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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.

Theorizing Ambivalence in Ang Lee's Transnational Cinema takes a unique approach to the study of transnational cinema by examining the representation of Chinese identity in Ang Lee's films and the public discourse from various audience communities. This book focuses on his transnational films Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Lust, Caution (2007) as two case studies. Providing a systematic analysis of audience discourse from Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora, this study challenges ideological constructions of racial and ethnic identity, such as Chineseness, that are objectively defined within a static nation-state mechanism in an era of globalization. Through the study of the representation of Chineseness, this book expands the theoretical discussions on the politics of national identity and cultural syncretism represented in transnational cinema and further provides a good example of the familiar cycle of ambivalent emotion toward the West in the aftermath of postcolonialism. China and Taiwan's long history of engaging in a subordinate relationship with the West enhances the resurgence of ambivalence. The representations become a significant and predominant way to mediate one's bodily experiences, to connect and collaborate with one another, and to form and inform one's cultural identity. The analyses of these films and the audience discourse are essential to an understanding of the ways in which new media technologies impact and alter the human interactions between peoples from various cultural, social, and political contexts.

As video games have become an important economic and cultural force, scholars are increasingly trying to better understand the ways that engagement with games may drive learning, literacy, and social participation in the twenty-first century. In this book, the authors consider games and just as importantly, the social interactions around games, not in terms of how they should be managed or incorporated into existing educational structures, but for what they tell us about the forms of learning and literacy that are already instantiated within the use of these media. To this end, this book delves deeply into James Paul Gee's (2004) productive and influential concept of the affinity space - the physical or virtual locations (or some combination of the two) where people come together around a shared interest or "affinity." By explicating how and why engaged fans of digital media do what they do in online spaces, the authors cast a light, as Gee did, on the promise of these media and the problems facing current educational systems.

This volume is a collection of original essays focusing on the key pedagogical issues behind the teaching of stylistics. Featuring contributions from authors based in the UK, Europe and overseas, it offers an international overview of how stylistics is currently taught and how the teaching of the discipline might be developed in the future. The volume is divided into two main sections, dealing respectively with larger theoretical issues in the teaching of stylistics and examples of classroom practice and detailed text analysis. In addition, the appendices provide an overview of the history of stylistics in the form of a timeline, short biographies of significant figures in the field and substantial lists of further reading. Teaching Stylistics will be of value to postgraduates new to teaching as well as established teachers, particularly those working at the interface between language and literary studies.

For more than a decade, girl power has been a cultural barometer, reflecting girlhood's ever-changing meanings. How did girl power evolve from a subcultural rallying cry to a mainstream catchphrase, and what meaning did young girls find in its pop culture forms? From the riot grrrls to the Spice Girls to The Powerpuff Girls, and influenced by books like Reviving Ophelia and movements like Take Our Daughters to Work Day, Growing Up With Girl Power charts this history. It considers how real girls who grew up with girl power interpreted its messages about empowerment, girlhood, strength, femininity, race, and more, and suggests that for young girls, commercialized girl power had real strengths and limitations - sometimes in fascinating, unexpected ways. Encompassing issues of pre-adolescent body image, gender identity, sexism, and racism, Growing Up With Girl Power underscores the importance of talking with young girls, and is a compelling addition to the literature on girls, media, and culture. Supplemental resources are available online at GrowingUpWithGirlPower.com.

TED talks have redefined the elements of a successful presentation and become the gold standard for public speaking around the world. And yet the techniques that top TED speakers use are the same ones that will make any presentation more dynamic, fire up any team, and give anyone the confidence to overcome their fear of public speaking.

Communications coach and bestselling author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Carmine Gallo has broken down the top TED talks and interviewed the most popular TED presenters to uncover the nine secrets of all successful TED presentations. From 'Unleashing the Master Within' and 'Delivering Jaw Dropping Moments' to 'Sticking to the 18-minute Rule' Gallo provides a step-by-step method that makes it possible for anyone to create, design, and deliver a TED-style presentation that is engaging, persuasive, and memorable.

Ideas are the true currency of the 21st century, and Talk Like TED gives readers a way to create presentations around the ideas that matter most to them, presentations that will energize their audiences to spread those ideas, launch new initiatives, and reach their highest goals.

News Literacy gathers leading scholars, educators, and media makers to explore new approaches to thinking about, examining, and evaluating news media and civic engagement around these fundamental questions: What are the most pressing issues in news, media, and culture in a converged, digital, and global media age? What are the best educational practices to foster media literate understanding, engagement, and expression across borders, across cultures, and across divides? The book will prepare future media practitioners (and citizens) to embrace new media environments that can simultaneously empower their craft and their civic voice. This means teaching not only about the various ways new technologies are used and to what end, but also how these tools can enable better engagement with audiences, more dialog with communities, and a more nuanced understanding of how information is processed through new media platforms. Such an approach can empower a more active, collaborative, and empowered information landscape for the digital age.

News Literacy gathers leading scholars, educators, and media makers to explore new approaches to thinking about, examining, and evaluating news media and civic engagement around these fundamental questions: What are the most pressing issues in news, media, and culture in a converged, digital, and global media age? What are the best educational practices to foster media literate understanding, engagement, and expression across borders, across cultures, and across divides? The book will prepare future media practitioners (and citizens) to embrace new media environments that can simultaneously empower their craft and their civic voice. This means teaching not only about the various ways new technologies are used and to what end, but also how these tools can enable better engagement with audiences, more dialog with communities, and a more nuanced understanding of how information is processed through new media platforms. Such an approach can empower a more active, collaborative, and empowered information landscape for the digital age.

Brain Research in Language addresses important neurological issues involved in reading. The reading process is a highly composite cognitive task, which relies on brain systems that were originally devoted to other functions. The majority of studies in this area have used behavioral methodologies. This book presents data obtained from studies employing behavioral, electrophysiological and imaging methodologies focusing on the regular reading process and the dyslexic population.

The present volume is based on the proceedings of the Advanced Study Institute (AS I) sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held in Alvor, Algarve, Portugal. A number of scholars from different countries participated in the two-week institute on Cognitive and linguistic aspects of reading, writing, and spelling. The present papers are further versions with modifications and refinements from those presented at the Advanced Study Institute. Several people and organizations have helped us in this endeavor and their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Our special thanks are to: the Scientific Affairs division of NATO for providing the major portions of the financial support, Dr. L.V. da Cunha of NATO and Dr. THo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology of the various aspects of the institute; and (ITST) for their help and support the staff of Hotel Alvor Praia for making our stay a pleasant one by helping us to run the institute smoothly.

The Propaganda Society analyzes the rapid expansion of propaganda and promotional activities in the leading "post-industrial" states under the regime of neoliberalism. With the outsourcing of manufacturing, these states have converted to service, selling, and speculative economies, with a concurrent rapid growth of advertising, marketing, public relations, sales management, branding, and other promotional enterprises. Aided by digital technologies and the removal - "deregulation" - of political, legal, administrative, and moral barriers to state and corporate expansion on a global scale, a group of dominant political and commercial actors have brought about a common discourse and convergent set of practices rooted in sophisticated and unprecedented levels of propaganda and promotion. Written by leading scholars in the field, each of the eighteen chapters in this book discuss the ways in which elite uses of propaganda have radically transformed media and information systems, political and public culture, the conduct of war and foreign relations, and the overall behavior of the state.

How does one make sense of YouTube? There is no reliable sample of videos on YouTube; no easily identifiable way to determine its dominant themes; no way to evaluate quality or impact; no seminal literature. Through genre analysis and digital media criticism, this book presents an accessible, yet critical introduction to "reading" YouTube. The book identifies certain videos by genre - from The Phenom and The Short to The Morph and The Experiment - and provides a thumbnail textual analysis of the videos - from celebrity culture to identity politics - that make up each of these genres. Each one starts with a brief summary/background followed by a theoretically informed mapping of the key issues. Designed primarily for classroom use, the book develops a conceptual language for students to use as they engage with the complex, interactive texts of YouTube and digital culture more generally.

This volume examines the role of history in the study of new media and of newness itself, discussing how the 'new' in new media must be understood to be historically constructed. Furthermore, the new is constructed with an eye on the future, or more correctly, an eye on what we think the future will be. Chapters by eminent scholars address the connection between historical consideration and new media. Some assess the historical descriptions of the development of new media; others hinge on the issue of newness as it relates to existing practices in media history. Remaining essays address the shifting patterns of storage at work in media inscription, as they relate to the practice of history, and to the past and contemporary cultural formations. Together they offer a ground-breaking assessment of the long history of new media, clearly recognizing that the new media of today will be the traditional media of tomorrow, and that an emphasis on the history of the future sheds light on what this newness can be said to represent.

This book presents the first comprehensive survey of being a local, in particular in Australia. As in much of the colonised, English-speaking world, in Australia the paradox is that the locals are not indigenous peoples but migrants with a specific ethnic heritage who became localised in time to label other migrants as the newcomers and outsiders. Claims of belonging as 'local' provide a crucial insight into power relations that extend beyond the local level to questions of national identity and the ethics of belonging in a postcolonial, multicultural nation. How have Anglo-Celtic Australians installed themselves as locals? Where do Indigenous Australians stand in this local politics of identity? What are the ethical considerations for how we connect our identities to places while also relating to others in a time of intensifying migration? This book explores these questions via a multidisciplinary cultural studies approach and a mixed methodology that blends a critical language study of being local with auto-ethnographical accounts by the author, himself a 'local'.

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Designed for those who have already developed a basic competence in Arabic, this comprehensive synonyms guide aims to broaden and improve the learner's vocabulary by helping them find the right word for the right context. Presenting words of related meaning together, it provides a range of options which will help avoid repetition and improve style, enabling students to develop a deeper awareness of the subtle differences in meaning and usage of different words. Each entry is illustrated with authentic examples of the synonyms in use, showing their unique meanings and grammatical properties, and enabling students to quickly recognize them in real-life contexts. The book is complete with two clear indexes, in English and Arabic, enabling the reader to instantly and easily locate any word. An essential reference for college and undergraduate students, their teachers, and other language professionals seeking a clear, user-friendly guide to Arabic vocabulary and its usage.

From high-tech kitchen gadgets and magazines to the Food Network, the last few decades have seen a huge rise in food-focused consumption, media, and culture. The discourses surrounding food range from media coverage of school lunchrooms and hunger issues, to news stories about urban gardening or buying organic products at the local farmers market. Food is no longer viewed merely as a means of survival. International and comprehensive in approach, this volume is the first book-length study of food from a communication perspective. Scholars examine and explore this emerging field to provide definitive and foundational examples of how food operates as a system of communication, and how communication theory and practices can be understood by considering food in this way. In doing so, the book serves to inspire future dialogues on the subject due to its vast array of ideas about food and its relationship to our communication practices.

Based on the National Communication Association's conceptual model for teaching and evaluating undergraduate public speeches (as developed by the author and others), Sherwyn P. Morreale offers a highly accessible, easy-to-teach, easy-to-learn approach to public speaking. The approach adopted in the text includes eight public speaking competencies - four on speech preparation and four on speech delivery - which are enhanced by emphasizing the impact of technology, ethics, culture, and diversity on public speaking. A number of unique features designed to improve teaching and learning include: - Students used as examples in each chapter so that readers can follow them as they learn about public speaking; - Tables and boxed text to reinforce the most important learning points; - Checkpoint and self-assessment tools so that readers can determine their level of competence and find out whether they are ready to proceed to the next chapter; - Competence-building activities for students to apply chapter concepts and practice public speaking strategies in the classroom or as take-home assignments; - An accompanying website which is updated on a regular basis and offers a forum for students to contact the author. Designed for introductory-level public speaking courses taught at two- and four-year colleges and universities, this text offers a distinctively practical alternative for students and teachers to achieve consistency across multiple sections of the public speaking course. An instructor's manual is available on request.

Since the eve of the war in Afghanistan, Al-Jazeera has become a global household name and a news source that cannot be ignored. Globalization theorists argue that Al-Jazeera promotes a cross-cultural debate, enforcing a counter-hegemonic perspective on the West not evident in former crises. Through a comprehensive empirical analysis covering the re-broadcasting of Al-Jazeera's images on major U.S. television networks since 9/11, this book draws an alternative picture, revealing that the advent of Al-Jazeera has actually eroded the counter-hegemonic debate in U.S. war reporting. It shows how the U.S. government persuaded television networks to systematically reformat legitimate war images from Al-Jazeera, labeling it a deviant network, in order to eliminate criticism of the war. Moreover, an examination of the U.S. reception by bloggers and network carriers of Al-Jazeera's English-language website and channel reveals the U.S. administration's continued resolve and ability to limit public discourse.

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Generations of student writers have been subjected to usage handbooks that proclaim, "This is the correct form. Learn it"--books that lay out a grammar, but don't inspire students to use it. By contrast, this antihandbook handbook, presenting some three hundred sentences drawn from the printed works of a single, typical day in the life of the language--December 29, 2008--tries to persuade readers that good grammar and usage matter. Using real-world sentences rather than invented ones, One Day in the Life of the English Language gives students the motivation to apply grammatical principles correctly and efficiently. Frank Cioffi argues that proper form undergirds effective communication and ultimately even makes society work more smoothly, while nonstandard English often marginalizes or stigmatizes a writer. He emphasizes the evolving nature of English usage and debunks some cherished but flawed grammar precepts. Is it acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition? It is. Can you start a sentence with a conjunction? You can. OK to split an infinitive? No problem. A grammar and usage handbook like no other, One Day in the Life of the English Language features accessible chapters divided into "Fundamentals," "Fine Tuning," and "Deep Focus," allowing readers to select a level most suited to their needs. It also includes a glossary, a teachers' guide, and a section refuting some myths about digital-age English.