The articles collected in this volume encompass the outcomes of the conference "Media Convergence - Konwergencja Mediow - Medienkonvergenz", held at the Jesuit University "Ignatianum" in Cracow in March 2011. The Conference was organized by the Chair of Media and Social Communication of the Institute of Cultural Studies, founded in 2005. The aim of this interdisciplinary meeting of scholars from European academic centers was an attempt to answer the question what the phenomenon of convergence really is with regard to media, and how the permeation of media phenomena influences contemporary culture. The two-day debate included thematic blocks on literature and art, film, education, theater communication, and media communication. The interdisciplinary character of research is also the "guiding idea" of cultural studies at the Jesuit University "Ignatianum" in Cracow.

Lost in Media examines collectively the ethical issues that have arisen in media-driven everyday life and will that arise as paradigm shifts occur on a global scale. Films, television and the new media often serve the globalization aims of a capitalist society as they function to socially reproduce the hegemonic norms, values, and styles of the larger society. Chapters in the book use the tradition of critical theory to look at issues of free market fundamentalism, journalism's erosion of communication of truth, public relations ethics of perception management; yielding self-censorship in the media, entertainment media pedagogically cultivating consumerism and docility, music and morality, misrepresentation of resistance movements, ethics of spectatorship, and the transformation of everyday ethics.

By combining the analysis of the new forms and environments of the digital world with critical scholarship of the role of the users, this book argues that cultural field is facing a challenge of the digital turn. The digital turn hereby implies that changes in the use and application of digital technology bring on changes in practice and in the relationships between cultural institutions and audiences. We approach the changes in society from the structural (institutional) as well as from the agential (audiences, users, individuals) perspective. The authors represented in this book share the view that there is no need to fear the new media pushing aside traditional cultural forms, acknowledging at the same time that the scope of this cultural change is far from understood.

This collection of essays, the first book-length treatment of its kind, explicates the concept of "media interventions", which are herein defined as activities and projects that secure, exercise, challenge or acquire media power for tactical and strategic action. Drawing on insights from media, communication and cultural studies, contributors offer penetrating analyses of media interventions in a variety of social, political, and cultural settings from culture jamming and DIY media to public relations campaigns and reality television shows. In doing so, the volume develops an analytical framework for examining the complex and contradictory operation of media power in contemporary society. Providing a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the uneven, fluid, and heterogeneous operation of media power, this volume breaks new ground on the theory and practice of media interventions and also contributes to and stimulates the development of a productive line of inquiry into the study of media interventions.

This volume investigates the changes undergone by written communication in our globalized world as English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The latter usually functions as a language for communication purposes, but also becomes a language for identification purposes. The study takes into account different web-genres: from the replication of existing genres in other media to cybergenres, whose key evolutionary force is the progressive exploitation of the new functionalities afforded by the new medium. The variety of the contexts of use has made it possible to consider different ELF-using communities of practice, whose members adopt ELF and adapt it to express individual, national and professional identities in international interactions. The analysis focuses on lexicogrammatical innovations, which inevitably change in accordance with the different contexts of use, as well as on the communicative strategies underpinning these changes.

This book received the Enrique Alcaraz Research Award in 2015. Through Narrative Theory, the book offers an engaging panorama of the construction of specialised discourses and practices within academia and diverse professional communities. Its chapters investigate genres from various fields, such as aircraft accident reports, clinical cases and other scientific observations, academic conferences, academic blogs, climate-change reports, university decision-making in public meetings, patients' oral and written accounts of illness, corporate annual reports, journalistic obituaries, university websites, narratives of facts in legal cases, narrative processes in arbitration hearings, briefs, and witness examination accounts. In addition to exploring narration in this wide range of contexts, the volume uses narrative as a powerful tool to gain a methodological insight into professional and academic accounts, and thus it contributes to research into theoretical issues. Under the lens of Narratology, Discourse and Genre Analysis, fresh research windows are opened on the study of academic and professional interactions.

Sufi oral discourse in Senegal is overwhelmingly dominated by stories about past and current shaykhs. An important corpus of oral narratives about Sufi clerics is not only (re)told by Sufi speakers throughout Senegal but also in the Senegalese diasporas in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. These accounts are interwoven by multiple speakers among followers of Senegalese Sufi brotherhoods and passed down from generation to generation in Senegal and its diasporas. The weaving together and spreading of such texts themselves are part of the Sufi praxis. These oral texts, deeply rooted in their context of production, which dictates their form and functions, are still generally unknown to scholars of Islam in Senegal and West Africa. By filling this gap, this book contributes to the discourse of religions in general and Sufi Islam in particular.

Public services are increasingly delivered by organizations operating at arms' length of governments. These organizations occupy one third of the total news and spend huge sums of money on media management. This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of how public services are affected by their media environment. It describes how public service providers have become mediatized: have adapted their structures and processes to media pressure. The adaptation is profound; some managers use 25% of their time on media and others state that "from day one, how to get it through the media is on your mind". This normative issue of media influence is approached on the basis of extensive international research. At display is a collection of inside stories from the daily encounters between media and public service providers.

The study of health information seeking has become increasingly important in recent years due to the growing emphasis on the consumer/client relationship in the health arena. This trend implies a shift away from the development of health campaigns with one unitary message to a recognition that alternatives must be provided and options discussed. Indeed, health agencies are adopting the role of information-seeking facilitators through the creation of telephone services and sophisticated databases. A greater understanding of the public's needs, especially why people seek information, may help us to accomplish the many behavioral changes that will lead toward decreases in morbidity and mortality and a more balanced approach to wellness and prevention. This is especially important in the context of the revolution in access to information brought about by the many recent advances in databases and telecommunication systems, perhaps best represented by the advent of the Internet. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of these issues appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, practitioners, and researchers.

This book explores the techniques and discursive strategies that are typical of the communicative interactions between professionals and laymen in a jury trial. It also investigates the complex relationship that emerges between written and oral communication in different phases of the trial. The analysis takes into account the many nuances that define these dynamics and the various possibilities that the jurors have to intervene in the process, particularly in the light of recent procedural developments. Special attention is devoted to the observation of the specific strategies adopted to illustrate legal ideas and concepts to the jurors according to the speakers' various communicative purposes. By adopting a discourse analytical perspective which combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the book highlights the hybridity of the language used in court and the combination of different styles and registers.

The netted human we may call Homo Irretitus resides in a space made possible by technologies frequently referred to as new media, social media, emerging media, and Web 2.0. Traditional conceptualizations of audiences and producers are shifting so the very making of our social practices, spaces, and contexts in this brave new world of the World Wide Web, the work of Homo Irretitus in this intersectional space, must be interrogated. If we are to understand this space, we should approach it from varied vantage points. This book gathers scholars from both within and external to the core of new media studies, each of whom applies a unique theoretical perspective to the intersection of audience and production in the space enabled by emerging communications technologies. In doing so they help shed light on a variety of the tensions evident in the new digital spaces in which we create and recreate (and often produse) so much of our lives, our identities, and our selves. Focusing multiple spotlights on the intersection of audiences and production made possible by social software helps make clearer a more nuanced perspective than would otherwise be possible as well as opening up questions for further debate within the field.

This volume presents the latest research of an international group of scholars, engaged in the analysis of academic discourse from a genre-oriented perspective. The area covered by this volume is a central one, as in the last few years important developments in research on academic discourse have not only concerned the more traditional genres, but, as well, generic innovations promoted by the new technologies, employed both in the presentation of research results and in their dissemination to a wider community by means of popularising and teaching activities. These innovations have not only favoured important changes in existing genres and the creation of new ones to meet emerging needs of the academic community, but have also promoted a serious discussion about the construct of genre itself. The various investigations gathered in this volume provide several examples of the complexity and flexibility of genres, which have shown to be subject to a continuous tension between stability and change as well as between convention and innovation.

This volume focuses on the evolution of genres in specialized communication under the pressure of technological innovations and the profound social changes triggered by globalization in the contemporary world, in a context where rapid and extensive changes in communicative practices, patterns and technologies have deeply affected the generic configuration of professional and disciplinary domains. These developments call for a reconsideration of the repertoires of conventions traditionally identified in each specific genre as well as for a reassessment of the analytical tools used to investigate them, about three decades after the emergence of genre analysis.

This volume presents a long-term qualitative study that follows 20 New York City public high school students as they make the transition into college and work. The primary data are the young people's reflections on high school, how they felt unprepared for college or career, and the subsequent work they have done in order to succeed. The text critiques the current state of secondary and university education, especially the neoliberal emphasis on private industry and competition. However, it claims that a critical media literacy intervention can provide young people with the skills to challenge their environments and realize they are part of, not apart from, larger social issues. One unique feature of the text is its datagathering method: Stories are culled from in-person interviews and, most importantly, electronic interviews conducted on Facebook. The research was conducted, and this book written, to illustrate the very real struggles and socioeconomic challenges of young people and works to create proactive, productive change on their behalf.

This volume presents a long-term qualitative study that follows 20 New York City public high school students as they make the transition into college and work. The primary data are the young people's reflections on high school, how they felt unprepared for college or career, and the subsequent work they have done in order to succeed. The text critiques the current state of secondary and university education, especially the neoliberal emphasis on private industry and competition. However, it claims that a critical media literacy intervention can provide young people with the skills to challenge their environments and realize they are part of, not apart from, larger social issues. One unique feature of the text is its datagathering method: Stories are culled from in-person interviews and, most importantly, electronic interviews conducted on Facebook. The research was conducted, and this book written, to illustrate the very real struggles and socioeconomic challenges of young people and works to create proactive, productive change on their behalf.

Speech Acts and Politeness are among the main areas of interest in pragmatics. These communicative phenomena can be considered universal and at the same time language and culture-specific. It is this latter dimension that has been at the centre of recent developments in pragmatics, and it is also the focus of this book. The aim of this book is to reflect this development, providing evidence from four main areas crucial to pragmatics across languages and cultures: a description of a variety of speech acts and politeness strategies in different languages and cultures, a cross-cultural comparison of several speech acts and patterns of politeness, an in-depth analysis of issues concerning the learning and teaching of speech acts and politeness in second/foreign languages, as well as some methodological resources in pragmatics. This book is intended for researchers, scholars and students interested in the field of pragmatics, in general, or in the fields of cross-cultural and second/foreign language pragmatics, and specifically for those interested in speech acts and politeness. It will also be useful to any scholar interested in how communication and culture are related.

Updated with new and current examples throughout, this concise guide is a rich resource for anyone who wants to become more effective in speaking settings. It covers all the basics and identifies essential principles that will help readers to efficiently prepare, deliver, and evaluate presentations.

Language of Migration: Self- and Other-Representation of Korean Migrants in Germany analyzes a variety of genres that depict Korean migration in Germany - namely, newspaper articles, autobiographical narratives, and documentaries - and deconstructs the language of these texts to provide a more layered picture of the discursively constructed identities of this particular group. By applying methods of media analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and postcolonial theory to the present intertextual and interdiscursive data, colonial discursive practices in Other-representations of Koreans in the German media and postcolonial forms of resistance in Self-representations of Koreans in autobiographical narratives in the German language are identified. In the past, research on migration and research on migrant literature were separate entities with little opportunity to cross. In this book, these two are brought together in order to examine both sides of the discursive coin.

This book offers students, academics and professional researchers a broad survey of ways to popularize research. Although each chapter discusses unique experiences, each follows a standard format, touching upon common elements: outlining what the research popularized was about, why the decision to popularize it was made, why certain media and genres were employed, what lessons researchers learned in the process, and how audiences responded. Throughout the book, readers are directed to the book's accompanying website, an excellent resource for highlighting how examples in the book come to life, what they sound like, and what they look like. Written in a clear and accessible style, this volume avoids specialized terminology and instead employs basic language that any student, academic, and professional across the social sciences and humanities will understand.

Time on TV examines the massive aesthetic and structural changes happening across today's television programs. Time travel, flash forwards, fake memories: Paul Booth's analysis reveals the theory and practices that are changing television and online media as we know them. His engaging examination of the mashup of television and social media uncovers a temporal complexity at the heart of our own lives. The characteristically enigmatic television narrative becomes emblematic of a very human interaction with social and digital media. A perfect book for twenty-first century television studies, media studies, or anyone who wants to know why there's so much time travel on television, Time on TV answers questions you didn't even know you had about today's television, digital technology, and our daily lives.

This book focuses on interpretation corpora which is one of the major subjects of research in interpreting studies. It explores key issues such as corpus design and representativeness, as well as aims and challenges of the application of corpus-linguistics principles and methods to interpreting. Interpreting corpora represent a real challenge because of the very nature of the items they are composed of. The oral dimension, the unavoidable stage of transcription and the difficulties in relying on authentic data are only some of the aspects that make the creation of interpreting corpora a complex, challenging and time-consuming activity. The book discusses the theoretical problems and presents the working phases leading to the collection of five different interpreting corpora. The variety of approaches adopted by each research team highlights the fact that aims, interrogation methods and corpus design are intertwined. A survey of the studies carried out so far using these five interpreting corpora identifies data comparability as the core issue of corpus-based interpreting studies.

Examining the close relationship between principles of deliberative democracy, communication, and conflict resolution, this book argues that the nature of deliberative processes is underappreciated for conflict resolution in ethnopolitically divided societies, and that the communicative nature of democratic deliberation is ripe for theoretical and empirical expansion. The book examines the potential of deliberative democracy to contribute to conflict resolution, including issues of argument, deliberation, and political communication. Attention is also paid to the role of media, technology, and the internet. Offering a fully developed understanding of democratic communication and the resolution of conflicts, this book is suitable for scholars as well as students in upper division and graduate courses in a range of areas including communication, politics and government, sociology, and conflict studies.

This book balances critical theory and professional practice to create specific strategies that result in more effective and enlightened news production and consumption. Emerging from the integral theories of Teilhard de Chardin and embracing Neil Postman's media ecology, the reception theories of John Fiske, and the work of many contemporary scholars, The Newsphere constructs a solid theoretical, historical, and practical framework for news as ecology. It illuminates how stories emerge and evolve across digital networks and complex systems and examines the historical and theoretical forces that are precipitating the decay of the traditional American news and information structure. This book is an exciting and progressive foundation text for introductory journalism and mass communication courses, with applications in advanced reporting, new media, news literacy, media ethics, and political science classes. The Newsphere will inspire its readers to move beyond the conventional and to embrace the new news, a dynamic network of unlimited participation.

This book balances critical theory and professional practice to create specific strategies that result in more effective and enlightened news production and consumption. Emerging from the integral theories of Teilhard de Chardin and embracing Neil Postman's media ecology, the reception theories of John Fiske, and the work of many contemporary scholars, The Newsphere constructs a solid theoretical, historical, and practical framework for news as ecology. It illuminates how stories emerge and evolve across digital networks and complex systems and examines the historical and theoretical forces that are precipitating the decay of the traditional American news and information structure. This book is an exciting and progressive foundation text for introductory journalism and mass communication courses, with applications in advanced reporting, new media, news literacy, media ethics, and political science classes. The Newsphere will inspire its readers to move beyond the conventional and to embrace the new news, a dynamic network of unlimited participation.