We are living in a time of inflationary media. While technological change has periodically altered and advanced the ways humans process and transmit knowledge, for the last 100 years the media with which we produce, transmit, and record ideas have multiplied in kind, speed, and power. Saturation in media is provoking a crisis in how we perceive and understand reality. Media become inflationary when the scope of their representation of the world outgrows the confines of their culture's prior grasp of reality. We call the resulting concept of reality that emerges the culture's medialogy. Medialogies offers a highly innovative approach to the contemporary construction of reality in cultural, political, and economic domains. Castillo and Egginton, both luminary scholars, combine a very accessible style with profound theoretical analysis, relying not only on works of philosophy and political theory but also on novels, Hollywood films, and mass media phenomena. The book invites us to reconsider the way reality is constructed, and how truth, sovereignty, agency, and authority are understood from the everyday, philosophical, and political points of view. A powerful analysis of actuality, with its roots in early modernity, this work is crucial to understanding reality in the information age.

Exploring Screen Culture via Apple's Mobile Devices: Life through the Looking Glass explores the role of mobile technologies in everyday life via the extended case study of Apple's mobile operating system (iOS) for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Via a detailed application (including numerous extended examples) of the experiences associated with Apple's iOS devices, Charles Soukup examines contemporary screen culture and how individuals navigate it via mobile technologies. Mobile devices provide a lifeline that sifts through, limits, and simplifies the complexities of rapid, vast, circulating information in postmodern culture. Particularly, simple, game-like applications with clear rules and numerical outcomes exceptionally focus, frame, and filter an overwhelming media-saturated culture. Rather than merely outlining the problems associated with a world dominated by digital screens, Exploring Screen Culture via Apple's Mobile Devices offers a means for understanding screen culture as well as viable solutions to the challenges facing contemporary social life.

Emerging digital technologies are playing an increasingly significant role in advancing citizen-based support all over the world. They have become tools used for protest movements, and in the establishment organizations use in campaigning. Exploring the Role of Social Media in Transnational Advocacy is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on the various dimensions of new technology platforms, highlighting the use in citizen-enabled, social advocacy campaigns. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics such as virtual communities, e-health, and e-government, this book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, students, and policy makers seeking current research on different aspects of social media in campaigns.

Marcus Moberg offers a new model of religion and religious life in the post-war era, through focusing on the role of markets and media as vectors of contemporary social and cultural change - and therefore institutional religious change. While there is wide agreement among sociologists of religion that there this area is transforming on a global scale, there is less agreement about how these changes should best be approached and conceptualized. In a time of accelerating institutional religious decline, institutional Churches have become ever more susceptible to market-associated discourse and language and are ever more compelled to adapt to the demands of the present-day media environment. Using discourse analysis, Marcus Moberg tracks how new media and marketing language and concepts have entered Christian thinking and discourse. Church, Market, and Media develops a framework that approaches changes in the contemporary religious field in direct relation to the changing socioeconomic makeup of contemporary societies on the whole. Through focusing on the impact of markets and media within the contemporary religious setting of mainline institutional Christian churches in the Western world, the book outlines new avenues for further theorizing the study of religious change.

Across numerous industries in modern society, there is a constant need to gather precise and relevant data efficiently and quickly. As such, it is imperative to research new methods and approaches to increase productivity in these areas. Ontologies and Big Data Considerations for Effective Intelligence is a key source on the latest advancements in multidisciplinary research methods and applications and examines effective techniques for managing and utilizing information resources. Featuring extensive coverage across a range of relevant perspectives and topics, such as visual analytics, spatial databases, retrieval systems, and ontology models, this book is ideally designed for researchers, graduate students, academics, and industry professionals seeking ways to optimize knowledge management processes.

When the controversial book, "Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications," was published in 1955, it made waves across the fields of communications, public opinion research, political science, and marketing. Written by Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld, "Personal Influence" became the canonical statement of the two-step flow of communication, which posits that mass media flow to opinion leaders, who in turn influence the behavior and opinions of people around them.

Throughout the last half of a century, "Personal Influence" has undergone rigorous critique, appeared in numerous citations, and become a key text in the history of mass communications. Why is a rereading of this text relevant now?

Upon the 50th anniversary of the publishing of "Personal Influence," the editors of this volume of "The ANNALS "believed it was an ideal time to reflect upon the book s mid-century contexts and contemporary drawing upon enrichments of the field provided by feminism, critical and cultural studies, the new historicism, and progress in the social sciences. This unique volume of "The ANNALS" crosses generational, disciplinary, and national boundaries to piece together and pull apart a historically important text and use it to shed light on the contemporary environment.

Essays in this volume analyze the personalities who played key roles in the making of "Personal Influence," their origins and social identities, the institutional organization of research in which it evolved, and the disciplinary consequences of its success. Other authors reread Katz and Lazarfeld s classic as a way to explore the relations between citizenship and consumption, the nature of media and political involvement today, and the relevance of the two-step flow paradigm for the study of contemporary audiences, social networks, and public campaigns.

A must-read for scholars, students, and professionals in the fields of communication, public opinion, political science, sociology, and marketing, this volume of "The ANNALS" dusts off a time-worn text and renews its significance in the field of mass communications with modern scholarly perspectives and contemporary methodology experience, inspiring a fresh outlook on this historical force. "

Multimodality's popularity as a semiotic approach has not resulted in a common voice yet. Its conceptual anchoring as well as its empirical applications often remain localized and disparate, and ideas of a theory of multimodality are heterogeneous and uncoordinated. For the field to move ahead, it must achieve a more mature status of reflection, mutual support, and interaction with regard to both past and future directions. The red thread across the disciplines reflected in this book is a common goal of capturing the mechanisms of synergetic knowledge construction and transmission using diverse forms of expressions, i.e., multimodality. The collection of chapters brought together in the book reflects both a diversity of disciplines and common interests and challenges, thereby establishing an excellent roadmap for the future. The contributions revisit and redefine theoretical concepts or empirical analyses, which are crucial to the study of multimodality from various perspectives, with a view towards evolving issues of multimodal analysis. With this, the book aims at repositioning the field as a well-grounded scientific discipline with significant implications for future communication research in many fields of study.

This is a collection of essays that examine the construction, disgrace, and consequences of political sex scandals from various academic disciplines. From the misbehavior of President Clinton to Governor Mark Sanford's Argentinean tryst, sex scandals have become a prominent feature of American public life. This unique collection of essays explains why politicians elected for their leadership and promises of ethical behavior risk their career, and the socio-political consequences of their actions. It argues that political sex scandals are distinct from other types of sex scandals because the nature of elected office is very different from "civilian" life. The construction, disgrace, and aftermath of political sex scandals are examined from different academic angles, including the politics of place, human communication, political psychology, media, sociology, feminism, and criminology. The essays delve into the role of culture and geography on the political outcome of a scandal, the rhetoric of apologia, the psychology of risk, trends and patterns in media coverage, the impact on different organized interests, legal ramifications, and how different countries view political sex scandal. This accessible work will engage anyone studying American politics, political behavior, political communication as well as sociological issues and the role of the media.

Risk management is a vital concern in any organization. In order to succeed in the competitive modern business environment, the decision-making process must be effectively governed and managed. Research, Practices, and Innovations in Global Risk and Contingency Management is a critical scholarly resource that provides an all-encompassing holistic discussion of risk management and perception, while giving readers innovations on empirical risk-contingency management research and case studies. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as contingency planning, project management, and risk mitigation, this book is geared towards academicians, practitioners, and researchers seeking current research on risk and contingency management issues.

Liberal media bias is an established fact, and Jeff Gannon witnessed it first hand while serving "behind enemy lines" in the White House press corps. Gannon's story of how he was driven out of the White House illustrates the challenges conservative journalists face in a profession that is institutionally and genetically liberal. Part of this book is an account of what members of the Old Media, Democrats and liberal activists will do to keep conservatives out of mainstream journalism. It serves as a warning to all journalists as to what can happen when politicians and activists object to their reporting.

What they said about Jeff Gannon:

U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi-"must be stopped" Vice President Al Gore-"pseudo-reporter" Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin-"non-journalist using a false name" House Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers-"sham journalist" Clinton senior advisor Sidney Blumenthal-"a hireling and fraud" Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)-"mouthpiece for the White House" Veteran columnist and reporter Helen Thomas-"a propagandist, a flack for the White House" MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann-"fake reporter" New York Times columnist Frank Rich-"lapdog reporter" PBS host Bill Moyers-"phony journalist"

This important new text provides an up-to-date account of the complex interrelationship between politics and the media in Britain. It starts by setting key policy areas in the context of technological convergence, globalization and initiatives at European level. It then addresses the key issues the role of the media in politics and elections.

Social media platforms have emerged as an influential and popular tool in the digital era. No longer limited to just personal use, the applications of social media have expanded in recent years into the business realm. Analyzing the Strategic Role of Social Networking in Firm Growth and Productivity examines the role of social media technology in organizational settings to promote business development and growth. Highlighting a range of relevant discussions from the public and private sectors, this book is a pivotal reference source for professionals, researchers, upper-level students, and academicians.

Cyber security has become a topic of concern over the past decade. As many individual and organizational activities continue to evolve digitally, it is important to examine the psychological and behavioral aspects of cyber security. Psychological and Behavioral Examinations in Cyber Security is a critical scholarly resource that examines the relationship between human behavior and interaction and cyber security. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as behavioral analysis, cyberpsychology, and online privacy, this book is geared towards IT specialists, administrators, business managers, researchers, and students interested in online decision making in cybersecurity.

'In this book, Simon Bowmaker offers a remarkable collection of conversations with leading economists about research in economics. He has selected a broad sample of the great economists of our time, including people whose perspectives span most of the major subdivisions of economics research, from micro to macro, from theoretical to empirical, from rationalist to behavioral.' - From the foreword by Roger B. Myerson, University of Chicago and 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics 'The Art and Practice of Economics Research is the book I wish I had when I was ''growing up'' as an economist. For anyone who is or wants to be an economic researcher, or anyone just interested in how economics ''works'', this is a terrific and inspirational resource.' - David K. Levine, Washington University in St. Louis 'It is hard to imagine an economist in the world who would not enjoy this book. It is fascinating, gripping, and full of the wisdom imparted by age and by scholarly life's ups and downs.' - Andrew J. Oswald, University of Warwick, UK 'Although each has followed his or her own road, these scholars share a passion for economics and a commitment to the research enterprise. The best economists lie sleepless, gripped by their questions.' - Joshua Angrist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'This is a wonderful book of interviews with some of the most respected economists in the world. It is full of insights into academic life, and clearly conveys the joy of doing economics research.' - Jon Levin, Stanford University 'The relaxed frame of the interviews gives interested parties exciting insights into the thoughts and concerns of leading economists and might well inspire some of the best young minds to continue with economics in their later lives.' - Ernst Fehr, University of Zurich, Switzerland The Art and Practice of Economics Research provides an in-depth look into the research methods of leading economists from across the United States and Europe. This innovative volume contains 25 interviews with practicing economists, presenting insightful personal accounts into an often-misunderstood field. Contributors to this volume were asked to reflect on their own experience in economics research, including their methods of working, the process of scientific discovery and knowledge creation, and the challenges of successfully disseminating their work. The unique and compelling interview format showcases each contributor's personal connection to his or her work, presenting a view of current economics research that is technical, comprehensive, and refreshingly human. Both students and current scholars in economics will find much to admire in this book's window into the inner workings of some of the brightest and best-known minds in the field. This volume also makes a great companion to the author's 2010 book, The Heart of Teaching Economics, which showcases the personal experiences of teachers and professors of economics.

As technology continues to advance so does the need for understanding how this will affect us. We, as the users are subject to actions which bring into conflict the needs and characteristics of human actors, the demands of technology, and the wealth of research in End-User Interactions (EUC). Organizational and End-User Interactions: New Explorations provides a comprehensive look at studies that show a significant contribution in EUC by relating organizational and end user computing to organizational and end user performance and productivity, strategic and competitive advantage, and electronic commerce. This book touches on possible future directions of ECU, and why they are viewed as important for the future. The body of knowledge in this topic area continues to grow and with it comes a fertile ground for future exploration in the EUC domain.

"Semiotic Landscapes" is an exciting addition to the study of linguistic landscapes.
It looks at how landscape generates meaning and combines three major areas of scholarly interest each concerned with central dimensions of contemporary life: language and visual discourse, spatial practices, and also the changes bought about by global capitalism and ever increasing mediatization.
The editors look at: the textual/discursive construction of place; the use of space as a semiotic resource; the extent to which these processes are shaped by wider economic and political re-orderings of post-industrial or advanced capitalism; changing patterns of human mobility and transnational flows of ideas and images.
The collection demonstrates the way written discourse interacts with all other discursive modalities: visual images, nonverbal communication, architecture and the built environment. From the red light districts of Switzerland to the transgressive public art of graffiti, all landscape can be seen to generate meaning. "Semiotic Landscapes" looks at how and why, and places this meaning generation in an interdisciplinary and thoroughly modern cross-section of global trends.

Jump-start your career as a data scientist--learn to develop datasets for exploration, analysis, and machine learning SQL for Data Scientists: A Beginner's Guide for Building Datasets for Analysis is a resource that's dedicated to the Structured Query Language (SQL) and dataset design skills that data scientists use most. Aspiring data scientists will learn how to how to construct datasets for exploration, analysis, and machine learning. You can also discover how to approach query design and develop SQL code to extract data insights while avoiding common pitfalls. You may be one of many people who are entering the field of Data Science from a range of professions and educational backgrounds, such as business analytics, social science, physics, economics, and computer science. Like many of them, you may have conducted analyses using spreadsheets as data sources, but never retrieved and engineered datasets from a relational database using SQL, which is a programming language designed for managing databases and extracting data. This guide for data scientists differs from other instructional guides on the subject. It doesn't cover SQL broadly. Instead, you'll learn the subset of SQL skills that data analysts and data scientists use frequently. You'll also gain practical advice and direction on "how to think about constructing your dataset." Gain an understanding of relational database structure, query design, and SQL syntax Develop queries to construct datasets for use in applications like interactive reports and machine learning algorithms Review strategies and approaches so you can design analytical datasets Practice your techniques with the provided database and SQL code In this book, author Renee Teate shares knowledge gained during a 15-year career working with data, in roles ranging from database developer to data analyst to data scientist. She guides you through SQL code and dataset design concepts from an industry practitioner's perspective, moving your data scientist career forward!

The Drift: Affect, Adaptation, and New Perspectives on Fidelity offers a new perspective on the complex interrelations between literature and cinema. It does so by articulating an 'affective turn' for adaptation studies, a field whose traditional focus has been the critical castigation of film adaptations of canonical plays or novels. Drawing on theorists such as Gilles Deleuze, Brian Massumi, and Marco Abel, the author is able to re-conceive literary and cinematic works as textual engines generating and circulating affect, and the adaptive process as a drifting of those affective intensities from one medium to another. By conceptualizing adaptation in this manner, the work steers clear of the chimerical notion of 'fidelity' (to character, to theme, to narrative) which has anchored so many analyses of adaptive texts over the years-and the reproving language that inevitably attends it-in favor of more productive avenues of investigation: What affective work are certain literary and filmic texts performing? What can this tell us, more broadly, about the underexplored affective dimensions of literature and cinema, and the dialogic interactions between them? The Drift addresses such questions through close, careful readings which put a variety of realist, modernist, and postmodernist works into conversation with each other, among them the fiction of John Dos Passos, Don DeLillo, and Susanna Moore, the films of Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein, as well as recent cinematic adaptations by Jane Campion and Charles Burnett. This methodological approach, helps to elevate adaptation studies into a discourse that speaks more directly and pertinently to our fluid, hypertextual era

Technology and media are now integrated in various facets of society, including social and economic development. This has allowed for new and innovative methods for aiding in development initiatives. Impacts of the Media on African Socio-Economic Development is an essential research publication for the latest scholarly information on societal and economical dimensions of development and the application of media to advance progress. Featuring extensive coverage on many topics including gender empowerment, international business, and health promotion, this book is ideally designed for government officials, academics, professionals, and students seeking current research on social realities and achieving further development in emerging economies.

Due to the prevalence of social network service and social media, the problem of cyberbullying has risen to the forefront as a major social issue over the last decade. Internet hate, harassment, cyberstalking, cyberbullying-these terms, which were almost unknown 10 years ago-are in the everyday lexicon of all internet users. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to undertake continuous surveillance of websites as new ones are appearing daily. Methods for automatic detection and mitigation for online bullying have become necessary in order to protect the online user experience. Automatic Cyberbullying Detection: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides innovative insights into online bullying and methods of early identification, mitigation, and prevention of harassing speech and activity. Explanations and reasoning for each of these applied methods are provided as well as their pros and cons when applied to the language of online bullying. Also included are some generalizations of cyberbullying as a phenomenon and how to approach the problem from a practical technology-backed point of view. The content within this publication represents the work of deep learning, language modeling, and web mining. It is designed for academicians, social media moderators, IT consultants, programmers, education administrators, researchers, and professionals and covers topics centered on identification methods and mitigation of internet hate and online harassment.