"In 1984, Congress simultaneously eliminated state-local regulation of cable television rates and banned telephone companies from offering cable service in their own franchise areas. Five years later, the General Accounting Office discovered that basic cable rates had risen more than four times as rapidly as the overall consumer price level since rate deregulation. As a result, Congress began to move to reimpose cable rate regulation once again, finally succeeding (over President Bush's veto) in 1992. In this book, Robert Crandall and Harold Furchtgott-Roth examine the case of reregulating cable television and find that viewers gained far more than they lost during the brief deregulatory era because cable services expanded so rapidly in the deregulated environment. Moreover, they show that new technologies, such as direct-broadcast satellites, are likely to provide considerable market discipline for cable operators in the next few years, weakening any case for rate regulation. Given regulation's history of impeding innovation, they conclude that economic welfare is more likely to be enhanced by policies aimed at encouraging new entry into video services than by rate regulation. "

Focusing on the growing power of transnational media corporations in an increasingly globalized environment for distribution of television content, and on the effects of mergers and acquisitions involving local and independent television production companies, this book examines how current and recent re-structurings in ownership across the television industry reflect changing business models, how they affect creativity and diversity of television output, and to what extent they call for new approaches to regulation and policy. Based on a major study of the UK production sector as a case study, it offers a unique analysis of wider transformations in ownership affecting the television production industry worldwide and of their economic, socio-cultural and policy implications.

Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South offers a groundbreaking intervention on how digital media were used from below by ordinary citizens to negotiate the global pandemic humorously. This book considers the role played by digital media during the pandemic, and indeed in the socio-political life of the Global South, as indispensable and revolutionary to human communication. In many societies, humour not only signifies laughter and frivolity, but acts as an important echo that accompanies, critiques, questions, disrupts, agitates and comments on societal affairs and the human condition. This book analyses citizens' use of social media and humour to mediate the pandemic in a diverse range of countries, including Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The book will appeal to academics and students of media and communication studies, political studies, rhetoric, and to policy makers.

Social media, characterized by user-generated content, interactivity, participation and community formation, have gained much research attention in recent years. At the same time, intimacy, affectivity and emotions are increasingly growing as fields of study. While these two areas are often interwoven, the actual interconnections are rarely studied in detail. This anthology explores how social media construct new types of intimacies, and how practices of intimacy shape the development and use of new media, offering empirical knowledge, theoretical insights and an international perspective on the flourishing field of digital intimacies. Chapters present a range of research tools used, such as interviews, online ethnography, visual analysis, text analysis and video analysis. There is also rich variation in sources for the empirical material studied, including Tumblr, YouTube, dating sites, hook-up sites, Facebook, Snapchat, Couchsurfing, selfies, blogs and photographs, as well as smartphones, tablets and computers. By focusing on the intersection between social media and intimacies, and their continuous co-constitution, this anthology offers new insights into the vast landscape of contemporary media reality. It will be a valuable resource for teachers, students and scholars with an interest in new media, communication, intimacy and affectivity.

The links between distinctive political regimes and media systems are undeniable. As Siebert, Peterson and Schramm wrote (1956: 1) 60 years ago: 'the press always takes on the form and coloration of the social and political structures within which it operates'. Nevertheless, today's world and politics are completely different from the bipolar era that inspired the ground breaking Four Theories of the Press. What are the main changes and continuities that have driven the study of politics and the media in the last decades? How to approach this interaction in the light of the challenges that democracy is facing or the continuing technological revolution that at times hampers the media? This provocative book explores the main premises that have guided the study of politics and the media in the last decades. In so doing, it gives the reader key analytical tools to question the sustainability of past categorizations that no longer match up with current developments of both, political regimes and the media. In searching for clarification about current discrepancies between democracies and media's distinctive structures or purposes, Four Theories of the Press: 60 Years and Counting puts forward an alternative premise: the political-media complex.

Sonic Thinking attempts to extend the burgeoning field of media philosophy, which so far is defined by a strong focus on cinema, to the field of sound. The contributors urge readers to re-adjust their ideas of Sound Studies by attempting to think not only about sound [by external criteria, such as (cultural) meaning], but to think with and through sound. Series editor Bernd Herzogenrath's collection serves two interconnected purposes: in developing an alternative philosophy of music that takes music serious as a 'form of thinking'; and in bringing this approach into a fertile symbiosis with the concepts and practices of 'artistic research': art, philosophy, and science as heterogeneous, yet coequal forms of thinking and researching. Including contributions by both established figures and younger scholars working on cutting edge material, and weaving artistic responses and interventions in between the more theoretical texts, Herzogenrath's collection provides a lively introduction to a fresh debate.

Although discussion of the digital divide is a relatively new phenomenon, social inequality is a deeply entrenched part of our current social world and is now reproduced in the digital sphere. Such inequalities have been described in multiple traditions of social thought and theoretical approaches. To move forward to a greater understanding of the nuanced dynamics of digital inequality, we need the theoretical lenses to interpret the meaning of what has been observed as digital inequality. This volume examines and explains the phenomenon of digital divides and digital inequalities from a theoretical perspective. Indeed, with there being a limited amount of theoretical research on the digital divide so far, Theorizing Digital Divides seeks to collect and analyse different perspectives and theoretical approaches in analysing digital inequalities, and thus propose a nuanced approach to study the digital divide. Exploring theories from diverse perspectives within the social sciences whilst presenting clear examples of how each theory is applied in digital divide research, this book will appeal to scholars and undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in sociology of inequality, digital culture, Internet studies, mass communication, social theory, sociology, and media studies.

This book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines to address critical perspectives on Chinese language social media, internationalizing the state of social media studies beyond the Anglophone paradigm. The collection focuses on the intersections between Chinese language social media and disability, celebrity, sexuality, interpersonal communication, charity, diaspora, public health, political activism and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The book is not only rich in its theoretical perspectives but also in its methodologies. Contributors use both qualitative and quantitative methods to study Chinese social media and its social-cultural-political implications, such as case studies, in-depth interviews, participatory observations, discourse analysis, content analysis and data mining.

There is widespread and growing concern about the use of alcohol in society, especially by young people. Although overall volumes of alcohol consumption may be levelling off, the occurrences of excessive or 'binge' drinking, especially among teenagers and young adults, are increasingly commonplace. Tackling irresponsible drinking, which is linked to other antisocial behaviour and health problems, has focused attention on the promotion of alcohol by its producers as an important causal factor. This has led to calls for tougher regulation of alcohol marketing, including restrictions on where it can occur and the form it is allowed to take. Empirical research evidence, often emanating from government funded enquiries and endorsed by health lobbies, has been cited in support of an allegedly primary role played by advertising in triggering interest in and the onset of alcohol consumption among young people and in encouraging regular and heavy drinking. Close examination of this evidence, however, reveals that the research is not always as cut and dried as it may first appear. Methodological weaknesses abound in studies of the purported effects of alcohol advertising and other forms of marketing and the significance specifically of advertising as an agent that shapes young people's alcohol consumption could be weaker than often thought. This book sets out a review and critique of the evidence on alcohol advertising and marketing effects on young people and considers this evidence in relation to codes of advertising and marketing practice.

Crisis management is of increasing importance to organisations. With the rise of single-issue pressure groups, the development of sophisticated and informed consumers and volatile voters, no organisation in the public or private sector can afford to neglect preparation for dealing with the disasters that may befall it. This book aims to improve the relationship between the media and those subject to media scrutiny at a time of crisis or disaster by generating mutual understanding of their needs. Drawing on the experience of practitioners, it aims to disseminate good practice. Part I sets the context and raises some general issues on the theme of communicating at a time of crisis or disaster. Part II looks at the relationships between media and those who are trying to manage the crisis in public relations and public information terms. It contains a number of case studies, each contributed by an expert, clearly explaining how a variety of crises and disasters were managed by the organisations concerned, and how they were reported by the media. Part III is an extended case study of the Hillsborough disaster, taking a candid look at what happened from the perspective of four very different people who were closely involved in the aftermath. The final section includes chapters on the value of training and rehearsal, and some of the lessons learned from Dunblane.

1. The book analyses why media and information literacy (MIL) is often proposed as a solution for addressing the current information crisis and examines the paradoxes that are built into common understandings of such literacies 2. The book will be essential reading for scholars and students engaged in the study of library and information science, media and communication studies, journalism studies and the educational sciences. 3. There is no existing title that explores a) critiques of fake news and b) critiques information literacy models in relation to fake news and c) looks at the points of alignment between information literacy and media information literacy. These three aspects make the proposed book exciting and novel.

Drawing on case studies across the Asia-Pacific region, Gaming in Social, Locative and Mobile Media explores the 'playful turn' in contemporary everyday life, and the role of mobile devices, games and social media in this transformation.

It is twenty-five years since Jurgen Habermas published his "Theory of Communicative Action." Colin B. Grant shares the same commitment to a philosophical theory of communication but issues a range of challenges to Habermas' magnum opus. "Uncertainty and Communication" mounts a critique of theories of dialogism and intersubjectivity, proposes a radical rethinking of the communicating subject in society and explores the new contingencies of culture and media in our interconnected global communication system.

This book highlights state-of-the-art research, development and implementation efforts concerning social media in government services, bringing together researchers and practitioners in a number of case studies. It elucidates a number of significant challenges associated with social media specific to government services, such as: benefits and methods of assessing; usability and suitability of tools, technologies and platforms; governance policies and frameworks; opportunities for new services; integrating social media with organisational business processes; and specific case studies. The book also highlights the range of uses and applications of social media in the government domain, at both local and federal levels. As such, it offers a valuable resource for a broad readership including academic researchers, practitioners in the IT industry, developers, and government policy- and decision-makers.

Like music and the news media before it, the film and television business is now facing its time of digital disruption. Major changes are being brought about in global online distribution of film and television by new players, such as Google/YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Yahoo , Facebook, Netflix and Hulu, some of whom massively outrank in size and growth the companies that run film and television today. Content, Hollywood has always asserted, is King. But the power and profitability in screen industries have always resided in distribution. Incumbents in the screen industries tried to control the emerging dynamics of online distribution, but failed. The new, born digital, globally focused, players are developing TV network-like strategies, including commissioning content that has widened the net of what counts as television. Content may be King, but these new players may become the King Kongs of the online world.

Aggressive policy, enthusiastic news coverage and sensational novelistic style combined to create a distinctive image of Britain's Empire in late-Victorian print media. The New Journalism, the New Imperialism and the Fiction of Empire, 1870-1900 traces this phenomenon through the work of editors, special correspondents and authors.

This book explores the impact of, and lessons learned from, media development and training programs sponsored by the US government and non-governmental organizations in countries transitioning to democracy. Recognizing the importance of establishing a free press and a free market economy in newly democratic societies, this book examines the training of journalists and media managers in selected countries in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Drawing on the author's and other media trainers' experiences over a 25-year period, this book provides important insights into tailoring training programs to specific regions and countries. Case studies describe training in radio and television management, broadcasting, and media sustainability, and are contextualized against the cultural and historical backgrounds of each region. Media Training in Transition Countries will be of interest to media trainers, government and nongovernment agencies, and scholars and students of international journalism and development.

People are on the move across the Arab world, organizing politically in new ways. The Arab media have also undergone a transformation and are still in a state of flux. It is therefore crucial to be able to discuss political initiatives in the region in the light of media developments. This authoritative book answers key questions about the connections between media and political change in the Arab world. Using research into, for example, practices of Internet users, journalists, demonstrators and producers of reality TV, it explores the interface between public interaction over the airwaves, at the polls and on the streets. A lively group of contributors explores such issues as whether young people are served well by new media, whether blogging is an influential political tool, whether satellite news helps or hinders diasporic communities politically, and much more. Engaging with debates at the heart of public affairs and popular culture in Arab countries, this book addresses everyone who seeks to grasp the media politics of this central, often misunderstood region.

Queercore is a queer and punk transmedia movement that was instigated in 1980s Toronto via the pages of the underground fanzine ("zine") J.D.s. Authored by G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce, J.D.s. declared "civil war" on the punk and gay and lesbian mainstreams, consolidating a subculture of likeminded filmmakers, zinesters, musicans and performers situated in pointed opposition to the homophobia of mainline punk and the lifeless sexual politics and exclusionary tendencies of dominant gay and lesbian society. More than thirty years later, queercore and its troublemaking productions remain under the radar, but still culturally and politically resonant. This book brings renewed attention to queercore, exploring the homology between queer theory/practice and punk theory/practice at the heart of queercore mediamaking. Through analysis of key queercore texts, this book also elucidates the tropes central to queercore's subcultural distinction: unashamed sexual representation, confrontational politics and "shocking" embodiments, including those related to size, ability and gender variance. An exploration of a specific transmedia subculture grounded in archival research, ethnographic interviews, theoretical argumentation and close analysis, ultimately, Queercore proffers a provocative, and tangible, new answer to the long-debated question, "What does it mean to be queer?"

Media semiotics is a valuable method of focusing on the hidden meanings within media texts. This new edition brings Understanding Media Semiotics fully up to date and is written for students of the media, of linguistics and those interested in studying the ever-changing media in more detail. Offering an in-depth guide to help students investigate and understand the media using semiotic theory, this book assumes little previous knowledge of semiotics or linguistics, avoiding jargon and explaining the issues step by step. With in-depth case studies, practical accounts and directed further reading, Understanding Media Semiotics provides students with all the tools they need to understand semiotic analysis in the context of the media. Semiotic analysis is sometimes seen as complicated and difficult to understand; Marcel Danesi shows that on the contrary it can be readily understood and can greatly enrich students' understanding of media texts, from print media right through to the internet and apps.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, millions of Romanians emigrated in search of work and new experiences; they became engaged in an interrogation of what it meant to be Romanian in a united Europe and the globalized world. Their thoughts, feelings and hopes soon began to populate the virtual world of digital and mobile technologies. This book chronicles the online cultural and political expressions of the Romanian diaspora using websites based in Europe and North America. Through online exchanges, Romanians perform new types of citizenship, articulated from the margins of the political field. The politicization of their diasporic condition is manifested through written and public protests against discriminatory work legislation, mobilization, lobbying, cultural promotion and setting up associations and political parties that are proof of the gradual institutionalization of informal communications. Online discourse analysis, supplemented by interviews with migrants, poets and politicians involved in the process of defining new diasporic identities, provide the basis of this book, which defines the new cultural and political practices of the Romanian diaspora.

What kinds of human individuals, events, things and commodities can best represent China? How have those representative symbols evolved in Chinese history? How have they been highlighted, disseminated and accepted? In this book, a full range of symbols and seemingly discrete social phenomena, hidden in diverse fields of Chinese society, are given lucid explanations based on the interdisciplinary theories of semiotics and communication. It studies the evolution of classic Chinese symbols through history and investigates the root causes for the communication of negative Chinese images in modern times. Besides, this book explicates the pattern of interaction between groups communication and mass communication in the Chinese society by exploring the different paths of transmutation and communication for the symbol of the "APEC Blue." How the image of China is constructed via non-government symbols is also addressed. By pointing out that classic semiotics has been reduced to an embarrassing dilemma of "a severe lack of historical sense," this book seeks to make Western semiotic findings bear closely on Chinese social reality and accomplish an updated contribution to this academic discipline. This book will appeal to scholars and students of semiotics and communication. Readers who are interested in modern Chinese society will also benefit from it.

The central theme of this volume is the incorporation of newly accessible mass media into practices of religious mediation in a variety of settings, including Pentecostal-charismatic churches and Islamic movements, and the use of religious forms and images in the sphere of radio and cinema. Based on a long-term cooperation, the contributors examine the role of religion and media in the emergence and sustenance of new 'aesthetic formations' that appeal to the body and the senses, and generate new styles of binding and moods of belonging in our time.

Exploring the transition of celebrities into institutional-electoral politics, the book argues that many insights developed by genre theorists could be highly instrumental to understand the celebrity politics phenomenon. It analyzes the historical and cultural specificity of celebrity politics as it evolved through different countries and cultures.