Communication and Relationship Maintenance provides readers with a comprehensive, dynamic examination of relationship maintenance across a variety of relational contexts. Informed by contemporary research and literature in communication, psychology, and sociology, this text introduces the study of relationship maintenance, highlights current issues and debates, and provides insight as to the future of the discipline. Each chapter focuses on a particular relationship type and emphasizes a concept that influences its maintenance. For each relationship, authors Marianne Dainton and Scott A. Myers explore critical theories used to understand the maintenance process for the relationship and illuminate its unique features, the maintenance behaviors typically applied in the relationship, and the significant influences on the use of maintenance activities for that particular type. Relational contexts covered include opposite-sex romantic relationships, same-sex romantic relationships, friendships, family relationships, and workplace relationships. Additional chapters examine cultural variations on the maintenance process, the role of mediated communication on relationship maintenance, and the future of scholarly study within the discipline. Communication and Relationship Maintenance is well suited for advanced undergraduate and graduate and courses in relational and interpersonal communication.

The Davis Conference on Organizational Research, held for the last 15 years, is the world's leading conference for qualitative researchers in organizational studies. Scholars receiving the "Best presentation awards" at the Davis Conference for the past 6 years have contributed chapters to this volume. These papers explore social relationships in organizations and work, and cover a diverse set of topics ranging from boundary spanning in collaboration and teamwork to embodied competence at work and beliefs about availability among professionals. Yet all the papers are similar in that they benefited from the community of over 150 scholars developed through the Davis Conference, and represent qualitative research at its very best.

"Just like Prisoner and Wentworth, this book is an instant cult classic. Written with love by a collective of expert aca-fans, TV Transformations & Transgressive Women takes us on a fascinating journey through the cultural legacies of Australia's favourite prison TV dramas. Contributors use a rich palette of methods, from genre analysis to production research, to unpack the significance of these shows. An exemplary textual study, this richly multi-perspectival collection is essential reading for anyone interested in television genres." (Ramon Lobato, Associate Professor, RMIT University) "This collection is a wonderful example of how certain TV shows can have tremendous impact, not only in the time of their making, but for several decades, when suddenly there's the opportunity to travel even further in an on-demand age and meet new audiences, academics and analytical approaches. The chapters offer a wide range of interesting interpretations and discussions, not the least on the way women have been represented on screen then and now. A good read for academics, fans and aca-fans." (Eva Novrup Redvall, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen) A deep dive into iconic 1980s Australian women-in-prison TV drama Prisoner (aka Cell Block H), its contemporary reimagining as Wentworth, and its broader, global industry significance and influence, this book brings together a range of scholarly and industry perspectives, including an interview with actor Shareena Clanton (Wentworth's Doreen Anderson). Its chapters draw on talks with producers, screenwriters and casting; fan voices from the Wentworth twitterverse; comparisons with Netflix's Orange is the New Black; queer and LGBTQ approaches; and international production histories and contexts. By charting a path from Prisoner to Wentworth, the book offers a new mapping of TV shifts and transformations through the lens of female transgression, ruminating on the history, currency, industry position and cultural value of women-in-prison series.

Representations of Stereotypical Images in Popular Culture: A Critical Approach engages students to examine the perpetuation of stereotypical images of marginalized groups found in popular media and to challenge those frameworks that are responsible for the creation and maintenance of these negative images. Focusing on film, television, social media, and lifestyles, the book applies critical theory to explain the impact of capitalism on the construction of images of minorities in popular culture. It examines how the maintenance of these images becomes embedded in our culture and directly impacts our belief systems regarding social expectations of racial, gender, and class groups. The book begins with chapters that define popular culture, introduce critical theory and racialized ideology, and examine the ways race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality are represented. Additional chapters explain how racialized stereotypes are historically rooted in chattel slavery and trace the perpetuation of these images over three major stages of capitalist development. The final three chapters explore the perpetuation of negative images of other subordinated groups, how stereotypes are represented in social media, and the overall impact of the perpetuation of negative images on society. Throughout, reflection questions, chapter vignettes, comprehension questions, and real-world observations enrich the learning experience.

The volume "Language and Identity in Migration Contexts", which contains studies from different languages and migration contexts across the world, provides an excellent overview of the topic while highlighting some key elements like multilingualism, societal and educational contexts, as well as forced migration. The volume will therefore be of much interest to researchers working on these topics. (Prof. Dr. Anita Auer, Universite de Lausanne, Switzerland) The contributions to this volume shed a new light on various central topics in the discourses on language, migration and identity. The continued centrality of language on identity formation processes is underlined but it is shown that language is not a defining criterion for identity formation processes of migrants, in the context of migration or for heritage speakers in all cases. However, societal contexts play an important role in identity formation and these societal contexts themselves are strongly influenced by the ideologies that are prevalent in societies and that may be perpetuated in educational contexts. In the discussion of language, identity and migration in this volume, perspectives from the Global North are enriched by perspectives of the Global South, and the impact of media influence in migration discourse is analysed.

Marvelous Rise of Superheroes in Cinema: Evolution of the Genre from Sequels to Universes addresses the superhero movie genre's transformation between 1978 and 2019. To emphasize and illustrate the conceptual and thematic transformation, the main conventions of the genre are scanned through several periods, focusing on the developmental age of the genre, including the dominant period of DC Comics-based superhero movies (1978-1997) and the Marvel "boom" (2000-2007), and the contemporary age. For this purpose, the book traces the fundamentals of superheroes from the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1 (1938) to the final installment of the MCU's Phase 3, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The transformation has two significant points. First, the genre's main conventions have been in a change. Second, the genre's focus has changed from sequel filmmaking to the universe concept. The study investigates the Marvel Cinematic Universe's dominant, leading, and major role in the genre's evolutionary process. Besides, the future of the superhero movie genre is questioned through the multiverse concept to broaden an understanding of the genre's following directions.

The concept of 'populism' is currently used by scholars, the media and political actors to refer to multiple and disparate manifestations and phenomena from across both the left and the right ends of the political spectrum. As a result, it defies neat definition, as scholarship on the topic has shown over the last 50 years. In this book, Sebastian Moreno Barreneche approaches populism from a semiotic perspective and argues that it constitutes a specific social discourse grounded on a distinctive narrative structure that is brought to life by political actors that are labelled 'populist'. Conceiving of populism as a mode of semiotic production that is based on a conception of the social space as divided into two groups, 'the People' and 'the Other', this book uses semiotic theory to make sense of this political phenomenon. Exploring how the categories of 'the People' and 'the Other' are discursively constructed by populist political actors through the use of semiotic resources, the ways in which meaning emerges through the oppositions between imagined collective actors is explained. Drawing on examples from Europe, North America and South America, The Social Semiotics of Populism presents a systematic semiotic approach to this multifaceted political concept and bridges semiotic theory and populism studies in an original manner.

Interdisciplinary research is a method that has become efficient in accelerating scientific discovery. The integration of such processes in problem solving and knowledge generation is a vital part of learning and instruction. Promoting Interdisciplinarity in Knowledge Generation and Problem Solving is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on interdisciplinary projects from around the world, highlighting the broad range of circumstances in which this approach can be effectively used to solve problems and generate new knowledge. Featuring coverage on a number of topics and perspectives such as industrial design, ethnographic methods, and methodological pluralism, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the promotion of interdisciplinarity for knowledge production.

The word “research” has its origins in old French in the 16th century. The word rechercher meant (and still means) “to search for”. Nowadays we would say that research, and specifically “scientific” or “scholarly” research, is the search for truth, or the pursuit of or quest for credible knowledge. It is precisely because research has become such a complex and multidimensional endeavour that we need to “make sense of” it. Making sense of research thus unpacks research as a technical and methodical process which starts with framing interesting questions and culminates in credible findings.

Making Sense Of Research is designed to take students beyond the messy experiential realm into what actually happens when getting registered, writing proposals, being examined and eventually crossing the stage to be capped.

Contents include the following:

• Academic architecture and why history matters
• How to do it (research)
• Thematic techniques
• Ethnographic, reception, visual and textual methods
• Getting published
• Some words on deconstructing deconstruction
• Getting technically oriented
• Getting conceptually orientated

Making sense of research is aimed at all research students.

The importance of spirituality in shaping contemporary visual culture has mostly been disregarded. Mentioning art and spirit in the same sentence was considered embarrassing. In contrast, most of the significant twentieth-century art movements developed in conjunction with spiritual inspiration. This book explores the topic through the lenses of media ecology, art history, and psychology. Media ecology is a theory that media shapes how messages are delivered. The non-commercial nature of spiritual concepts would prevent messages from being offered through commercial media. As a result, many respected artists whose works are familiar have escaped understanding because people haven't yet pierced the spiritual history of modern art. Images once considered devoid of meaning are now being re-examined in terms of their spiritual underpinnings. Kandinsky thought that he could correct nineteenth-century materialism by replacing it with twentieth-century spirituality. However, it was not until the twenty-first century that modern art's spiritual value started to be publicly recognized through scholarship and gallery exhibits. Abstraction provides the opportunity to explore design as a psychological self-revelation of the artist. Automatic drawing, once a tool for spirit messages, became a psychological method with the introduction of Surrealism. Psychology introduced the notion of creative dissociation to replace the idea of mediumship as a basis for art created in altered states. Art, as a personal and reflexive expression, can be used to steady our culture from one that denies spirituality to one that embraces it. We can all use artistic techniques to become more balanced people. Spiritual and psychological artistic techniques created the world of art we experience today. Understanding these influences can help us to better know the world in which we live.

Social media platforms have been pivotal in redefining the conduct of contemporary society. Amid the proliferation of a range of new and ubiquitous online platforms, YouTube, a video-based platform, remains a key driver in the democratisation of creative, playful, vernacular, intimate, as well as political expressions. As a critical node of contemporary communication and digital cultures, its steady uptake and appropriation in a social media-savvy nation such as the Philippines requires a critical examination of its role in the continued reconstruction of identities, communities, and broader social institutions. This book closely analyses the diverse content and practices of amateur Filipino YouTubers, exposing and problematising the dynamics of brokering the contested aspirational logics of beauty and selfhood, interracial relationships, world-class labour, and progressive governance in a digital sphere. Ultimately, Philippine Digital Cultures: Brokerage Dynamics on YouTube offers a fresh, compelling, and nuanced account of YouTube as an important site for the mediation of culture, economy, and politics in Philippine postcolonial modernity amid rapid economic globalisation and digitalisation.

How can an organisation, public or private, ensure that it always operates in top form and, at the very least, meets the objectives for which it was established? The answer lies in the availability of factually correct, dependable and appropriate data. Obtaining such data is what this publication is about.

Introduction To Research offers a step-by-step approach to the fundamentals of research. Introduction To Research guides the novice researcher through the research process, including how to choose the appropriate research methodology and how to adhere to the standards for conducting ethical research. It provides a synopsis of the entire research process, including the formulation of a research proposal.

Introduction To Research is aimed at all students and researchers, across a variety of disciplines.

For research in linguistic anthropology, the successful execution of research projects is a challenging but essential task. Balancing research design with data collection methods, this textbook guides readers through the key issues and principles of the core research methods in linguistic anthropology. Designed for students conducting research projects for the first time, or for researchers in need of a primer on key methodologies, this book provides clear introductions to key concepts, accessible discussions of theory and practice through illustrative examples, and critical engagement with current debates. Topics covered include creating and refining research questions, planning research projects, ethical considerations for research, quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, data processing, data analysis, and how to write a successful grant application. Each chapter is illustrated by cases studies which showcase methods in practice, and are supported by activities and exercises, discussion questions, and further reading lists. Research Methods in Linguistic Anthropology is an essential resource for both experienced and novice linguistic anthropologists and is a valuable textbook for research methods courses.

Rhetoric, Humor, and the Public Sphere: From Socrates to Stephen Colbert investigates classical and contemporary understandings of satire, parody, and irony, and how these genres function within a deliberative democracy. Elizabeth Benacka examines the rhetorical history, theorization, and practice of humor spanning from ancient Greece and Rome to the contemporary United States. In particular, this book focuses on the contemporary work of Stephen Colbert and his parody of a conservative media pundit, analyzing how his humor took place in front of an uninitiated audience and ridiculed a variety of problems and controversies threatening American democracy. Ultimately, Benacka emphasizes the importance of humor as a discourse capable of calling forth a group of engaged citizens and a source of civic education in contemporary society.

How can we create more meaningful and intimate connections with our loved-ones? By using moments of discord to strengthen our relationships, explains this original, deeply researched book. You might think that perfect harmony is the defining characteristic of a good relationship, but the truth is that human interactions are messy, complicated, and confusing. The good news, however, is that we are wired to deal with this from birth - and even to grow from it and use it to strengthen our relationships, according to renowned psychologist Ed Tronick and paediatrician Claudia Gold. Scientific research - including Dr Tronick's famous 'Still-Face Experiment' - has shown that working through mismatch and repair in everyday life helps us form deep, lasting, trusting relationships; resilience in times of stress and trauma; and a solid sense of self in the world. This refreshing and original look at our ability to relate to others and to ourselves offers a new way for us to think about our relationships, and will reassure you that conflict is both normal and healthy, building the foundation for stronger connections.

Credited with superhuman intellect and abilities, the serial sex killer emerged in the 1980s as a dominant figure in American popular culture. In a decade marked by conservative politics and fundamental Protestantism, the serial killer was accused of attacking the traditional values underpinning American society and was used to manipulate public fear for political gain.

Using government reports, trial transcripts, and correspondence, "Better to Reign in Hell" examines the people and events that led to and perpetuate this panic, notably President Ronald Reagan, the New Right, the FBI, and the media.

As well as detailing high-profile cases such as those of Son of Sam and Ted Bundy, the book features interviews with law enforcement officers and convicted serial killers.

Addiction is a powerful and destructive condition impacting large portions of the population around the world. While typically associated with substances, such as drugs and alcohol, technology and internet addiction have become a concern in recent years as technology use has become ubiquitous. Psychological, Social, and Cultural Aspects of Internet Addiction is a critical scholarly resource that sheds light on the relationship between psycho-social variables and internet addiction. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as human-computer interaction, academic performance, and online behavior, this book is geared towards psychologists, counselors, graduate-level students, and researchers studying psychology and technology use.

This books provides a critical perspective on entrepreneurialism in the creative industries. Split into three sections, the book first asks the contextual question; why, at this point in time, did we arrive at such a focus on entrepreneurship in the creative industries? Examining the historical, social, cultural, economic and political background, the book places the creative industries and entrepreneurship firmly within a systemic approach to creativity and cultural production. Given this emphasis on entrepreneurship in the creative system, the second part of the book asks, what do those who want to work in the creative industries need to do to pragmatically gain an income? The practices, skills, business models and plans necessary to master in order to successfully run a business are explored in this section. The final section contains detailed case studies that reveal the lives of those who found a way to successfully gain an income in the creative industries. It highlights the practical knowledge they gathered, how they negotiated their field of endeavour, and the decisions they made in the real world. Fundamentally the book answers three questions: How and why did we get here? Given that we are here at this point in time, how do we go about being entrepreneurial? And who has managed to do this in the creative industries and how did they do it? Covering both theoretical debates in detail, and practical case studies in key sub-sectors of creative industries, this truly integrative and far-reaching volume will be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners alike.

Probability for Data Scientists provides students with a mathematically sound yet accessible introduction to the theory and applications of probability. Students learn how probability theory supports statistics, data science, and machine learning theory by enabling scientists to move beyond mere descriptions of data to inferences about specific populations. The book is divided into two parts. Part I introduces readers to fundamental definitions, theorems, and methods within the context of discrete sample spaces. It addresses the origin of the mathematical study of probability, main concepts in modern probability theory, univariate and bivariate discrete probability models, and the multinomial distribution. Part II builds upon the knowledge imparted in Part I to present students with corresponding ideas in the context of continuous sample spaces. It examines models for single and multiple continuous random variables and the application of probability theorems in statistics. Probability for Data Scientists effectively introduces students to key concepts in probability and demonstrates how a small set of methodologies can be applied to a plethora of contextually unrelated problems. It is well suited for courses in statistics, data science, machine learning theory, or any course with an emphasis in probability. Numerous exercises, some of which provide R software code to conduct experiments that illustrate the laws of probability, are provided in each chapter.

Celebrities attract the attention of commercial interests and other public figures. They receive payments from sponsors to endorse brands. They are sought out to appear with politicians during election campaigns. They are used to promote health messages. In other words, celebrities are often perceived to possess qualities that give them special value or what we will refer to here as 'celebrity capital'. This means that celebrities are regarded as being able to add premium value to specific objects, events, and issues and hence render these items more valuable or effective. Employing an interesting and new approach to the growing scholarly interest in celebrity culture, Barrie Gunter uses the idea of value as expressed through the term 'capital'. Capital usually refers to the monetary worth of something. Celebrity capital however can be measured in economic terms but also in social, political and psychological terms. Research from around the world has been collated to provide an evidence-based analysis of the value of celebrity in the 21st century and how it can be systematically assessed. Including further reading for students, key points and end of chapter discussion questions, Gunter creates the first methodology to assess the value of fame.

This wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection-the first of its kind-invites us to reconsider the politics and scope of the Roots phenomenon of the 1970s. Alex Haley's 1976 book was a publishing sensation, selling over a million copies in its first year and winning a National Book Award and a special Pulitzer Prize. The 1977 television adaptation was more than a blockbuster miniseries-it was a galvanizing national event, drawing a record-shattering viewership, earning thirty-eight Emmy nominations, and changing overnight the discourse on race, civil rights, and slavery. These essays-from emerging and established scholars in history, sociology, film, and media studies-interrogate Roots, assessing the ways that the book and its dramatization recast representations of slavery, labor, and the black family; reflected on the promise of freedom and civil rights; and engaged discourses of race, gender, violence, and power in the United States and abroad. Taken together, the essays ask us to reconsider the limitations and possibilities of this work, which, although dogged by controversy, must be understood as one of the most extraordinary media events of the late twentieth century, a cultural touchstone of enduring significance.

The digital age has made it easy for anyone, even those with limited technology proficiency, to create some form of media. With so many different types of media and the sheer volume of information coming from a wide array of sources, media literacy has become an essential skill that can be very difficult to learn and teach. The Handbook of Research on Media Literacy Research and Applications Across Disciplines aims to present cross-disciplinary examinations of media literacy, specifically investigating its challenges and solutions and its implications for P-20 education. An assemblage of innovative findings centered on national and international perspectives, with topics including critical thinking and decision-making processes, smart consumerism, recognizing point-of-view, media influence, responsible media creation, cyber threats, media literacy instruction, among others, this book is ideally designed for educators, researchers, activists, instructional designers, media specialists, and professionals.

'Rana el Kaliouby's vision for how technology should work in parallel with empathy is bold, inspired and hopeful' Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global 'This lucid and captivating book by a renowned pioneer of emotion-AI tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: How can we ensure a future where this technology empowers rather than surveils and manipulates us?' Max Tegmark, professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Life 3.0 We are entering an empathy crisis. Most of our communication is conveyed through non-verbal cues - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language - nuances that are completely lost when we interact through our smartphones and other technology. The result is a digital universe that's emotion-blind - a society lacking in empathy. Rana el Kaliouby discovered this when she left Cairo, a newly-married, Muslim woman, to take up her place at Cambridge University to study computer science. Many thousands of miles from home, she began to develop systems to help her better connect with her family. She started to pioneer the new field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She now runs her company, Affectiva (the industry-leader in this emerging field) that builds EI into our technology and develops systems that understand humans the way we understand one another. In a captivating memoir, Girl Decoded chronicles el Kaliouby's mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way.