As Chiasson and his contributors illustrate, trials are media events that can have long-reaching significance. They can, and have, changed the way people think, how institutions function, and have shaped public opinions. While this collection on ten trials is about withcraft, slavery, religion, and radicalism, it is, in many ways, the story of America. Trials are the stuff of news. Those rare moments when justice, or a reasonable facsimile, is meted out. And what offers up more high drama, or melodrama, than a highly publicized trial? Most news events enjoy short life spans. They happen; they are reported; they are quickly forgotten. As Chiasson and his contributors make clear, a trial often is a lingering, living thing that builds in tension. It is, every once in a long while, a modern Shakespearean drama with a twist: The audience becomes members of the cast because, every once in a long while, society finds itself the defendant. Trials can have lasting importance beyond how the public perceives them. A trial can have long-reaching significance if it changes the way people think, or how institutions function, or shapes public opinion. Ten such American trials covering a span of 307 years are covered here. In each, the sociological underpinnings of events often has greater significance than either the crime or the trial. The ten trials included are the Salem witch trials, the Amistad trial, the Sioux Indian Uprising trials, the Ed Johnson/Sheriff Shipp trial, the Big Bill Haywood trial, the Ossian Sweet trial, the Clay Shaw trial, the Manuel Noriega trial, and the Matthew Shepard trial. While the book is about ten crimes, the subsequent trials, and the media coverage of each, it is also a book about witchcraft, about religion, slavery, and radicalism. It paints portraits of a racist America, a capitalistic America, an anarchist America. It relates compelling tales of compassion, greed, stupidity, and hate beginning in 17th-century colonial times and ending in present-day America. In many ways, it is the story of America.

Winner of the Surveillance Studies Network Book Award: 2017 Surveillance is a common feature of everyday life. But how are we to make sense of or understand what surveillance is, how we should feel about it, and what, if anything, can we do? Surveillance and Film is an engaging and accessible book that maps out important themes in how popular culture imagines surveillance by examining key feature films that prominently address the subject. Drawing on dozens of examples from around the world, J. Macgregor Wise analyzes films that focus on those who watch (like Rear Window, Peeping Tom, Disturbia, Gigante, and The Lives of Others), films that focus on those who are watched (like The Conversation, Cache, and Ed TV), films that feature surveillance societies (like 1984, THX 1138, V for Vendetta, The Handmaid's Tale, The Truman Show, and Minority Report), surveillance procedural films (from The Naked City, to Hong Kong's Eye in the Sky, The Infernal Affairs Trilogy, and the Overheard Trilogy of films), and films that interrogate the aesthetics of the surveillance image itself (like Sliver, Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries), Der Riese, and Look). Wise uses these films to describe key models of understanding surveillance (like Big Brother, Panopticism, or the Control Society) as well as to raise issues of voyeurism, trust, ethics, technology, visibility, identity, privacy, and control that are essential elements of today's culture of surveillance. The text features questions for further discussion as well as lists of additional films that engage these topics.

Communications are key to the success of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Accurate information disseminated to the general public, to elected officials and community leaders, as well as to the media, reduces risk, saves lives and property, and speeds recovery. "Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World, Second Edition," provides valuable information for navigating these priorities in the age of evolving media. The emergence of new media like the Internet, email, blogs, text messaging, cell phone photos, and the increasing influence of first informers are redefining the roles of government and media.

The tools and rules of communications are evolving, and disaster communications must also evolve to accommodate these changes and exploit the opportunities they provide. "Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World, Second Edition," illuminates the path to effective disaster communication, including the need for transparency, increased accessibility, trustworthiness and reliability, and partnerships with the media.
Includes case studies from recent disasters including Hurricane Sandy, the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and the Boston Marathon bombingsDemonstrateshow to use blogs, text messages, and cell phone cameras, as well as government channels and traditional media, to communicate during a crisisExamines current social media programs conducted by FEMA, the American Red Cross, state and local emergency managers, and the private sectorUpdated information in each chapter, especially on how social media has emerged as a force in disaster communications "

The interrelation of globalization, communication, and media has prompted many individuals to view the world in terms of a new dichotomy: the global "wired" (nations with widespread online access) and the global "tired" (nations with very limited online access). In this way, differing levels of online access have created an international rift - the global digital divide. The nature, current status, and future projections related to this rift, in turn, have important implications for all of the world's citizens. Yet these problems are not intractable. Rather, with time and attention, public policies and private sector practices can be developed or revised to close this divide and bring more of the world's citizens to the global stage on a more equal footing. The first step in addressing problems resulting from the global digital divide is to improve understanding, that is, organizations and individuals must understand what factors contribute to this global digital divide for them to address it effectively. From this foundational understanding, organizations can take the kinds of focused, coordinated actions needed to address such international problems effectively. This collection represents an initial step toward examining the global digital divide from the perspective of developing nations and the challenges their citizens face in today's error of communication-driven globalization. The entries in this collection each represent different insights on the digital divide from the perspectives of developing nations - many of which have been overlooked in previous discussions of this topic. This book examines globalization and its effects from the perspective of how differences in access to online communication technologies between the economically developed countries and less economically developed countries is affecting social, economic, educational, and political developments in the world's emerging economies. This collection also examines how this situation is creating a global digital divide that will have adverse consequences for all nations. Each of the book's chapters thus presents trends and ideas related to the global digital divide between economically developed countries and less economically developed nations. Through this approach, the contributors present perspectives from the economically developing nations themselves versus other texts that explore this topic from the perspective of economically developed countries. In this way, the book provides a new and an important perspective to the growing literature on the global digital divide. The primary audiences for this text would include individuals from both academics and industry practitioners. The academic audience would include administrators in education; researchers; university, college, and community college instructors; and students at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels.

What is legal language and where is it found? What does a forensic linguist do? How can linguistic skills help legal professionals? We are constantly surrounded by legal language, but sometimes it is almost impossible to understand. Providing extracts from real-life legal cases, this highly usable and accessible textbook brims with helpful examples and activities that will help you to navigate this area. Language and Law: * introduces useful linguistic concepts and tools * outlines the methods linguists employ to analyse legal language and language in legal situations * includes topics on such as: written legal language; threats, warnings and speech act theory; courtroom interactions and the work linguists do to help solve crimes; physical and 'spoken' signs; and the creativity of legal language

The book, Talking About Structural Inequalities in Everyday Life: New Politics of Race in Groups, Organizations, and Social Systems, provides critical attention to contemporary, innovative, and cutting?edge issues in group, organizational, and social systems that address the complexities of racialized structural inequalities in everyday life. This book provides a comprehensive focus on systemic, societal, and organizational functioning in a variety of contexts in advancing the interdisciplinary fields of human development, counseling, social work, education, public health, multiculturalism/cultural studies, and organizational consultation. One of the most fundamental aspects of this book engages readers in the connection between theory and praxis that incorporates a critical analytic approach to learning and the practicality of knowledge. A critical emphasis examines how inequalities and power relations manifest in groups, organizations, communities, and social systems within societal contexts. In particular, suppressing talk about racialized structural inequalities in the dominant culture has traditionally worked to marginalize communities of color. The subtle, barely visible, and sometimes unspeakable behavioral practices involving these racialized dynamics are explored. This scholarly book provides a valuable collection of chapters for researchers, prevention experts, clinicians, and policy makers, as well as research organizations, not?for?profit organizations, clinical agencies, and advanced level undergraduate and graduate courses focused on counseling, social work, education, public health, organizational consultation and advocacy.

The story of Anglo-American relations in Saudi Arabia during the Second World War has generally been viewed as one of discord and hegemonic rivalry, a perspective reinforced by a tendency to consider Britain's decline and the ascent of US power as inevitable. In this engaging and timely study, Matthew Hinds calls into question such assumptions and reveals a relationship that, though hard-nosed, functioned through interdependence and strategic parity. Drawing upon an array of archives from both sides of the Atlantic, Hinds traces the flow of key events and policies as well as the leading figures who shaped events to show why, how and to what extent the allies and Saudi Arabia became 'mixed up together', in the words of Winston Churchill. Perhaps most fundamentally, Britain and the United States were enthralled by the promise of Saudi Arabia serving as an auxiliary to Allied strategy. Obtaining King Ibn Saud's tacit support or more specifically, his 'benevolent neutrality', meant having vital access, not only to the country's prospective oil reserves, but to its prized geographic location, its centrality within Islam and, as international politics increasingly followed an anti-colonial path, to its credentials as a sovereign and independent Arab state. Given what was at stake, London and Washington saw their engagement in Saudi Arabia as seminal; a genuine blueprint for how to forge a lasting 'Special Relationship' throughout the Middle East. Hinds' bold new interpretation is a vital work that enlarges our understanding of the Anglo-American wartime alliance.

From the perspectives of positive psychology and positive communication, superheroes are often depicted as possessing virtues and serving as inspirational exemplars. However, many of the virtues enumerated as characterizing the superhero (e.g., courage, teamwork, creativity) could just as easily be applied to heroes of other genres. To understand what is unique to the superhero genre, How Superheroes Model Community: Philosophically, Communicatively, Relationally looks not only to the virtues that animate them, but also to the underlying moral framework that gives meaning to those virtues. The key to understanding their character is that often they save strangers, and they do so in the public sphere. The superhero's moral framework, therefore, must encompass both the motivation to act to benefit others rather than themselves (especially people to whom they have no relational obligation) and to preserve the public sphere against those who would disrupt it. Given such a framework, Nathan Miczo argues that superheroes are not, and could not, be loners. They constantly form team-ups, super teams, alliances, partnerships, take on mentorship roles, and create sidekicks. Social constructionist approaches in the communication field argue that communication, in part, works to shape and create our social reality. Through this lens, Miczo proposes that superheroes maintain themselves as a community through the communicative practices they engage in.

We in the West are living in the midst of a deadly culture war. Our rival worldviews clash with increasing violence in the public arena, culminating in deadly riots and mass shootings. A fragmented left now confronts a resurgent and reactionary right, which threatens to reverse decades of social progress. Commentators have declared that we live in a "post-truth world," one dominated by online trolls and conspiracy theorists. How did we arrive at this cultural crisis? How do we respond? This book speaks to this critical moment through a new reading of the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre. Over thirty years ago, MacIntyre predicted the coming of a new Dark Ages. The premise of this book is that MacIntyre was right all along. It presents his diagnosis of our cultural crisis. It further presents his answer to the challenge of public reasoning without foundations. Pitting him against John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, and Chantal Mouffe, Ethics Under Capital argues that MacIntyre offers hope for a critical democratic politics in the face of the culture wars.

The spread of the Internet is remaking marriage markets, altering the process of courtship and the geographic trajectory of intimacy in the 21st century. For some Latin American women and U.S. men, the advent of the cybermarriage industry offers new opportunities for re-making themselves and their futures, overthrowing the common narrative of trafficking and exploitation. In this engaging, stimulating virtual ethnography, Felicity Amaya Schaeffer follows couples' romantic interludes at "Vacation Romance Tours," in chat rooms, and interviews married couples in the United States in order to understand the commercialization of intimacy. While attending to the interplay between the everyday and the virtual, Love and Empire contextualizes personal desires within the changing global economic and political shifts across the Americas. By examining current immigration policies and the use of Mexican and Colombian women as erotic icons of the nation in the global marketplace, she forges new relations between intimate imaginaries and state policy in the making of new markets, finding that women's erotic self-fashioning is the form through which women become ideal citizens, of both their home countries and in the United States. Through these little-explored, highly mediated romantic exchanges, Love and Empire unveils a fresh perspective on the continually evolving relationship between the U.S. and Latin America.

The Discussion is distorting today. Within schools, social movements, and firms, there has been an increasing tendency for teachers and facilitators to announce that there will be a discussion while the interaction which follows this announcement is not a discussion, but something else??likely a recitation and lecture. This distortion of discussion promises democracy, equality, and participation during a meeting or class, but delivers inequality, prohibition, and dominance. Now is the time to begin changing these practices which ultimately create and support a neoliberal society that promises democracy but practices oligarchy. One way to change this neoliberal social world is by intervening in the distortion of discussion, by facilitating interaction so that discussion's promise of equality and participation is fulfilled rather than negated. Elements of Discussion is a resource for this intervention. It is a political, poetic, and practical handbook for facilitating discussion. Discussions happen everywhere, and if society itself is composed of relationships between people then creating more participation and equality during discussions can help create the conditions for social change. Elements of Discussion therefore includes practical tips, techniques, and reflective questions through which it firmly and sensitively suggests to readers how to facilitate discussions across contexts. Beginning with the ways chairs and tables are set up, continuing through the kinds of questions a facilitator can ask, and including sample activities facilitators can use, the book expounds a philosophy of facilitating discussion, emphasizing the political and poetic significance of the tactics it recommends.

While communication theory has not recognized the implications of the social intuitionist model, psychologists have gathered an impressive body of evidence to support the theory. In social cognition research, there was the idea that human inferential processes are conscious, rational, logical, and accurate, and this belief continues somewhat in the behavioral sciences although there is evidence that it is incorrect. A fresh examination is needed on just how these inferences by the receiver and the implications by the sender, carried out at high speed, impact our understanding of the communication process. Simply put, until now the default case in communication theory is the belief that we consciously reason and then we act. However, that may not be entirely true. Rationalist Bias in Communication Theory applies social intuition theory to human communication. This book explores how research has missed accounting for a critical fact about human communication in the theories of communication, namely that we as humans can respond to one another and to all kinds of stimuli faster than we can deliberate. By applying intuitive cognition to communication, a new light can be shed on the communication process, which is what the chapters prove and discuss. This book is valuable for social scientists, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in new theories in communication theory.

Television and the Modernization Ideal in 1980s China: Dazzling the Eyes explores Chinese television history in the pivotal decade of the 1980s and explains the intellectual reception of television in China during this time. While the Chinese media has often been a topic within studies of globalization and the global political economy, scholarly attention to the history of Chinese television requires a more extensive and critical view of the interaction between television and culture. Using theories of media technology, globalization, and gender studies supplemented by Chinese periodicals including Life Out of 8 Hours, Popular TV, Popular Cinema, Modern Family, and Chinese Advertising, as well as oral history interviews, this book re-examines how Western technology was introduced to and embedded into Chinese culture. Wen compares and analyzes television dramas produced in China and imported from other nations while examining the interaction between various ideologies of Chinese society and those of the international media. Moreover, she explores how the hybridity between Western television culture and Chinese traditions were represented in popular Chinese visual media, specifically the confusions and ambitions of modernization and the negotiation between tradition and modernity, nationalism and internationalism, in the intellectual reception of television in China.

Atlantic Communications examines the historical development of communications technology and its impact on German-American relations from the 17th to the 20th century. Chronologically organized, the book is divided into five parts, each scrutinizing one or two central themes connected to the specific time period and technology involved. The book starts with speech as a dominant medium of the 17th and 18th centuries, when cultural brokers played a significant role in producing and spreading knowledge about America. During the 19th century, the technological competition between the old and the new world became a driving force for the history of transatlantic relations. This competition developed new dimensions with the invention of the telegraph and the emergence of news agencies. Information became commercialized. technologically possible. Print media, daily journals and especially weekly magazines became the medium of a critical style of journalism. The Muckrakers, representatives of a political and intellectual elite, criticized the social and cultural consequences of technological progress, thereby highlighting the negative effects of modernization. During the 1920s and 1930s, radio developed as a new mass medium, the first one to be used widely for political purposes. Not only did Josef Goebbels recognize the political possibilities of reaching the people directly via radio, Franklin Roosevelt used the radio as well to transmit his political messages in the form of fireside chats. to communicate the past, especially the historical experience of the Holocaust. Specific cultures of memory developed in both America and Germany. The demand to tackle the psychological and social problems stemming from the experiences during the Third Reich, advocated especially by the student movement, was most successfully taken up by the media. The television miniseries Holocaust had a far more profound impact on the public than efforts taken by school teachers, history professors or the institutions for political education who were officially in charge of Vergangenheitsbewaltigung.