Understanding Pope Francis: Message, Media, andAudienceoffers several chapters which illuminate the often misunderstood, but widely discussed, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis. With 1.3 billion baptized members living throughout every continent, communication by and about him is a subject deserving to be understood. As technology makes the "global village" predicted by Marshall McLuhan more apparent, the complexities of leading an organization across geographic boundaries with differing ideas about culture and governance present great need to be nuanced, indeed cautious, about messages communicated across diverse media platforms and consumed by divergent audiences. This book lay bare the messages Pope Francis produces, the way that varying platforms/media present those messages, and the complex ways in which audiences formulate their interpretations.

This book examines third-party review sites (TPRS) and the intersection of the review economy and neoliberal public relations, in order to understand how users and organizations engage the 21st century global review economy. The author applies communication and digital media theories to evaluate contemporary case studies that challenge TPRS and control over digital reputation. Chapters analyze famous cases such as the Texas photographer who sued her clients for negative reviews and activists using Yelp to protest the hunt of "Cecil the Lion," to illustrate the complicated yet important role of TPRS in the review economy. Theories such as neoliberal public relations, digital dialogic communication and cultural intermediaries help explain the impact of reviews and how to apply lessons learned from infamous cases. This nuanced and up to date exploration of the contemporary review economy will offer insights and best practice for academic researchers and upper-level undergraduate students in public relations, digital media, or strategic communication programs.

The popularity of cable news, satire, documentaries, and political blogs suggest that people are often absorbing and dissecting direct political messages from informational media. But entertainment media also discusses the important political issues of our time, though not as overtly. Nonetheless, consumers still learn, debate, and form opinions on important political issues through their relationship with entertainment media. While many scholarly books examine these political messages found in popular culture, very few examine how actual audiences read these messages. Parasocial Politics explores how consumers form complex relationships with media texts and characters, and how these readings exist in the nexus between real and fictional worlds. This collection of empirical studies uses various methodologies, including surveys, experiments, focus groups, and mixed methods, to analyze how actual consumers interpret the texts and the overt and covert political messages encoded in popular culture.

This book examines third-party review sites (TPRS) and the intersection of the review economy and neoliberal public relations, in order to understand how users and organizations engage the 21st century global review economy. The author applies communication and digital media theories to evaluate contemporary case studies that challenge TPRS and control over digital reputation. Chapters analyze famous cases such as the Texas photographer who sued her clients for negative reviews and activists using Yelp to protest the hunt of "Cecil the Lion," to illustrate the complicated yet important role of TPRS in the review economy. Theories such as neoliberal public relations, digital dialogic communication and cultural intermediaries help explain the impact of reviews and how to apply lessons learned from infamous cases. This nuanced and up to date exploration of the contemporary review economy will offer insights and best practice for academic researchers and upper-level undergraduate students in public relations, digital media, or strategic communication programs.

In the months after the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 2017 decision to repeal network neutrality as US policy, it is easy to forget the decades of public, organizational, media and governmental struggle to control digital policy and open access to the internet. Using dialogic communication tactics, the public, governmental actors and organizations impacted the ruling through YouTube comments, the FCC online system and social network communities. Network neutrality, which requires that all digital sites can be accessed with equal speed and ability, is an important example of how dialogic communication facilitates public engagement in policy debates. However, the practice and ability of the public, organizations and media to engage in dialogic communication are also greatly impacted by the FCC's decision. This book reflects on decades of global engagement in the network neutrality debate and the evolution of dialogic communication techniques used to shape one of the most relevant and critical digital policies in history.

In the months after the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 2017 decision to repeal network neutrality as US policy, it is easy to forget the decades of public, organizational, media and governmental struggle to control digital policy and open access to the internet. Using dialogic communication tactics, the public, governmental actors and organizations impacted the ruling through YouTube comments, the FCC online system and social network communities. Network neutrality, which requires that all digital sites can be accessed with equal speed and ability, is an important example of how dialogic communication facilitates public engagement in policy debates. However, the practice and ability of the public, organizations and media to engage in dialogic communication are also greatly impacted by the FCC's decision. This book reflects on decades of global engagement in the network neutrality debate and the evolution of dialogic communication techniques used to shape one of the most relevant and critical digital policies in history.