Franco Ferrarotti here offers a provocative look at the future of a world dominated by mass media--particularly television. He argues eloquently that the art of story-telling, the traditions of oral history, the simple pleasures of individual conversation are being lost, precisely because they embody qualities antithetical to the technological imperatives of mass society--qualities such as time to develop a thought, a thirst for details, patience, and a delight in the unexpected. He asserts that the mental habits prevailing in an age that places undue value on instantaneous images are incompatible with extended face-to-face dialogue.

This comprehensive handbook provides a unique overview of the theory, methodologies and best practices in climate change communication from around the world. It fosters the exchange of information, ideas and experience gained in the execution of successful projects and initiatives, and discusses novel methodological approaches aimed at promoting a better understanding of climate change adaptation. Addressing a gap in the literature on climate change communication and pursuing an integrated approach, the handbook documents and disseminates the wealth of experience currently available in this field. Volume 2 of the handbook provides a unique description of the theoretical basis and of some of the key facts and phenomena which help in achieving a better understanding of the basis of climate change communication, providing an essential basis for successful initiatives in this complex field.

Intellectuals today cringe when a politician speaks of the Second Coming, the millennium, or the Antichrist. Certain questions naturally arise about those who literally expect the end of the world in our day: Why do they think this? Why do some people believe them? How do their exhortations work to persuade an audience and to move that audience to actions and commitments? These are the motivating questions of Contemporary Apocalyptic Rhetoric, which describes "apocalyptic" as a rhetorical genre of discourse. Barry Brummett first recasts insights drawn from past scholarly and theological studies to demonstrate their relevance to contemporary apocalyptic, then examines a variety of "real" apocalyptic to illustrate the ways in which these rhetorical discourses actually work. The discussion focuses on those strategies, arguments, and stylistic features that are peculiar to apocalyptic and that support its social and political claims. Following an introductory first chapter, Chapter Two describes how apocalyptic rhetoric links a psychological context to an esoteric "grand order" underlying all of time and the cosmos. Chapter Three compares premillennial and postmillennial apocalyptic on three dimensions to show the different approaches they take to reach their audiences. Chapter Four describes specific rhetorical techniques designed to maintain a mystic persona and urge social and political commitments on audiences. The final two chapters apply the author's theories to secular and religious apocalyptic, both premillennial (Hal Lindsey and Ravi Batra) and postmillennial (Francis Fukuyama). Contemporary Apocalyptic Rhetoric will appeal to readers across many disciplines, includingcommunications, religion, sociology, and psychology.

The book reports on advanced theories and methods in two related engineering fields: electrical and electronic engineering, and communications engineering and computing. It highlights areas of global and growing importance, such as renewable energy, power systems, mobile communications, security and the Internet of Things (IoT). The contributions cover a number of current research issues, including smart grids, photovoltaic systems, wireless power transfer, signal processing, 4G and 5G technologies, IoT applications, mobile cloud computing and many more. Based on the proceedings of the first International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering (ELECOM 2016), held in Voila Bagatelle, Mauritius from November 25 to 27, 2016, the book provides graduate students, researchers and professionals with a snapshot of the state-of-the-art and a source of new ideas for future research and collaborations.

The value of multi-disciplinary research lies in the exchange of ideas and methods across the traditional boundaries between areas of study. It could be argued that many of the advances in science and engineering take place because the ideas, methods and the tools of thought from one discipline become re-applied in another.
The topic of "the visual" has become increasingly important as advances in technology have led to multi-media and multi-modal representations, and extended the range and scope of visual representation and interpretation in our lives. Under this broad heading there are many different perspectives and approaches, from across the entire spectrum of human knolwedge and activity.
The editors and authors of this book aim to break down cross-disciplinary barriers, by bringing together people working in a wide variety of disciplines where visual representations and interpretations are exploited. Contributions come from researchers actively investigating visual representations and interpretations in a wide variety of areas, including art history, biology, clinical science, cognitive science, computer science, design, engineering, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, physics, psychology, and sociology.
The book provides a forum for wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary contributions on visual representations and interpretations.
* Contributors include researchers actively investigating visual representations and interpretations
* Content spans a wide variety of areas including but not limited to biology, sociology, and computer science
* Discusses how new technology has affected "the visual" representation of information

This intriguing volume examines how the small group communication of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and their key advisors influenced the decisions to escalate the war in Vietnam from January 1961 to July 1965. Using an historical-critical research method, Moya Ann Ball traces the Vietnam decisions from the combative rhetoric of Kennedy's presidential campaign through the creation of a small group communication culture in the Kennedy administration, which, sustained and reinforced in the Johnson administration, became the motivating force behind the decisions to overtly escalate the war in July 1965. Ball asserts that this small group communication culture was formed by the convergence of such characteristics as the decision-making group's assembly effect, the group's reaction to situational demands, the sharing of dramatic communication, and normative behavior. The analysis is based on primary sources (many of them declassified through the author's efforts) from the Kennedy and Johnson Libraries, and on correspondence and interviews with advisors such as McGeorge Bundy, Robert S. McNamara, Walt W. Rostow, Dean Rusk, and James C. Thomson. Contrary to current literature, Ball uncovers that: Kennedy was not the "natural leader" of the Vietnam decision-making group, but became the leader in death that he had not been in life; the decision makers' communication rooted them rhetorically to a combat position from which it seemed impossible to move; Johnson stalled on overt action in Vietnam and, rather than leading his advisors, was led by them; and the decisions to escalate the war emerged in a "context of discovery" in the Kennedy administration and then were rationalized in a "context ofjustification" in the Johnson administration. Vietnam-on-the-Potomac will prove invaluable to communication specialists, political scientists, and historians.

In a comparison of communication in the U.S. presidential primaries of the twentieth century, Kendall examines the role of the candidates and the media during the period of primary elections. Drawing upon information from a broad array of sources, Kendall uncovers communication patterns that transcend time regarding political image, horse race coverage, and negative campaigning. She takes a strong communication perspective, arguing that the verbal context of the presidential primaries is an important factor overlooked in traditional studies. Topics covered include the effect of party rules on communication, the role of speeches and debates, the role of political advertising, and the media's construction of the primaries in the pre- television era and the age of television. Kendall examines the 1996 primaries in light of patterns discovered in earlier years, and she makes predictions and recommendations regarding the 2000 primaries. With its century-wide scope and the variety of research methods used, the book will be of considerable value to researchers, scholars, journalists and students involved with political communication and American presidential elections.

The sequel to the global bestseller The Courage To Be Disliked, the Japanese phenomenon in applying twentieth-century psychology to contemporary dilemmas continues with life-changing advice on finding happiness. _______________________________________________________________________________ In The Courage To Be Happy, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga again distil their wisdom into simple yet profound advice to show us how we, too, can use twentieth-century psychological theory to find true happiness. ON THE COURAGE TO BE DISLIKED: The ideas proffered here will certainly make you think twice about the real cause of the emotional drama in your life. A thought-provoking read. - Mail on Sunday. A real game-changer - Marie Claire.

This comprehensive study examines the case of AM stereo and subsequent technologies to demonstrate the FCC's evolution from stern to reluctant regulator. It also examines emerging technologies, such as multichannel television sound, digital audio broadcasting, and high definition television, and discusses their impact on the evolution of broadcast regulation. In the 1980s the tension between governmental control and the marketplace resulted in the FCC's deregulation of TV and radio, electing to set only technical operating parameters and allowing legal operation of any system that meets those minimal standards. Huff argues that this approach is likely to influence regulatory approaches to other new developments in broadcast technologies. The extensive overview of the industry and the study of the interrelationships between the technologies will appeal to communication scholars in the fields of radio and television as well as interest industry professionals.

This book provides listening researchers, educators, and practitioners with an analysis of listening behavior from current perspectives developed by scholars concerned with the way humans process oral messages. The chapters offer a useful base for applying what the authors know about the complexities of listening to improving listening skills in personal relationships, academic, work, and social settings. Contributors from communication, education, psychology, reading, audiology, and learning skills fields offer their perspectives on how we can understand listening, extending our present theoretical base into exciting new dimensions.

Around the word, in developed as well as developing countries, libraries play an important role in the dissemination of knowledge. The availability of information resources can often mean the difference between poverty and prosperity, particularly in underdeveloped African communities. Rural Community Libraries in Africa: Challenges and Impacts investigates the relationship between local libraries and community development. From the historical roots of rural libraries to their influence on the literacy, economy, and culture of the surrounding region, this book will present academics, researchers, and, most importantly, librarians with crucial insight into the tangible benefits of rural community libraries and the obstacles they must overcome.

In this major new work, Thompson develops an original account of ideology and relates it to the analysis of culture and mass communication in modern Societies.

Thompson offers a concise and critical appraisal of major contributions to the theory of ideology, from Marx and Mannheim, to Horkheimer, Adorno and Habermas. He argues that these thinkers - and social and political theorists more generally - have failed to deal adequately with the nature of mass communication and its role in the modern world. In order to overcome this deficiency, Thompson undertakes a wide-ranging analysis of the development of mass communication, outlining a distinctive social theory of the mass media and their impact.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Section of the American Sociological Association, Volume 10 of the Communication and Information Technologies Annual, Digital Distinctions & Inequalities, brings together nine studies of this increasingly important form of inequality. Drawn from four continents, the research provides a global overview of the current state of the field in different cultural contexts. As a whole, the volume illuminates the complexities of digital inequalities as they are manifested in groups and societies EURO"even when access is widespread. In their depth and breadth, the volume's contributions provide an indispensable guide to emergent forms of digital inequality as it rapidly evolves.

Although the figure of irony has enjoyed extensive attention through important contributions to the diverse literatures addressing figurative thought and language, it still remains relatively in the background compared to other figures such as metaphor and metonymy. The present volume, together with a 2017 collection by Angeliki Athanasiadou and Herbert L. Colston, aims to the further exploration of verbal and situational irony, its gestural accompaniments, its comprehension and interpretation, its constructional diversity and its cooperation with other figures such as metaphor and hyperbole. The present volume is a highly interesting collection of chapters dealing with both theoretical investigations and descriptive applications of a central figure pervading human thought and language. Its aim is to draw more attention to irony's diversity and its concomitant connections to other aspects of figurativeness.

How do individuals perceive the increasingly open-ended nature of mediated surveillance? In what ways are mediated surveillance practices interwoven with identity processes, political struggles, expression of dissent and the production of social space? One of the most significant issues in contemporary society is the complex forms and conflicting meanings surveillance takes. Media, Surveillance and Identity addresses the need for contextualized social perspectives within the study of mediated surveillance. The volume takes account of dominant power structures (such as state surveillance and commercial surveillance) and social reproduction as well as political economic considerations, counter-privacy discourses, and class and gender hegemonies. Some chapters analyse particular media types, formats or platforms (such as loyalty cards or location based services), while others account for the composite dynamics of media ensembles within particular spaces of surveillance or identity creation (such as consumerism or the domestic sphere). Through empirically grounded research, the volume seeks to advance a complex framework of research for future scrutiny as well as rethinking the very concept of surveillance. In doing so, it offers a unique contribution to contemporary debates on the social implications of mediated practices and surveillance cultures.

Even in our most casual encounters with strangers -- when we are looking at each other, talking, or standing in line -- legal systems with elaborate codes, authorized exceptions, and procedures for sanctioning deviance operate with a remarkable degree of success. In this pathbreaking book, Michael Reisman describes how law is an integral and indispensable part of every social interaction. The private sphere or civic order that the liberal state is committed to preserving and in which it tries to refrain from legislating, says Reisman, is not a legal vacuum but the zone of microlaw -- some of it just, some unsatisfactory, and some tyrannical.

Interweaving numerous real-life examples with a detailed review of the scientific literature of many disciplines, Reisman shows the extent to which microlegal systems function in our own lives. More important, he draws on the criteria of ethics and legal philosophy to demonstrate that, paradoxically, efforts to improve microlaw may threaten the very autonomy of the private sphere that central is to the liberal state.

The Social Psychology of Nonverbal Communication gathers together leading nonverbal communication scholars from around the world to offer insight into a range of issues within the nonverbal literature with the aim to rethink current approaches to the subject.

A critique of conventional approaches to communication research, the authors argue that the impact of gender on research practives has been ignored. By exploring gender issues, and conducting applied research in the areas of mass and interpersonal communication, therapeutic interaction, and rhetoric, they critique traditional scholarship and offer novel alternatives. The authors take intact theories and methods and show their applicability (or lack thereof) to the study of women's communication. The adaptations allow researchers to conduct more accurate, sensitive, and theoretically sound analyses of womens' communication than those promoted by traditional paradigms.

McGonagle and Vella maintain that competitive intelligence as we know it is just the first step toward the creation of true corporate intelligence. Their book thus explores ways in which new channels of communication and new uses of information and intelligence will change corporations, and how these changes can be anticipated now in an organization's strategic planning, crisis management, benchmarking, reverse engineering, and defensive intelligence activities. In doing so, they introduce readers to new techniques, such as shadow benchmarking and fractal management analysis. Readable, with useful checklists, forms, reminders, and drawing from real world cases, this book will be essential reading for executives in the public and private sectors, and their colleagues in the academic business community.

Vella and McGonagle premise their book on the evidence that modern companies throughout the world are undergoing radical, involuntary transformations, the result of an explosion of raw information suddenly available to them. Not only does this demand new ways to collect, process, and use information, but also a new way to look at and link information sources that until now have been unconnected. After discussing the importance of intelligence today and its greater importance tomorrow, Vella and McGonagle develop the concept of Cyber-Intelligence(TM), then show how it applies to strategy-creation, marketing, crisis management, benchmarking, and other organizational functions. They turn next to data gathering in the context of their Cyber-Intelligence(TM) concept, ending with a thoughtful discussion of where C-I is going next.

In this volume, leading scholars from the fields of communication, educational psychology, and international education address what is known about the strategic role of interpersonal communication in the teaching/learning process. Instruction often involves spoken communication that carries information from teacher to learner, and in these instances the teacher's skillful and strategic use of language has a measurable impact on learning outcomes. Thus, the cumulative findings of instructional communication research are instrumental in maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of both teaching and learning. Major sections of this volume include: Historical and Theoretical Foundations Instructor Characteristics and Behaviors Student Characteristics and Outcomes Pedagogy and Classroom Management Teaching and Learning Communication Across the Life-span This handbook serves researchers, professors, and graduate students by surveying the collective findings of research and experience concerning the intentional activity of teaching and learning.

Misunderstandings in technology-mediated communication can be due to a lack of tone and facial expression on the part of the speaker, which provide additional context clues into the meaning of the message beyond textual representation. As technology becomes more of a ubiquitous element in our interactions with one another, further study into the ways in which language and humor are conveyed online and impact human communication is essential. Analyzing Language and Humor in Online Communication presents a compendium of research into virtual communities, online communication, social networks, and the ways that language, and humor in particular, are being conveyed and understood in these digital environments. Emphasizing examples from popular culture and contemporary media, this innovative publication fills the current void in the literature by focusing specifically on humor creation and perception in the digital age. Students, researchers, linguists, psychologists, media professionals, and sociologists will find this publication to be a unique reference source.