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.

When reporters asked about the Bush administration's timing in making their case for the Iraq war, then Chief of Staff Andrew Card responded that "from an marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." While surprising only in its candor, this statement signified the extent to which consumer culture has pervaded every aspect of life. For those troubled by the long reach of the marketplace, resistance can seem futile. However, a new generation of progressive activists has begun to combat the media supremacy of multinational corporations by using the very tools and techniques employed by their adversaries. In OurSpace, Christine Harold examines the deployment and limitations of "culture jamming" by activists. These techniques defy repressive corporate culture through parodies, hoaxes, and pranks. Among the examples of sabotage she analyzes are the magazine Adbusters' spoofs of familiar ads and the Yes Men's impersonations of company spokespersons. While these strategies are appealing, Harold argues that they are severely limited in their ability to challenge capitalism. Indeed, many of these tactics have already been appropriated by corporate marketers to create an aura of authenticity and to sell even more products. For Harold, it is a different type of opposition that offers a genuine alternative to corporate consumerism. Exploring the revolutionary Creative Commons movement, copyleft, and open source technology, she advocates a more inclusive approach to intellectual property that invites innovation and wider participation in the creative process. From switching the digital voice boxes of Barbie dolls and G.I. Joe action figures to inserting the silhouetted image of Abu Ghraib's iconic hooded and wired victim into Apple's iPod ads, high-profile instances of anticorporate activism over the past decade have challenged, but not toppled, corporate media domination. OurSpace makes the case for a provocative new approach by co-opting the logic of capitalism itself. Christine Harold is assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Georgia.

Reporting for Journalists explains the key skills needed by the twenty-first century news reporter. From the process of finding a story and tracing sources, to interviewing contacts, gathering information and filing the finished report, it is an essential handbook for students of journalism and a useful guide for working professionals.

Reporting for Journalists explores the role of the reporter in the world of modern journalism and emphasises the importance of learning to report across all media - radio, television, online, newspapers and periodicals. Using case studies, and examples of print, online and broadcast news stories, the second edition of Reporting for Journalists includes:

• information on using wikis, blogs, social networks and online maps
• finding a story and how to develop ideas
• researching the story and building the contacts book including crowd sourcing and using chat rooms
• interactivity with readers and viewers and user generated content
• making best use of computer aided reporting (CAR), news groups and search engines
• covering courts, councils and press conferences
• reporting using video, audio and text
• preparing reports for broadcasting or publication
• consideration of ethical practice, and cultural expectations and problems
• an annotated guide to further reading, a glossary of key terms and a list of journalism websites and organisations.

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.

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.

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.

This book rediscovers a spiritual way of preparing the actor towards experiencing that ineffable artistic creativity defined by Konstantin Stanislavski as the creative state. Filtered through the lens of his unaddressed Christian Orthodox background, as well as his yogic or Hindu interest, the practical work followed the odyssey of the artist, from being oneself towards becoming the character, being structured in three major horizontal stages and developed on another three vertical, interconnected levels. Throughout the book, Gabriela Curpan aims to question both the cartesian approach to acting and the realist-psychological line, generally viewed as the only features of Stanislavski's work. This book will be of great interest to theatre and performance academics as well as practitioners in the fields of acting and directing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Reporting for Journalists explains the key skills needed by the twenty-first century news reporter. From the process of finding a story and tracing sources, to interviewing contacts, gathering information and filing the finished report, it is an essential handbook for students of journalism and a useful guide for working professionals.

Reporting for Journalists explores the role of the reporter in the world of modern journalism and emphasises the importance of learning to report across all media radio, television, online, newspapers and periodicals. Using case studies, and examples of print, online and broadcast news stories, the second edition of Reporting for Journalists includes:

• information on using wikis, blogs, social networks and online maps
• finding a story and how to develop ideas
• researching the story and building the contacts book including crowd sourcing and using chat rooms
• interactivity with readers and viewers and user generated content
• making best use of computer aided reporting (CAR), news groups and search engines
• covering courts, councils and press conferences
• reporting using video, audio and text
• preparing reports for broadcasting or publication
• consideration of ethical practice, and cultural expectations and problems
• an annotated guide to further reading, a glossary of key terms and a list of journalism websites and organisations.

This volume represents a collection of recent thinking and research on the social and cultural aspects of contemporary broadband societies by exploring the social experiences and practices of using new information and communication technologies (ICT) within different contexts and domains of the emerging broadband society. It offers a compendium of the latest thoughts and questions on digitally mediated citizenship, networked identity, and sociality in the 21st Century and covers four main themes and empirical areas of research: uses and practices of new media, with particular focus on underprivileged groups, new media and the social differentiation of their use, ICT use and sustainable development, and finally new technologies, new challenges.

Since the 1990s journalism education programs have expanded exponentially around the world, but media freedom has not. Globally comparative, this edited volume assesses journalism education and the challenging environment in which it is delivered in countries with a partly free or not free status according to global press freedom. The countries covered include China, Singapore, Cambodia, Palestine, Oman, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Brazil, Russia, Romania, and Croatia. Contributors demonstrate through careful analysis that wealthy nations are able to set the terms of their journalism education while less affluent countries are more open to the influence of foreign NGOs. Although this book evidences the disconnection between what is taught and what can be practiced, it also illustrates the degree to which journalism education can be an agent of change.

Translating for performance is a difficult - and hotly contested - activity. Adapting Translation for the Stage presents a sustained dialogue between scholars, actors, directors, writers, and those working across these boundaries, exploring common themes and issues encountered when writing, staging, and researching translated works. It is organised into four parts, each reflecting on a theatrical genre where translation is regularly practised: The Role of Translation in Rewriting Naturalist Theatre Adapting Classical Drama at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century Translocating Political Activism in Contemporary Theatre Modernist Narratives of Translation in Performance A range of case studies from the National Theatre's Medea to The Gate Theatre's Dances of Death and Emily Mann's The House of Bernarda Alba shed new light on the creative processes inherent in translating for the theatre, destabilising the literal/performable binary to suggest that adaptation and translation can - and do - coexist on stage. Chronicling the many possible intersections between translation theory and practice, Adapting Translation for the Stage offers a unique exploration of the processes of translating, adapting, and relocating work for the theatre.

For many weeks, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 dominated the newspapers which covered the consequences with an unprecedented immediateness. This study looks at diverging representations of 9/11 in U.S. and German newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Suddeutsche Zeitung) and explores effects on its possible readerships. The impact of the attacks, forms of heroism, the enactment of leadership, various demonstrations of patriotism and grief as well as the textual and visual presentation of the attacks are analyzed in detail. These intermedial representations reaffirm or contest U.S. American grand narratives. While the German newspapers tend to focus on information and analysis, the U.S. papers tend to strengthen shattered U.S. American identity constructions. The study is based on nearly 2,000 newspaper articles and documents the wide scope of topics prevalent in the post-9/11 newspaper coverage.

Pulitzer-prize winning poet and National Book Award winner, Mary Oliver, provides a graceful manual on the mechanics of poetical composition.

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learned to dance,” wrote Alexander Pope. “The dance,” in the case of this brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet’s ear and a poet’s grace of expression, Mary Oliver helps us understand what makes a metrical poem work—and enables readers, as only she can, to “enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure.”

With an anthology of fifty poems representing the best metrical poetry in English, from the Elizabethan Age to Elizabeth Bishop.

In much recent theory, the media are described as ephemeral, ubiquitous, and de-localized. Yet the activity of modern media can be traced to spatial centers that are tangible enough - some even monumental. This book offers multidisciplinary and historical perspectives on the buildings of some of the world's major media institutions. Paradoxically, as material and aesthetic manifestations of "mediated centers" of power, they provide sites to the siteless and solidity to the immaterial. The authors analyse the ways that architectural form and organization reflect different eras, media technologies, ideologies, and relations with the public in media houses from New York and Silicon Valley to London, Moscow, and Beijing.

This book discusses the personal and social lives of e-actors interacting within the socio-technical structures of the evolving broadband society by exploring the different ways in which individuals, social groups, institutions, operators, manufactures, policy makers, designers and other parties contribute to human communication and social interaction in contemporary media societies. The volume covers four theoretical and empirical areas of research: the conceptual perspectives of e-actors, the emergence of new forms of agency, subjectivity, and mediated interpersonal communication, the everyday life experiences of e-actors, and finally the shaping policies and regulations in the broadband society.

In much recent theory, the media are described as ephemeral, ubiquitous, and de-localized. Yet the activity of modern media can be traced to spatial centers that are tangible enough - some even monumental. This book offers multidisciplinary and historical perspectives on the buildings of some of the world's major media institutions. Paradoxically, as material and aesthetic manifestations of "mediated centers" of power, they provide sites to the siteless and solidity to the immaterial. The authors analyse the ways that architectural form and organization reflect different eras, media technologies, ideologies, and relations with the public in media houses from New York and Silicon Valley to London, Moscow, and Beijing.

'What a lovely, friendly book. Made me feel cheerful, buoyant, less alone and keen to get on with my writing. Highly recommended.' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Write It All Down 'If you want to go from "writing" to "written", then you need this book.' Graham Allcott, author of How to be a Productivity Ninja **With a Foreword by OLIVER BURKEMAN, author of the Sunday Times bestseller Four Thousand Weeks** Do you ever wish you could find more time to write? Do you ever feel frustrated that other things get in the way? Perhaps you're stuck at the start, mired in the middle or just can't get back into the writing groove? Writing is important to many of us - for our careers, studies, businesses or creative fulfilment - but sitting down and doing it can feel impossible. We often struggle to give it the attention it deserves. We can't find time. Our focus is torn. Distractions are everywhere. Our inner critic keeps telling us we're no good. But what if you could find a highly effective writing habit that was perfect for you? Bec Evans and Chris Smith have helped thousands of people stop procrastinating, overcome their blocks and reach their writing goals. Now, they've turned their successful approach into this life-changing book that anyone can use to write more productively and with less stress. Packed full of tried and tested advice, stories you can relate to and the latest research from psychology and neuroscience, Written gives you the tools you need to start writing, keep going - and finish.

"The Pocket Guide to Technical Communication" isa handy reference for on-the-job business, technical and scientific writing. Its brief format provides quick, easy-to-read answers to common writing problems. Filled with examples, it features samples of every major document type and emphasizes quality and planning throughout. This edition offers new editing exercises, expanded coverage of email, and an entirely new section on PowerPoint. Its condensed approach is ideal for instructors who want their students to spend more time writing and less time reading about writing.