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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies
Stieg Larsson was an unabashed feminist in his personal and professional life and in the fictional world he created, but The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest are full of graphic depictions of violence against women, including stalking, sexual harassment, child abuse, rape, incest, serial murder, sexual slavery, and sex trafficking, committed by vile individual men and by corrupt, secretive institutions. How do readers and moviegoers react to these depictions, and what do they make of the women who fight back, the complex masculinities in the trilogy, and the ambiguous gender of the elusive Lisbeth Salander? These lively and accessible essays expand the conversation in the blogosphere about the novels and films by connecting the controversies about gender roles to social trends in the real world.
Hermann Haken (born 1927) is one of the "fathers" of the quantum-mechanical laser theory, formulated between 1962 and 1966, in strong competition with American researchers. Later on, he created Synergetics, the science of cooperation in multicomponent systems. The book concentrates on the development of his scientific work during the first thirty-five years of his career. In 1970 he and his doctoral student Robert Graham were able to show that the laser is an example of a nonlinear system far from thermal equilibrium that shows a phase-transition like behavior. Subsequently, this insight opened the way for the formulation of Synergetics. Synergetics is able to explain, how very large systems show the phenomenon of self-organization that can be mathematically described by only very few order parameters. The results of Haken's research were published in two seminal books Synergetics (1977) and Advanced Synergetics (1983). After the year 1985 Haken concentrated his research on the macroscopic foundation of Synergetics. This led him towards the application of synergetic principles in medicine, cognitive research and, finally, in psychology. A comprehensive bibliography of Hermann Haken's publications (nearly 600 numbers) is included in the book.
Providing an introduction to stochastic optimal control in infinite dimension, this book gives a complete account of the theory of second-order HJB equations in infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, focusing on its applicability to associated stochastic optimal control problems. It features a general introduction to optimal stochastic control, including basic results (e.g. the dynamic programming principle) with proofs, and provides examples of applications. A complete and up-to-date exposition of the existing theory of viscosity solutions and regular solutions of second-order HJB equations in Hilbert spaces is given, together with an extensive survey of other methods, with a full bibliography. In particular, Chapter 6, written by M. Fuhrman and G. Tessitore, surveys the theory of regular solutions of HJB equations arising in infinite-dimensional stochastic control, via BSDEs. The book is of interest to both pure and applied researchers working in the control theory of stochastic PDEs, and in PDEs in infinite dimension. Readers from other fields who want to learn the basic theory will also find it useful. The prerequisites are: standard functional analysis, the theory of semigroups of operators and its use in the study of PDEs, some knowledge of the dynamic programming approach to stochastic optimal control problems in finite dimension, and the basics of stochastic analysis and stochastic equations in infinite-dimensional spaces.
Narrative and Genre introduces students to these key concepts in media studies, complementing Image and Representation published in 1998. It covers the major narrative theorists including Todorov, Propp, Levi-Strauss, Barthes and applies their ideas via case examples ranging from The X Files to newspaper reporting. It then moves on to offer an extensive analysis of the basic schema and conventions of genre, drawing on the film noir, the TV cop genre and science fiction for examples, and showing how the repertoire of elements of each ranges across setting, character, narrative, iconography, style and stars. Fresh, down-to-earth and well-structured, this is an excellent text for all those in post-16 education, whether in school, college or university.
This compact monograph is focused on disturbance attenuation in nonsmooth dynamic systems, developing an H approach in the nonsmooth setting. Similar to the standard nonlinear H approach, the proposed nonsmooth design guarantees both the internal asymptotic stability of a nominal closed-loop system and the dissipativity inequality, which states that the size of an error signal is uniformly bounded with respect to the worst-case size of an external disturbance signal. This guarantee is achieved by constructing an energy or storage function that satisfies the dissipativity inequality and is then utilized as a Lyapunov function to ensure the internal stability requirements. Advanced H Control is unique in the literature for its treatment of disturbance attenuation in nonsmooth systems. It synthesizes various tools, including Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs partial differential inequalities as well as Linear Matrix Inequalities. Along with the finite-dimensional treatment, the synthesis is extended to infinite-dimensional setting, involving time-delay and distributed parameter systems. To help illustrate this synthesis, the book focuses on electromechanical applications with nonsmooth phenomena caused by dry friction, backlash, and sampled-data measurements. Special attention is devoted to implementation issues. Requiring familiarity with nonlinear systems theory, this book will be accessible to g raduate students interested in systems analysis and design, and is a welcome addition to the literature for researchers and practitioners in these areas.
For decades, Germany has been shaped and reshaped by the sounds of popular music-whether viewed as uniquely German or an ideological invader from abroad. This collected volume brings together leading figures in the field of German Studies, popular music studies, and cultural studies at large to survey the sociopolitical impact of music on conceptions of the German state and national identity, gender and sexuality, and transnational cultural production and consumption, expanding on the ways in which sounds, technologies, media practices, and exchanges of popular music provide a unique glimpse into the cultural dynamics of postwar Germany.
Why do we still read and discuss Chaucer? The answer may be simple: he is fun, and he challenges our intelligence and questions our certainties. This collected volume represents an homage to a toweringly great poet, as well as an acknowledgement of the intellectual excitement, challenges, and pleasure that readers owe to him as even today, his poems have the capacity to change the way we engage with fundamental questions of knowledge, understanding, and beauty.
The value of multi-disciplinary research lies in the exchange of
ideas and methods across the traditional boundaries between areas
of study. It could be argued that many of the advances in science
and engineering take place because the ideas, methods and the tools
of thought from one discipline become re-applied in another.
This volume brings together Northrop Frye's criticism on twentieth-century literature, a body of work produced over almost sixty years. Including Frye's incisive book, T.S. Eliot, as well as his discussions of writers such as James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, and George Orwell, the volume also contains a recently discovered review of C.G. Jung's book on the synchronicity principle and a previously unpublished introduction to a twentieth-century literature anthology. Frye's insightful commentaries demonstrate definitively that he was as astute a critic of the literature of his own time as he was of the literature of earlier periods. Glen Robert Gill's substantial introduction delineates the development of Frye's criticism on twentieth-century literature, puts it in historical and cultural context, and relates it to his overarching theory of literature. This volume in Frye's Collected Works is indispensible not only for readers of Frye's work but for all scholars and students of twentieth-century literature.
This volume is devoted to innovation with a special focus on its two sides, namely creation and destruction, and on its role in the evolution of capitalist economies. The first part of the book looks at innovation and its effects on economic performance, addressing issues of motives, behavioral rules under uncertainty, actor properties, and technology characteristics. The second part concentrates on potential consequences of innovative activities, in particular structural change, the "innovation-mediated" effect of skill-oriented policies on regional performance, the destructive effects of innovation activities, and the question whether novelty is always good. The role of innovation in the evolution of capitalism itself is discussed in the third part.
What is astro-culture? In The Babylonian Planet it is unfolded as an aesthetic, an idea, a field of study, a position, and a practice. It helps to engineer the shift from a world view that is segregated to one that is integrated - from global to planetary; from distance to intimacy and where closeness and cosmic distance live side-by-side. In this tour de force, Sonja Neef takes her cue from Edouard Glissant's vision of multilingualism and reignites the myth of the Tower of Babel to anticipate new forms of cultural encounter. For her, Babel is an organic construction site at which she fuses theoretical analysis and case studies of artists, writers and thinkers like William Kentridge, Orhan Pamuk and Immanuel Kant. Her skilful interrogations then allow her to paint a portrait of art and culture that abolishes the horizon as a barrier to vision and reclaims it as a place of contact and relation. By combining the Babylonian concept of the encounter and the planetary concept of the whole-earth, Neef creates a space - an astro-culture - in which she can examine topics as varied as language, translation, media, modernity, migration and the moon. In doing so, she instigates a renewed cultural understanding receptive to the kinder forms of cultural encounter and globalisation she hopes will come.
This intriguing volume examines how the small group communication of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and their key advisors influenced the decisions to escalate the war in Vietnam from January 1961 to July 1965. Using an historical-critical research method, Moya Ann Ball traces the Vietnam decisions from the combative rhetoric of Kennedy's presidential campaign through the creation of a small group communication culture in the Kennedy administration, which, sustained and reinforced in the Johnson administration, became the motivating force behind the decisions to overtly escalate the war in July 1965. Ball asserts that this small group communication culture was formed by the convergence of such characteristics as the decision-making group's assembly effect, the group's reaction to situational demands, the sharing of dramatic communication, and normative behavior. The analysis is based on primary sources (many of them declassified through the author's efforts) from the Kennedy and Johnson Libraries, and on correspondence and interviews with advisors such as McGeorge Bundy, Robert S. McNamara, Walt W. Rostow, Dean Rusk, and James C. Thomson. Contrary to current literature, Ball uncovers that: Kennedy was not the "natural leader" of the Vietnam decision-making group, but became the leader in death that he had not been in life; the decision makers' communication rooted them rhetorically to a combat position from which it seemed impossible to move; Johnson stalled on overt action in Vietnam and, rather than leading his advisors, was led by them; and the decisions to escalate the war emerged in a "context of discovery" in the Kennedy administration and then were rationalized in a "context ofjustification" in the Johnson administration. Vietnam-on-the-Potomac will prove invaluable to communication specialists, political scientists, and historians.
"The mission of Research Methodology in Strategy and Management is "to provide a forum for critique, commentary, and discussion about key methodology issues in the strategic management field" because "strategic management relies on an array of complex methods drawn from various allied disciplines to examine how managers attempt to lead their firms toward success." This tenth volume was commissioned following the Academy of Management Global Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2013. Reflecting a diversity of Africa-born authors in the mainland and diaspora, as well as non-Africans whose research focus on Africa, it offers a collection of high impact research that makes a major contribution in advancing management education and knowledge in Africa."
This book highlights technology trends and challenges that trace the evolution of antenna design, starting from 3rd generation phones and moving towards the latest release of LTE-A. The authors explore how the simple monopole and whip antenna from the GSM years have evolved towards what we have today, an antenna design that is compact, multi-band in nature and caters to multiple elements on the same patch to provide high throughput connectivity. The scope of the book targets a broad range of subjects, including the microstrip antenna, PIFA antenna, and the monopole antenna to be used for different applications over three different mobile generations. Beyond that, the authors take a step into the future and look at antenna requirements for 5G communications, which already has the 5G drive in place with prominent scenarios and use-cases emerging. They examine these, and put in place the challenges that lie ahead for antenna design, particularly in mm-Wave design. The book provides a reference for practicing engineers and under/post graduate students working in this field.
This book targets the critical issue of decision making in uncertain conditions and situations. The aim is to increase readers' understanding of complexity and of socio-economic interactions through the application of systems thinking perspectives. Among the various areas and topics addressed are complexity and sustainable management, markets as complex adaptive systems, the impacts of psychological and emotional factors upon value co-creation exchanges, and ICT enablers of service network performance and service exchange fulfillment. Thanks to the chosen perspectives, all of which are based on different systems research streams, the book will support more consistent and robust decisions, leading to sustainable, wise, and viable systems dynamics. It will aid managers, practitioners, and consultants in their decision-making processes and will also be of interest for academics and scholars in management, systems, computer science, engineering, and marketing.
This book offers an overview of models, measurements, calculations and examples connecting musical acoustics and music psychology. Indeed, many mathematical formulations that explain musical acoustics can also be used to help predict human auditory perception.
In a comparison of communication in the U.S. presidential primaries of the twentieth century, Kendall examines the role of the candidates and the media during the period of primary elections. Drawing upon information from a broad array of sources, Kendall uncovers communication patterns that transcend time regarding political image, horse race coverage, and negative campaigning. She takes a strong communication perspective, arguing that the verbal context of the presidential primaries is an important factor overlooked in traditional studies. Topics covered include the effect of party rules on communication, the role of speeches and debates, the role of political advertising, and the media's construction of the primaries in the pre- television era and the age of television. Kendall examines the 1996 primaries in light of patterns discovered in earlier years, and she makes predictions and recommendations regarding the 2000 primaries. With its century-wide scope and the variety of research methods used, the book will be of considerable value to researchers, scholars, journalists and students involved with political communication and American presidential elections.
In recent years there has been a significant increase of interest in continuous-time Principal-Agent models, or contract theory, and their applications. Continuous-time models provide a powerful and elegant framework for solving stochastic optimization problems of finding the optimal contracts between two parties, under various assumptions on the information they have access to, and the effect they have on the underlying "profit/loss" values. This monograph surveys recent results of the theory in a systematic way, using the approach of the so-called Stochastic Maximum Principle, in models driven by Brownian Motion. Optimal contracts are characterized via a system of Forward-Backward Stochastic Differential Equations. In a number of interesting special cases these can be solved explicitly, enabling derivation of many qualitative economic conclusions.
From the quality of the air we breathe to the national leaders we choose, data and statistics are a pervasive feature of daily life and daily news. But how do news, numbers and public opinion interact with each other - and with what impacts on society at large? Featuring an international roster of established and emerging scholars, this book is the first comprehensive collection of research into the little understood processes underpinning the uses/misuses of statistical information in journalism and their socio-psychological and political effects. Moving beyond the hype around "data journalism," News, Numbers and Public Opinion delves into a range of more latent, fundamental questions such as: * Is it true that most citizens and journalists do not have the necessary skills and resources to critically process and assess numbers? * How do/should journalists make sense of the increasingly data-driven world? * What strategies, formats and frames do journalists use to gather and represent different types of statistical data in their stories? * What are the socio-psychological and political effects of such data gathering and representation routines, formats and frames on the way people acquire knowledge and form attitudes? * What skills and resources do journalists and publics need to deal effectively with the influx of numbers into in daily work and life - and how can newsrooms and journalism schools meet that need? The book is a must-read for not only journalists, journalism and media scholars, statisticians and data scientists but also anybody interested in the interplay between journalism, statistics and society.
A New History of British Documentary is the first comprehensive overview of documentary production in Britain from early film to the present day. It covers both the film and television industries and demonstrates how documentary practice has adapted to changing institutional and ideological contexts.
We live in a world that is increasingly characterised as full of risk, danger and threat. Every day a new social issue emerges to assail our sensibilities and consciences. Drawing on the popular Economic Social and Research Council (ESRC) seminar series, this book examines these social issues and anxieties, and the solutions to them, through the concept of moral panic. With a commentary by Charles Critcher and contributions from both well-known and up-and-coming researchers and practitioners, this is a stimulating and innovative overview of moral panic ideas, which will be an essential resource.
This comprehensive study examines the case of AM stereo and subsequent technologies to demonstrate the FCC's evolution from stern to reluctant regulator. It also examines emerging technologies, such as multichannel television sound, digital audio broadcasting, and high definition television, and discusses their impact on the evolution of broadcast regulation. In the 1980s the tension between governmental control and the marketplace resulted in the FCC's deregulation of TV and radio, electing to set only technical operating parameters and allowing legal operation of any system that meets those minimal standards. Huff argues that this approach is likely to influence regulatory approaches to other new developments in broadcast technologies. The extensive overview of the industry and the study of the interrelationships between the technologies will appeal to communication scholars in the fields of radio and television as well as interest industry professionals. |
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