Serial Mexico responds to a continued need to historicize and contextualize seriality, particularly as it exists outside of dominant U.S./European contexts. In Mexico, serialization has been an important feature of narrative since the birth of the nation. Amy Wright's exploration begins with a study of novels serialized in pamphlets and newspapers by key Mexican authors of the nineteenth century, showing that serialization was essential to the development of both the novel and national identities-to Mexican popular culture-during its foundational period. In the twentieth century, a technological explosion after the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) set Mexico's transmedial wheels into motion, as a variety of media recycled and repurposed earlier serialized tales, themselves drawn from a repertoire of oral traditions to national nostalgic effect. Along the way, Serial Mexico responds to the following series of questions: How has serialized storytelling functioned in Mexico? How can we better understand the relationship of seriality to transmediality through this historical case study? Which stories (characters, themes, storylines, and storyworlds) have circulated repeatedly over time? How have those stories defined Mexico? The goal of this book is to begin to understand some of the possible answers to these questions through five case studies, which highlight five key artifacts, in five different media, at five different historical points spanning nearly two hundred years of Mexico's history. Serial Mexico offers important insights into not only the topic of serialized storytelling, but to larger notions of how national identities are created through narrative, with crucial cultural and sometimes political implications.

Young adult literature featuring LGBTQ characters is booming. In the 1980s and 1990s, only a handful of such titles were published every year. Recently, these numbers have soared to over one hundred annual releases. Queer characters are also appearing more frequently in film, on television, and in video games. This explosion of queer representation, however, has prompted new forms of longstanding cultural anxieties about adolescent sexuality. What makes for a good "coming out" story? Will increased queer representation in young people's media teach adolescents the right lessons and help queer teens live better, happier lives? What if these stories harm young people instead of helping them? In Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture, Derritt Mason considers these questions through a range of popular media, including an assortment of young adult books; Caper in the Castro, the first-ever queer video game; online fan communities; and popular television series Glee and Big Mouth. Mason argues themes that generate the most anxiety about adolescent culture - queer visibility, risk taking, HIV/AIDS, dystopia and horror, and the promise that "It Gets Better" and the threat that it might not - challenge us to rethink how we read and engage with young people's media. Instead of imagining queer young adult literature as a subgenre defined by its visibly queer characters, Mason proposes that we see "queer YA" as a body of transmedia texts with blurry boundaries, one that coheres around affect - specifically, anxiety - instead of content.

Organizational Communication: Foundations, Challenges, and Misunderstandings examines how communication is central to organizational life and the complexities and complications that arise as people attempt to coordinate their organizational activities. The text underscores the importance of the relationships we establish with the people with whom we work and how a better understanding of organizational communication theory and application can help us anticipate and manage misunderstandings in the workplace. In Part One, students learn about classical and modern management theories, systems theory, and frameworks for understanding organizational communication, including organizational culture and critical theory. In Part Two, the text covers topics traditionally covered in organizational communication textbooks through the lens of misunderstandings. Stories from organizational members highlight challenges and opportunities related to communicating in the organization. Realistic recruitment, socialization, the relationship between supervisors and subordinates, peer and team relationships, and leadership communication are addressed. The fifth edition features new interview data; broader coverage of diversity; expanded discussions of emotions at work; and examinations of workplace bullying, blended relationships, and technology as it relates to gender and age. Offering students a balanced mix of theoretical and practical information, Organizational Communication is an exemplary textbook for introductory organizational communication courses.

The essays in this collection are written to make readers (re)consider what is possible in Africa. The essays shake the tree of received wisdom and received categories, and hone in on the complexities of life under ecological and economic constraints. Yet, throughout this volume, people do not emerge as victims, but rather as inventors, engineers, scientists, planners, writers, artists, and activists, or as children, mothers, fathers, friends, or lovers - all as future-makers. It is precisely through agents such as these that Africa is futuring: rethinking, living, confronting, imagining, and relating in the light of its many emerging tomorrows.

Communicating Across Differences: Negotiating Identity, Privilege, and Marginalization in the 21st Century presents research and scholarship from a broad range of contributing authors who represent the voices and perspectives of traditionally marginalized and uniquely underrepresented groups. The anthology explores the intersectionality of intercultural communication and cultural studies, blending social science approaches with critical perspectives. Each chapter examines how marginality and privilege pertain to issues surrounding race, gender, sexuality, class, dis/ability, language, inter/nationality, and instruction that are negotiated through the process of communication and media messaging while being framed in hegemonic cultural dynamics. Readers gain insight into the breadth and depth of the intergroup identities that impact our ability to communicate effectively across differences today. Dedicated chapters examine cross-racial communication, racial representation and grouping in news coverage, cultural influences and variations in language usage, power dynamics surrounding disability discourse, instructor immediacy behaviors from the perspective of international students, and more. Designed to help us better understand and respect the cultural, social, and political implications that surround power, privilege, marginalization, and oppression, Communicating Across Differences is a timely and essential resource for courses focusing on diversity, multiculturalism, cultural studies, and intercultural communication.

Reveals the legacy of the train as a critical site of race in the United States Despite the seeming supremacy of car culture in the United States, the train has long been and continues to be a potent symbol of American exceptionalism, ingenuity, and vastness. For almost two centuries, the train has served as the literal and symbolic vehicle for American national identity, manifest destiny, and imperial ambitions. It's no surprise, then, that the train continues to endure in depictions across literature, film, ad music. The Racial Railroad highlights the surprisingly central role that the railroad has played-and continues to play-in the formation and perception of racial identity and difference in the United States. Julia H. Lee argues that the train is frequently used as the setting for stories of race because it operates across multiple registers and scales of experience and meaning, both as an invocation of and a depository for all manner of social, historical, and political narratives. Lee demonstrates how, through legacies of racialized labor and disenfranchisement-from the Chinese American construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and the depictions of Native Americans in landscape and advertising, to the underground railroad and Jim Crow segregation-the train becomes one of the exemplary spaces through which American cultural works explore questions of racial subjectivity, community, and conflict. By considering the train through various lenses, The Racial Railroad tracks how racial formations and conflicts are constituted in significant and contradictory ways by the spaces in which they occur.

Our Blessed Rebel Queen: Essays on Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia is the first full-length exploration of Carrie Fisher's career as actress, writer, and advocate. Fisher's entangled relationship with the iconic Princess Leia is a focal point of this volume. Editors Linda Mizejewski and Tanya D. Zuk have assembled a collection that engages with the multiple interfaces between Fisher's most famous character and her other life-giving work. The contributors offer insights into Fisher as science-fiction idol, author, feminist inspiration, and Lucasfilm commodity. Jennifer M. Fogel examines the thorny ""ownership"" of Fisher's image as a conflation of fan nostalgia, merchandise commodity, and eventually, feminist icon. Philipp Dominik Keidl looks at how Carrie Fisher and her iconic character are positioned within the male-centric history of Star Wars. Andrew Kemp-Wilcox researches the 2016 controversy over a virtual Princess Leia that emerged after Carrie Fisher's death. Tanya D. Zuk investigates the use of Princess Leia and Carrie images during the Women's March as memetic reconfigurations of historical propaganda to leverage political and fannish ideological positions. Linda Mizejewski explores Carrie Fisher's autobiographical writing, while Ken Feil takes a look at Fisher's playful blurring of truth and fiction in her screenplays. Kristen Anderson Wagner identifies Fisher's use of humor and anger to challenge public expectations for older actresses. Cynthia Hoffner and Sejung Park highlight Fisher's mental health advocacy, and Slade Kinnecott personalizes how Fisher's candidness and guidance about mental health were especially cherished by those who lacked a support system in their own lives. Our Blessed Rebel Queen is distinct in its interdisciplinary approach, drawing from a variety of methodologies and theoretical frameworks. Longtime fans of Carrie Fisher and her body of work will welcome this smart and thoughtful tribute to a multimedia legend.

Writing for Public Relations and Strategic Communication equips students with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to write persuasively. The book underscores the importance of strategic analysis at the beginning of the writing process. Utilizing an audience-centered perspective, it shows how persuasive writing emerges organically after critically assessing the goals of an organization's message in light of its intended audience. Students learn essential strategic thinking and planning skills to create effective and intentional writing. The book presents the theoretical underpinnings of behavior, which students can then employ to generate prose that prioritizes the audience's reasons for attending to the message. The book is unique in presenting a primer on communication, persuasion, and moral theories that provides students a roadmap for constructing effective, ethical arguments. Throughout, anecdotes, examples, quizzes, and assignments help connect theory to practical, real-world applications. Writing for Public Relations and Strategic Communication helps readers build their persuasive writing skills for professional and effective public relations, employing unique strategies and tactics, such as: A generative writing system that helps students identify and organize important information to produce quality prose, then adapt it to various media, on deadline. Interactive walkthroughs of writing examples that deconstruct prose, offering students insights not just into what to write, but how and why practitioners make strategic choices-down to the word level. Long-form scenario prompts that allow students to hone their persuasive writing, editing, and communication management skills across an array of platforms. Three two-chapter modules where the first chapter demonstrates how to write effective prose for a particular channel and the second offers practical help in delivering those products through message-delivery channels. Detailed case studies demonstrating how to translate research and planning into storytelling that addresses organizational problems. Unique chapters building important analytical literacies, such as search engine optimization tactics, marketing statistics analysis and data-driven audience targeting methods.

There has been a noticeable shift in the way the news is accessed and consumed, and most importantly, the rise of fake news has become a common occurrence in the media. With news becoming more accessible as technology advances, fake news can spread rapidly and successfully through social media, television, websites, and other online sources, as well as through the traditional types of newscasting. The spread of misinformation when left unchecked can turn fiction into fact and result in a mass misconception of the truth that shapes opinions, creates false narratives, and impacts multiple facets of society in potentially detrimental ways. With the rise of fake news comes the need for research on the ways to alleviate the effects and prevent the spread of misinformation. These tools, technologies, and theories for identifying and mitigating the effects of fake news are a current research topic that is essential for maintaining the integrity of the media and providing those who consume it with accurate, fact-based information. The Research Anthology on Fake News, Political Warfare, and Combatting the Spread of Misinformation contains hand-selected, previously published research that informs its audience with an advanced understanding of fake news, how it spreads, its negative effects, and the current solutions being investigated. The chapters within also contain a focus on the use of alternative facts for pushing political agendas and as a way of conducting political warfare. While highlighting topics such as the basics of fake news, media literacy, the implications of misinformation in political warfare, detection methods, and both technological and human automated solutions, this book is ideally intended for practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the current surge of fake news, the means of reducing its effects, and how to improve the future outlook.

Technology is rapidly advancing, and each innovation provides opportunities for such technology to mesh with the human enactment of physical intimacy or to be used in the quest for information about sexuality. However, the availability of this technology has complicated sexual decision making for young adults as they continually navigate their sexual identity, orientation, behavior, and community. Young Adult Sexuality in the Digital Age is a pivotal reference source that improves the understanding of the combination of technology and sexual decision making for young adults, examining the role of technology in sexual identity formation, sexual communication, relationship formation and dissolution, and sexual learning and online sexual communities and activism. While highlighting topics such as privacy management, cyber intimacy, and digital communications, this book is ideally designed for therapists, social workers, sociologists, psychologists, counselors, healthcare professionals, scholars, researchers, and students.

A first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, this multi-disciplinary collection brings together contributions from a variety of Caribbean-based and diasporic researchers and activists about the main methods used in existing feminist research practice. Comprising 29 chapters organized around 7 main themes - History & Historiography; Methodologies for Feminist Organizing & Action Research; Researching Gender; Researching Sexualities; Researching the Visual & Cultural; Methods for Analysing Talk & Text; and Reflections on Positionality - this book brings together canonical texts on Caribbean gender and sexuality research methods and methodology, recent research on digital cultures and critical reflections on positionality in fieldwork. The collection reveals both the embrace of multiple methods by Caribbean researchers and the limitations that the need to produce detailed and comprehensive knowledge about gender and sexuality imposes on the research process. It is an invaluable resource for university students, for teaching purposes in women, gender and sexuality studies, and methods courses.

In this selective overview of scholarship generated by The Hunger Games-the young adult dystopian fiction and film series which has won popular and critical acclaim-Zhange Ni showcases various investigations into the entanglement of religion and the arts in the new millennium. Ni introduces theories, methods, and the latest developments in the study of religion in relation to politics, audio/visual art, new media, material culture, and popular culture, whilst also reading The Hunger Games as a story that explores the variety, complexity, and ambiguity of enchantment. In popular texts such as this, religion and art-both broadly construed, that is, beyond conventional boundaries-converge in creating an enchantment that makes life more bearable and effects change in the world.

Throughout the 1990s, artists experimented with game engine technologies to disrupt our habitual relationships to video games. They hacked, glitched, and dismantled popular first-person shooters such as Doom (1993) and Quake (1996) to engage players in new kinds of embodied activity. In Unstable Aesthetics: Game Engines and the Strangeness of Art Modding, Eddie Lohmeyer investigates historical episodes of art modding practices-the alteration of a game system's existing code or hardware to generate abstract spaces-situated around a recent archaeology of the game engine: software for rendering two and three-dimensional gameworlds. The contemporary artists highlighted throughout this book-Cory Arcangel, JODI, Julian Oliver, Krista Hoefle, and Brent Watanabe, among others -- were attracted to the architectures of engines because they allowed them to explore vital relationships among abstraction, technology, and the body. Artists employed a range of modding techniques-hacking the ROM chips on Nintendo cartridges to produce experimental video, deconstructing source code to generate psychedelic glitch patterns, and collaging together surreal gameworlds-to intentionally dissect the engine's operations and unveil illusions of movement within algorithmic spaces. Through key moments in game engine history, Lohmeyer formulates a rich phenomenology of video games by focusing on the liminal spaces of interaction among system and body, or rather the strangeness of art modding.