author explores the state of diversity and biases in pornography industry. 6) Compensation – In this chapter, the author explores the compensation framework in the pornography industry. Using recent data, the reader will get a sense as to the remuneration of different jobs within the industry. For example, a recent CNBC survey[4] of pornography workers that the more extreme acts command higher rates, and the most extreme acts can go for $1,800 to $2,500. What follows is a recently published wage plan for the pornography industry: Talent Salary Female performer, man/woman scene $300-$1,500 Female performer, all-woman scene $700-$1,200 Male Performer $500-$1,500 Director $1,000-$3,000 Cameraperson $500-$700 Sound Technician $300-$400 Production Assistant $100-$250 Writers $250-$400 Still photographers $500 Makeup artists $500 The author will also investigate the benefits packages or non-cash compensation, if any. Exploring the compensation framework of a (stigmatized) organization is a significant part of HR analysis and practice. The intent of this chapter is not to just reveal or expose the wage plans within the pornography industry, but to explore and evaluate the wage plan and benefits of the pornography industry as it relates also to views of compensation for work, as well. For example, compensation as a tool for organizational oppression? Additionally, the author will examine compensation from a critical theory viewpoint, discussing pay for work and “behavior in return for compensation” paradigms from management’s assumptions about workers and pay-for-performance (e.g., Theory X assumptions). Additionally, I will analyze compensation from an overarching inducement standpoint—is/was compensation the sole motivator for adult entertainment workers? 7) Workplace Health and Safety – In this chapter, the author will explore the health and safety practices in the pornography industry. Adult film industry workers face serious health risks due to potential infection with HIV and other pathogens transmitted through sexual contact. The author will look into recent legislation impacting the pornography industry such as Proposition 60 in California which enforces the existing mandatory condom rule and provide other health protections for adult film performers. Also, OSHA and workers compensation is discussed. 8) Porn and HRM: Axiological Issues – The concluding chapter will explore the overarching questions that are presented in the introductory chapter as well as lessons learned. One benefit of examining aspects of HR in situ within the context of a so-called pariah industry is that we are better positioned to reflect upon another theme proffered here, specifically, one that considers the axiology of human resources: is HR amoral? In other words, the construct of HR, like with food, water and oxygen is—prima facie—value-neutral; that is, until seemingly placed into a context where it risks being rendered guilty by association. In sum, we contemplate the question, Does “dirty work” equate to “dirty HR”?

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Book SynopsisThis book brings together the work of historians and sociologists with perspectives from media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, and information studies to address the origins, practices, and possible futures of contemporary machine learning. From its foundations in 1950s and 1960s pattern recognition and neural network research to the modern-day social and technological dramas of DeepMind’s AlphaGo, predictive political forecasting, and the governmentality of extractive logistics, machine learning has become controversial precisely because of its increased embeddedness and agency in our everyday lives. How can we disentangle the history of machine learning from conventional histories of artificial intelligence? How can machinic agents’ capacity for novelty be theorized? Can reform initiatives for fairness and equity in AI and machine learning be realized, or are they doomed to cooptation and failure? And just what kind of “learning” does machine learning truly represent? We empirically address these questions and more to provide a baseline for future research.Chapter 2 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis edited collection from leading scholars in the fields of media, communications, cultural studies and a number of aligned areas looks to the intersection of capitalism, crime and the media. The text is founded on the principles of cultural criminology – that how we determine and understand crime lies in the social world and that the determination of crime and its mediation in popular culture have a political basis. The book consists of eleven chapters and is divided into three sections. Section one considers the intersection of crime and capitalism in a range of contemporary cultural texts. Section two examines how various power systems influence the operation of the media in its role of reporting crime and holding the powerful to account. Section three considers how texts in a variety of formats are used to conduct politics, communicate politics and enact political decision making. Table of Contents1.​ Introduction2. ‘Grabbing and Keeping’: Deadwood—The Origin of Specie3. ‘Rosie’s Room’ and ‘Bullet’s Phone’: The Commodification of the Lost Girl in The Killing and Its Paratexts4. Noir Tourism and the Black Dahlia Murder5. Reporting Crime and Capitalism: Techniques of Neutralisation in a Corpus of Corporate Fraud News6. Think Tanks, News Sources and Neo-liberal News Discourse: Off-shoring Power and Influence7. Friends in High Places: Sexual Abuse, Power and the Corruptions of Jimmy Savile8. From Chopping Trees to Destroying Capitalism: A Social Etymology of Hacking9. The Loyalist Community of Northern Ireland: From Cultural Defenders to Subcultural Offenders? A Cultural Criminology Exploration10. Activist Media, Social Media and Mediated Republican Deviance in the Northern Irish Peace Process11. Save the Troll! UK Social Media Legislation and the Attack on Freedom of Speech

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates interaction-focused scholarship on online communication. It focuses on a broad range of online contexts including social media, dating apps, online comments, instant messaging and video-mediated interaction. Bringing together experts from a variety of scholarly backgrounds, chapters demonstrate how different microanalytic methods, including conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis and discursive psychology, can be applied to online communication. The book also goes on to address ethical, methodological and theoretical issues of analysing online social interaction. With the explosion of the use of online platforms for everyday and institutional interaction, this book is a timely collection which explores the current state of the field, and considers future directions for microanalysis of online communication. Trade Review“Analysing Digital Interaction is an extremely timely contribution representing an important statement on how methods from CA, MCA, and DP can inform our understanding of the rapid social socio-technological that we are currently experiencing. … Flexible and sensitive analytic methods such as those discussed here are capable of rendering distinctive views of these interactional nuances and they are critical to help us understand these rapidly evolving forms of life.” (Will Gibson, Symbolic Interaction, March 14, 2023)Table of Contents1. Introduction: The Microanalysis of Digital Interaction; Joanne Meredith, David Giles and Wyke J. P. Stommel.- 2. Ethical Challenges in Collecting and Analysing Online Interactions; Hannah Ditchfield.- 3. Context, History, and Twitter Data: Some Methodological Reflections; David Giles.- 4. “It’s time to shift this blog a bit”: Categorial Negotiation as a Local and Cumulative Accomplishment; Linda Walz.- 5. The Radio Host Cried, the Facebook Users Identified: Crying as an Action Linked to ‘good people’; Elisabeth Muth Andersen.- 6. “On that note I’m signing out”: Endings of Threads in Online Newspaper Comments; Joanne Meredith.- 7. Similarities and Differences Across Settings: The Case of Turn Continuations in Instant Messaging; Anna Spagnolli, Sonia Genovese, Mattia Mori.- 8. The Spectre of ‘Ghosting’ and the Sequential Organization of Post-match Tinder Chat Conversations; Christian Licoppe.- 9. Participation of Companions in Video-Mediated Medical Consultations: A Microanalysis; Wyke Stommel and Martijn W. J. Stommel.- 10. Conclusion: Future Directions in Analysing Digital Interaction; Janet Smithson.

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Book SynopsisDigital and social media companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook grip the globe with market, civic, and political strength akin to large, sovereign states. Yet, these corporations are private entities. How should states and communities protect the individual rights of their citizens – or their national and local interests – while keeping pace with globalized digital companies? This scholarly compendium examines regulatory solutions which encourage content diversity and protect fundamental rights. The volume compares European and US regulatory approaches, including closer focus on topics such as privacy, copyright, and freedom of expression. Further, we propose pedagogical models for educating students on possible regulatory regimes of the future. Our final chapter invites readers to consider social and digital media regulation for both this generation and the ones to come.Chapter(s) “Introduction: New Paradigms of Media Regulation in a Transatlantic Perspective”, “From News Diversity to News Quality: New Media Regulation Theoretical Issues” and “The Stakes and Threats of the Convergence Between Media and Telecommunication Industries” are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Social Media at the Cross-Roads.- Chapter 2 - The audiovisual industry facing the digital revolution: understanding the present and inventing the future.- Chapter 3- Convergence between on-line media and telecommunications: A threat to diversity?.- Chapter 4- Blurred Lines: Regulating beyond media to protect media pluralism.- Chapter 5 - From media pluralism to the quality of online news: New issues with digital platforms.- Chapter 6 - The Quid Pro Quo Rationale and the Case for Aggregate Social Media User Data as Public Resource.- Chapter 7- GDPR and Media Regulation.- Chapter 8- How to teach the next generation of professional students about the emerging digital communication global regulatory regime.- Conclusions: A prognostic for the next 5, 20, and 100 years of media regulation.

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Book SynopsisVirtual Realities presents a ground-breaking application of phenomenology as a critical method to explore the impact of immersive media. Specific case studies examine 360-degree documentary productions about trauma, virtual military simulations, VR exposure therapy for anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder, and the emerging debate about regulating violent content in immersive media gaming. By addressing these texts primarily as experiences, Virtual Realities deploys an analytic and critical methodology that is sensitive to the bodily and cognitive impact of immersive media, especially via the body of an appropriately attentive researcher-critic. Virtual Realities provokes a rethinking of many of the taken-for-granted ideas and assumptions circulating in the field of immersive media. These include concepts of empathy, embodiment, the affective impact of textual and immersive properties on the users’ experience, as well as the “gee-whizz” mentality often associated with approaches to the medium. The case studies provide fresh engagement with immersive media such as cinematic VR at a time when dominant attitudes about the technology display an evangelical fascination with VR and other mixed realities as inexorably beneficial. Virtual Realities makes a compelling case for VR-phenomenology to be employed as a methodology by humanities scholars and also in cross-disciplinary applications of immersive media in fields such as psychology, human-computer interaction studies and the health sciences.Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Phenomenology and the Virtual Reality Researcher-Critic 3 On the Excitement of Measuring the Virtual Reality Audience 4 Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy 5 Virtual Reality, Trauma and Empathy 6 Regulation of Violent Content in Virtual Reality 7 Conclusion

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Book SynopsisInsurgent Skin: Body, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin American Cinema argues that twenty-first century Latin American cinema about lesbian, feminist, intersex, and transgender themes is revolutionary because it disrupts heteronormative and binary representation and explores new, queer signifying modes.Grounded in feminist and queer theory, Insurgent Skin conjugates film phenomenology and theories of affect and embodiment to analyze a spectrum of Latin American films.The first chapters explore queer signifying in Argentinean director Lucrecia Martel’s Salta trilogy and the lesbian utopia of Albertina Carri’s Las hijas del fuego (2018). Next, the book discusses the female body as uncanny absence in Tatiana Huezo’s documentary Tempestad (2016), a film about gendered violence in Mexico. Chapter Five focuses on intersex films and the establishing of queer solidarity and an intersex gaze. The last chapter examines transgender embodiment in the Chilean film Una mujer fantástica (2017) and Brazilian documentary Bixa Travesty (2018).Table of Contents1. Introduction: The Naked Truth: Body, Gender and Sexuality in Twenty-First Century Latin American Cinema2. Lesbian Pathology and Monstrous Maternity in Lucrecia Martel’s Salta Trilogy 3. The Lesbian Utopia of Albertina Carri’s Las hijas del fuego (2018)4. Non-Binary: Gender Trouble and Intersex Bodies in Latin American Cinema5. The Female Body as Absence: Tempestad by Tatiana Huezo (2016) and Ayer maravilla fui by Gabriel Mariño (2017) 6. Embodied Existence as Resistance: The Transgender Body as Political Protest7. Nudity and Social Protest in Latin America: Artivism’s Filmed Effects8. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisTerror warnings, fake news, spectacles and scandals in real time – the networked world has wound itself up into a nervous frenzy, where everything has become visible: the banal and the terrible, the uninhibited abuse and the anonymous attack. Translated for the first time into English, Digital Fever analyses the patterns of outrage and agitation that have come to define social media and the Internet, exposing their devastating impact on our notions of truth, debate, authority and power. In this endless cycle of outrage, Poerksen argues that the intelligent use of information must become part of the general education provided by schools: the digital society must be transformed into an editorial one. In order for democracy to survive, we must as a society achieve media maturity. A blazing tour of the contemporary landscape of fake-news, echo chambers, disinformation, manipulation, and the turbulence that democracy is undergoing, this book not only analyses this digital economy of outrage, but serves as a guiding light to overcome it.Table of ContentsChapter One - The Crisis of Truth: or the suspicion of manipulation.- Chapter Two - The Crisis of Discourse: or the diminishing of the gatekeepers.- Chapter Three - The Crisis of Authority: or the pains of visibility.- Chapter Four - The Crisis of Cosiness: or the collapse of contexts.- Chapter Five - The Crisis of Reputation: or the omnipresence of scandals.- Chapter Six - The Tangible Utopia of an Editorial Society.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores what the methodologies of Art History might offer Comics Studies, in terms of addressing overlooked aspects of aesthetics, form, materiality, perception and visual style. As well as considering what Art History proposes of comic scholarship, including the questioning of some of its deep-rooted categories and procedures, it also appraises what comics and Comics Studies afford and ask of Art History. This book draws together the work of international scholars applying art-historical methodologies to the study of a range of comic strips, books, cartoons, graphic novels and manga, who, as well as being researchers, are also educators, artists, designers, curators, producers, librarians, editors, and writers, with some undertaking practice-based research. Many are trained art historians, but others come from, have migrated into, or straddle other disciplines, such as Comparative Literature, American Literature, Cultural Studies, Visual Studies, and a range of subjects within Art & Design practice.Table of ContentsWays of Seeing Comics: Art-Historical Approaches to the Form.Part I Old Skool Art History.The Lives of the Artists.Connoisseurship, Attribution, and Comic Strip Art: The Case of Jack B. Yeats.Reading Comics with Aby Warburg: Collaging Memories.Part II Perception, Reception and Meaning.Psychologies of Perception: Stories of Depiction.Aesthetics of Reception: Uncovering the Modes of Interaction in Comics.Reading Richard Felton Outcault’s “Yellow Kid” Through Perception of the Image.Colour in Comics: Reading Lorenzo Mattotti Through the Lens of Art History.Part III The New and Newer Art Histories.Feminist Art History as an Approach to Research on Comics: Meta Reflections on Studies of Swedish Feminist Comics.Towards Feminist Comics Studies: Feminist Art History and the Study of Women’s Comix in the 1970s in the United States.Real Queer Bodies: Visual Weight and Imagined Gravity in Sport Manga.Part IV Comics for/Beyond Art History.Afrofuturism and Animism as Method: Art History and Decolonisation in Black Panther.What Is an Image? Art History, Visual Culture Studies, and Comics Studies.From Giotto to Drnaso: The Common Well of Pictorial Schema in ‘High’ Art and ‘Low’ Comics.VAST/O Exhibition (De)Construction: Exploring the Potentials of Augmented Abstract Comics and Animation Installations as a Method to Communicate Health Experiences.From Tableau to Sequence: Introducing Comics Theory Within Art History to Study the Photobook.

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Book SynopsisHateful thoughts and words can lead to harmful actions like the March 2019 terrorist attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. In free, open and democratic societies, governments cannot justifiably regulate what citizens think, feel, believe or value, but do have a duty to protect citizens from harmful communication that incites discrimination, active hostility and violence.Written by a public policy advisor for fellow practitioners in politics and public life, this book discusses significant practical and moral challenges regarding internet governance and freedom of speech, particularly when responding to content that is legal but harmful. Policy makers and professionals working for governmental institutions need to strike a fair balance between protecting from harm and preserving the right to freedom of expression. And because merely passing laws does not solve complex social problems, governments need to invest, not just regulate. Governments, big tech and the private sector, civil society, individual citizens and the fourth estate all have roles to play, and counter-speech is everyone’s responsibility.This book tackles hard questions about internet governance, hate speech, cancel culture and the loss of civility, and illustrates principled pragmatism applied to perplexing policy problems. Furthermore, it presents counter-speech strategies as alternatives and complements to censorship and criminalisation.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: After Christchurch.- Part I. Regulating Harmful Digital Communication.- Chapter 2. Challenges in Regulating Online Content.- Chapter 3. The Business Models of Big Tech.- Chapter 4. Deplatforming and Democratic Legitimacy.- Part II. Hate, Harm and the Limits of Censorship.- Chapter 5. Regulating “Hate Speech”.- Chapter 6. Free Speech and its Limits.- Chapter 7. Hate, Harm and the Liberal State.- Chapter 8. Striking a Fair Balance When Regulating Free Speech.- Chapter 9. Counter-speech is Everyone’s Responsibility.- Chapter 10. Conclusion: Cleaning Up After the Party

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Book SynopsisThis book adds to the scant academic literature investigating how comics transmit knowledge of the past and how this refraction of the past shapes our understanding of society and politics in sometimes damaging ways. The volume comes at these questions from a specifically archaeological perspective, foregrounding the representation and narrative use of material cultures. It fulfils its objectives through three reception studies in the first part of the volume and three chapters by comic creators in the second part. All six chapters aim to grapple with a set of central questions about the power inherent in drawn images of various kinds. Trade Review“A central tenet of the volume is that both comics and archaeology are political. … Being the author and illustrator of numerous archaeology comics, John G. Swogger shows with the aid of strip comic format … archaeologists should promote the community’s feedback and hands-on participation. To prevent community history and preservation from being eclipsed by one-sided portrayals, localized communities should be involved in creating content for comics.” (Johannes H. N. Loubser, AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, June 29, 2023)Table of ContentsIntroduction: Why Comics and Archaeology?.‘The Aliens from 2,000 B.C.!’: Truth, Fiction and Pseudoarchaeology in American Comic Books.Panels from the South Seas: Pacific Colonialism, Archaeology, and Pseudoscience in Francophone Bande Dessinée.Making Sargon Great Again: Reuse and Reappropriation of Ancient Mesopotamian Imagery in Fan-Art of the Online Right.Creating Comics for Public Engagement in Roman Aeclanum: Illustrating Ancient History.“Mix, Mould, Fire!”: Comic Art and Educational Outreach Inspired by Archaeology.“They Do Things Differently There”: Articulating the Unfamiliar Past in Community Heritage Comics.

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Book SynopsisChapter-1 Introduction.- Chapter-2 Concept of cyber-feminism.- Chapter-3 Ways of falling prey to gender violence.- Chapter-4 Cyberbullying: Victimization and means of threat.-Chapter-5 Body shaming: Analysis and understanding its myths.- Chapter-6 Sexual trolling on social media.- Chapter-7 Online pornography and its impact.- Chapter-8 Impact of social media violence on physical health.- Chapter-9 Impact of Social media violence on mental health.- Chapter-10 Educating women to curb gender violence.- Chapter-11 Coping mechanisms for women.- Chapter-12 Role of technology in preventing gender violence on social media.- Chapter-13 Representations on gender violence in selected fictions.- Chapter-14 Conclusion.

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