Scientific endeavor begins with asking questions about the nature of the world around us and gathering data, but this work cannot be complete without effectively communicating the conclusions and data found. "Communicating Rocks: Writing, Speaking, and Thinking about Geology "not only makes the case for balancing science with writing and speaking, but makes the case that one cannot have the former without the latter. Instruction concerning the rules and styles of writing and speaking are addressed in relation to technical concerns specific to the Earth sciences, illustrating the importance of effective communication in geologic investigations. The book includes guidance on how to write an effective research paper, and the creation of PowerPoints, posters, a thesis, funding proposals, and more is covered in detail.

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.

Online journalism has taken center stage in debates about the future of news. Instead of speculating, this volume offers rich empirical evidence about actual developments in online newsrooms. The authors use ethnographic methodologies to provide a vivid, close analysis of processes like newsroom integration, the transition of newspaper and radio journalists to digital multimedia production, the management of user-generated content, the coverage of electoral campaigns, the pressure of marketing logics, the relationship with bloggers or the redefinition of news genres. This second volume of Making Online News presents twelve all-new case studies of newsrooms around the world, including the United States of America, United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Zimbabwe and Malaysia.

The Internet is a complex environment that affords many practices while constraining others. The challenge is to develop languages and tools to critically engage with these environments and to navigate the topology of being a citizen in a technologically mediated environment. This book begins this undertaking. A New Theory of Information & the Internet first documents the historical emergence of the scientific, mathematical, computing, and human communication discussions on information, together with the rise of information as a resource and a commodity. It posits that the contemporary situation has not changed in terms of resolving exactly what information might be as a real thing. What has changed is the idea of information as a resource and a commodity, which has become a cultural trope - a standard way of looking at information. In the process of examining the understanding of information and communication, this book investigates the notion of an informed citizenry and the possibilities of a public sphere/s online within the context of the increasingly ubiquitous place of the Internet in social, informational life.

This rhetoric/anthology instructs college students in how to read academic texts with understanding and how to use them as sources for papers in a variety of disciplines. In Writing in the Disciplines, Mary Kennedy and William Kennedy emphasize academic writing as ongoing conversations in multiple genres, and do so in the context of WPA Outcomes. The rhetoric chapters teach critical reading, paraphrasing, summarizing, quoting, writing process, synthesizing, analyzing, researching, and developing arguments. The anthology balances journal articles with works by public intellectuals in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Advances in digital technology over the past two decades have created a wide array of new media platforms, channels, and delivery mechanisms. Through these, people can receive staggering amounts of content. As a result, both consumers and producers of media have exciting new options in creating and acquiring content. An Introduction to Visual Theory and Practice in the Digital Age is designed to prepare students for becoming producers of sophisticated digital media. It combines elements of visual theory and design with the practice of creating interactive media content. A framework for working in the digital world is also provided: students are asked to consider the legal, ethical, and historical aspects of visual theory and design and then combine those concepts with visual design principles and proper composition of still images, video, and sound. Real-world examples are provided, with a section where media professionals explain how theory and practice are brought together. Designed as an introduction to the field, this book is suitable for undergraduate courses including those in multimedia journalism, visual communication, and mass communication practices.

"Coaching Writing in Content Areas: Write-for-Insight Strategies, Grades 6--12," Second Edition, is packed with practical, motivating strategies for making writing a tool for learning, and for integrating it into content area instruction. Designed to help new and veteran teachers work "smarter," not harder, the book is written by William Strong, one of America's most respected writing instructors. The clear, personal voice of the book and its illustrative examples drawn from the work of expert teachers made the first edition a "thumbs-up" favorite with National Writing Project sites across the nation. This new edition expands these features, covers new strategies, and includes new samples of assignments, rubrics, and student writing throughout.

"Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are "helps students understand how the grammatical moves they make reveal their personality traits and present their persona to their readers. The text's rhetorical approach emphasizes the transformative power that grammar choices can have on a writer and helps students develop the personality the wish to portray in their writing. Writers can use the imperative mood to suggest control, colons to be assertive, parenthesis to keep the conversation real, and even commas to present an organized persona. By showing students how seemingly small choices can help them manage the impression they make on readers, "Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are "helps students become more deliberate writers.

Advances in digital technology over the past two decades have created a wide array of new media platforms, channels, and delivery mechanisms. Through these, people can receive staggering amounts of content. As a result, both consumers and producers of media have exciting new options in creating and acquiring content. An Introduction to Visual Theory and Practice in the Digital Age is designed to prepare students for becoming producers of sophisticated digital media. It combines elements of visual theory and design with the practice of creating interactive media content. A framework for working in the digital world is also provided: students are asked to consider the legal, ethical, and historical aspects of visual theory and design and then combine those concepts with visual design principles and proper composition of still images, video, and sound. Real-world examples are provided, with a section where media professionals explain how theory and practice are brought together. Designed as an introduction to the field, this book is suitable for undergraduate courses including those in multimedia journalism, visual communication, and mass communication practices.

In the age of the spectacle, democracy has never looked so bleak. Our world, saturated with media and marketing, endlessly confronts us with spectacles vying for our attention: from Apple and 9/11 to Facebook and the global financial crisis. Democratic politics, by comparison, remain far from engaging. A society obsessed with spectacles results in a complete misfiring of the democratic system. This book uses critical democratic theory to outline the effects of consumer culture on citizenship. It highlights the importance that public space plays in creating the critical culture necessary for a healthy democracy, and outlines how contemporary 'public' spaces - shopping centres, the Internet, social networking sites and suburban communities - contribute to this culture. Terrorism, ecological destruction and the financial crisis are also outlined as symptoms of the politics of the spectacle. The book concludes with some basic principles and novel suggestions which could be employed to avoid the pitfalls inherent in our spectacular existence.

"Rhetorical Analysis: A Brief Guide for Writers, " walk students through the process for doing different kinds of analyses -- argument analysis, structure analysis, style analysis, and more. Shows how to analyze a range of texts, print, visual, and multimedia. Includes authors' own analyses as models for students, as well as 4 complete student model papers. Introduces students to rhetorical concepts (both classical and modern) that are relevant to rhetorical analysis.

This book questions how to monitor the contribution of mass media to democracy, and focuses on the initiatives, achievements and flaws of media monitoring. Moving beyond previous studies which have tended to discuss the legal issues related to media freedom alone, On Media Monitoring takes a broader approach, examining media structure, ownership, policy, economics, company conduct, law and regulation - all important indicators of how well the mass media serve contemporary democracies. Throughout, the book strikes a balance between monitoring initiatives with an academic, governmental, and non-governmental origin. The book - which includes a new monitoring model, the Media for Democracy Monitor, together with the results of its initial empirical implementation - is intended to further discussion about how to monitor the contribution of the mass media to democracy. It is suitable for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars who teach and research in this area.

Attitudes and methods derived from the hard sciences have become increasingly commonplace in the human and social sciences. Whilst this 'scientifization' process has undoubtedly fostered the growth of knowledge within history and economics, these are disciplines where verification, as practised in the pure sciences, is not appropriate. This book, first published in 1991, argues constructively for a new interpretation of scientific verification within economics and history.

This is the first collection of readings on computer-mediated communication focusing exclusively on interpersonal interactions. Examining messages exchanged via email, Twitter, Facebook, websites, and blogs, the authors analyze communication issues of ongoing importance in relationships including deception, disclosure, identity, influence, perception, privacy, sexual fidelity, and social support. The book examines subjects that attract intense student interest - including online performance of gender, online dating, and using computer-mediated communication to achieve family/work life balance - and will inspire further research and course development in the area of computer-mediated communication in personal relationships. Because it provides a synthesis of ideas at the nexus of interpersonal communication theory and computer-mediated communication theory, the book can serve as a textbook for advanced undergraduate as well as graduate courses.

The 2008 U.S. election was arguably the most important election of our lifetime: the first African American president was elected to office; the candidacy of Sarah Palin marked only the second time that a major party ticket included a female; and the electoral performance of young citizens - digital natives, greatly attracted by digital media - signaled the highest turnout in a long time.Taking all these issues into consideration, this book offers a landmark examination of the 2008 election from a global perspective, with emphasis on the wide range of digital media utilized by the campaigners and how campaign communication influenced young citizens. The authors argue that the use of digital technologies in the campaign, and the success of Barack Obama in attracting young voters to his cause, provides an excellent case study - perhaps something of a turning point in campaign communication - for carefully examining the emerging role of digital political media, and a continuing renewal in young citizens' electoral engagement. The wide-ranging contributions to this volume provide a comprehensive examination of a historic political campaign and election. The book's findings offer revealing answers regarding the content and effects of various forms of political campaign communication, and raise questions and possibilities for future research.

China has lived with the Internet for nearly two decades. Will increased Internet use, with new possibilities to share information and discuss news and politics, lead to democracy, or will it to the contrary sustain a nationalist supported authoritarianism that may eventually contest the global information order? This book takes stock of the ongoing tug of war between state power and civil society on and off the Internet, a phenomenon that is fast becoming the centerpiece in the Chinese Communist Party's struggle to stay in power indefinitely. It interrogates the dynamics of this enduring contestation, before democracy, by following how Chinese society travels from getting access to the Internet to our time having the world's largest Internet population. Pursuing the rationale of Internet regulation, the rise of the Chinese blogosphere and citizen journalism, Internet irony, online propaganda, the relation between state and popular nationalism, and finally the role of social media to bring about China's democratization, this book offers a fresh and provocative perspective on the arguable role of media technologies in the process of democratization, by applying social norm theory to illuminate the competition between the Party-state norm and the youth/subaltern norm in Chinese media and society.

"Crafting Truth" introduces the reader to the craft of creative nonfiction by showing them models from the best nonfiction writers and offering plentiful exercises to help them more artfully tell true stories.

From 1993 to 2003, exports of Japan's cartoon arts tripled in value, to $12.5 billion. Fan phenomena around the world - in U.S. malls, teen girls flock to purchase the latest Fruits Basket graphic novel; in Hungary, young people gather for a summer "cosplay" (costume dress-up) event - illustrate the global popularity of manga and anime. Drawing on extensive research and more than 100 original interviews, Anne Cooper-Chen explains how and why the un-Disney has penetrated nearly every corner of the planet. This book uses concepts such as cultural proximity, uses and gratifications, and cultural variability to explain cross-cultural adaptations in a broad international approach. It emphasizes that overseas acceptance has surprised the Japanese, who create manga and anime primarily for a domestic audience. Including some sobering facts about the future of the industry, the book highlights how overseas enthusiasm could actually save a domestic industry that may decline in the contracting and graying country of its birth. Designed for courses covering international mass media, media and globalization and introduction to Japanese culture, the book is written primarily for undergraduates, and includes many student-friendly features such as a glossary, timeline and source list.

Brilliant Business Writingis about how you get your writing everything from e-mails to board reports - to work harder. How do you structure your writing so it's absolutely clear what you're saying? How do you make your writing so compelling that your reader will stick with it? And how do you make it vivid enough that they remember it? Brilliant Business Writinghas three big themes. It reveals how to: * structure your writing so that you get your point across effectively * make your language clear and straightforward * inject a little magic to make your message more memorable, and make you worth listening to. Throughout the book you'll find real examples and practical tips to bring even the dullest business writing to life.

From 1993 to 2003, exports of Japan's cartoon arts tripled in value, to $12.5 billion. Fan phenomena around the world - in U.S. malls, teen girls flock to purchase the latest Fruits Basket graphic novel; in Hungary, young people gather for a summer "cosplay" (costume dress-up) event - illustrate the global popularity of manga and anime. Drawing on extensive research and more than 100 original interviews, Anne Cooper-Chen explains how and why the un-Disney has penetrated nearly every corner of the planet. This book uses concepts such as cultural proximity, uses and gratifications, and cultural variability to explain cross-cultural adaptations in a broad international approach. It emphasizes that overseas acceptance has surprised the Japanese, who create manga and anime primarily for a domestic audience. Including some sobering facts about the future of the industry, the book highlights how overseas enthusiasm could actually save a domestic industry that may decline in the contracting and graying country of its birth. Designed for courses covering international mass media, media and globalization and introduction to Japanese culture, the book is written primarily for undergraduates, and includes many student-friendly features such as a glossary, timeline and source list.

The only research writing guide to focus on equipping aquaculture students and early career scientists with the tools required to write high-quality scientific documents in their field. Examples are taken from the aquaculture field, covering all the relevant key research areas. Takes the reader logically though the process, following a chronological order i.e., upon completion of an experiment, the writing steps are usually research report, working paper, peer-review article or conference proceeding.

Cross-Media Promotion is the first book-length study of a defining feature of contemporary media, the promotion by media of their allied media interests. The book explores the range of forms of cross-promotion including synergistic marketing of mega-brands such as Harry Potter; promotional plugs in news media; repurposing media content, stars and brands across other media and outlets; product placement, and the integration of media content and advertising. Incorporating specialist literature, yet written in a clear, accessible style, the book combines three areas of study: media industry practices, media policy, and media theory. It examines the dynamics of cross-media promotion across converging media, drawing on a range of examples from the United States and the United Kingdom. Synergy and intertextuality are explored alongside critical debates about the 'problems' of cross-promotion. The book also offers a critical evaluation of media policy responses from the late 1980s to the present, which the book argues, have failed to grapple with the problems of media power, market power and commercialism generated by intensifying cross-media promotion.

Journalism in the Civil War Era examines the contributions of newspapers and magazines to the American public's understanding of the nation's greatest internal conflict. It documents the effect the Civil War had on journalism, and the effect journalism had on the Civil War. It describes the politics that affected the press, the constraints placed upon it, and the influence of technology. The book discusses the editors and reporters who covered the war, profiling the typical newspaper of the era as well as the response of the press corps to wartime challenges. Providing a broad account of journalism during this period, this book serves as an important reference for scholars and students, and as a supplementary text for courses in journalism history, U.S. press history, civil rights law, and nineteenth century history.

Addressing the explosive growth in qualitative research in recent years, this volume represents the first anthology to bring together a representative sample from this growing body of work, and comments on the reasons for the extraordinary interest in qualitative research. Contributors to the volume bring forward reports of significant, structured qualitative research into various aspects of technical communication practice, addressing the questions of what new insights researchers are generating about the working reality of today's technical communicators, and how technical communicators are perceived and treated by managers and by colleagues from other disciplines.

Including examples of qualitative methodologies-including ethnography, case study, focus groups, action research, grounded theory, and interview research- used by technical communicators to strengthen their practice, the result is a rich harmony of perspectives, as diverse as the field of technical communication itself.

This book will be of interest to to students and academics seeking up-to-date information on current industry practices in technical communication, as well as to practitioners in technical and professional communication. The book will also serve as a text in undergraduate seminars and courses at the master's level.

Just as a distinctive literary voice or style is marked by the ease with which it can be parodied, so too can specific aspects of humor be unique. Playwrights, television writers, novelists, cartoonists, and film scriptwriters use many special technical devices to create humor. Just as dramatic writers and novelists use specific devices to craft their work, creators of humorous materials--from the ancient Greeks to today's stand-up comics--have continued to use certain techniques in order to generate humor.

In The Art of Comedy Writing, Arthur Asa Berger argues that there are a relatively limited number of techniques--forty-five in all--that humorists employ. Elaborating upon his prior, in-depth study of humor, An Anatomy of Humor, in which Berger provides a content analysis of humor in all forms--joke books, plays, comic books, novels, short stories, comic verse, and essays--The Art of Comedy Writing goes further. Berger groups each technique into four basic categories: humor involving identity such as burlesque, caricature, mimicry, and stereotype; humor involving logic such as analogy, comparison, and reversal; humor involving language such as puns, wordplay, sarcasm, and satire; and finally, chase, slapstick, and speed, or humor involving action.

Berger claims that if you want to know how writers or comedians create humor study and analysis of their humorous works can be immensely insightful. This book is a unique analytical offering for those interested in humor. It provides writers and critics with a sizable repertoire of techniques for use in their own future comic creations. As such, this book will be of interest to people inspired by humor and the creative process--professionals in the comedy field and students of creative writing, comedy, literary humor, communications, broadcast/media, and the humanities.