- Centers artificial intelligence as a pathway for media studies students, scholars and practitioners to navigate the broad terrain of software practice. - Examines the impact of software on everyday life as it traces the industrial development and migrations of AI and the connectedness of play to broader cultural, social and economic forces. - Connects history and theory to practice through a number of illustrative, culturally relevant media objects and case studies that will be familiar and engaging to many students. - With its focus on applied artificial intelligence in popular and public culture, it bridges the fields of software studies, science and technology studies, and video game studies.

- Centers artificial intelligence as a pathway for media studies students, scholars and practitioners to navigate the broad terrain of software practice. - Examines the impact of software on everyday life as it traces the industrial development and migrations of AI and the connectedness of play to broader cultural, social and economic forces. - Connects history and theory to practice through a number of illustrative, culturally relevant media objects and case studies that will be familiar and engaging to many students. - With its focus on applied artificial intelligence in popular and public culture, it bridges the fields of software studies, science and technology studies, and video game studies.

Communicating Endangered Species: Extinction, News, and Public Policy is a multidisciplinary environmental communication book that takes a distinctive approach by connecting how media and culture depict and explain endangered species with how policymakers and natural resource managers can or do respond to these challenges in practical terms. Extinction isn't new. However, the pace of extinction is accelerating globally. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies more than 26,000 species as threatened. The causes are many, including climate change, overdevelopment, human exploitation, disease, overhunting, habitat destruction, and predators. The willingness and the ability of ordinary people, governments, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses to slow this deeply disturbing acceleration are uncertain. Meanwhile, researchers around the world are laboring to better understand and communicate the possibility and implications of extinctions and to discover effective tools and public policies to combat the threats to species survival. This book presents a history of news coverage of endangered species around the world, examining how and why journalists and other communicators wrote what they did, how attitudes have changed, and why they have changed. It draws on the latest research by chapter authors who are a mix of social scientists, communication experts, and natural scientists. Each chapter includes a mass media and/or cultural aspect. This book will be essential reading for students, natural resource managers, government officials, environmental activists, and academics interested in conservation and biodiversity, environmental communication and journalism, and public policy.

This book provides case studies, many incorporating in-depth interviews and surveys of journalists. It examines issues such as journalists' attitudes toward their contributions to society; the impact of industry and technological changes; culture and minority issues in the newsroom and profession; the impact of censorship and self-censorship; and coping with psychological pressures and physical safety dilemmas. Its chapters also highlight journalists' challenges in national and multinational contexts. International scholars, conducting research within a wide range of authoritarian, semi-democratic, and democratic systems, contributed to this examination of journalistic practices in the Arab World, Australia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Samoa, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States.

With its unique focus on video game engines, the data-driven architectures of game development and play, this innovative textbook examines the impact of software on everyday life and explores the rise of engine-driven culture. Through a series of case studies, Eric Freedman lays out a clear methodology for studying the game development pipeline, and uses the video game engine as a pathway for media scholars and practitioners to navigate the complex terrain of software practice. Examining several distinct software ecosystems that include the proprietary efforts of Amazon, Apple, Capcom, Epic Games and Unity Technologies, and the unique ways that game engines are used in non-game industries, Freedman illustrates why engines matter. The studies bind together designers and players, speak to the labors of the game industry, value the work of both global and regional developers, and establish critical connection points between software and society. Freedman has crafted a much-needed entry point for students new to code, and a research resource for scholars and teachers working in media industries, game development and new media.

?From the first steps toward enfranchisement through modern lawmakers' vision for America, a new book from CQ Press is the first single-volume reference to provide the complete story of African Americans making U.S. political history. In African Americans in Congress: A Documentary History, authors Eric Freedman-a Pulitzer Prize winner-and Stephen A. Jones, have assembled a vital collection of original narrative supported by more than 120 of the most important historical documents tracing the African American political experience and the history of African American legislators in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Throughout this comprehensive work, the stories of notable African Americans who have served in Congress are told, including: Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi, the first African American senator; Shirley A. Chisholm of New York, the first black woman to serve in Congress; Charles B. Rangel of New York, the chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus; and Barack Obama of Illinois, the only African American senator in the 110th Congress. ? The first part of the book features chronological chapters on the history of African American involvement in U.S. politics and on Capitol Hill, while the second part features thematic chapters on the African American political experience. The issues and events covered include: The debate over slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction The civil rights movement and political empowerment The maturation of the Congressional Black Caucus Elections and investigations War, peace, patriotism and international affairs The struggle for economic justice It also details some little-known stories, including future Rep. Robert Smalls' heroism in commandeering a Confederate ship during the Civil War and piloting it into Union custody and the controversy when President Herbert Hoover's wife invited the wife of Rep. Oscar De Priest to a White House tea. The appendixes contain lists of African Americans in the 110th Congress and those since the 41st Congress, a chronology of significant events and an extensive bibliography.

The Great Lakes Basin in North America holds more than 20 percent of the world's fresh water. Threats to habitats and biodiversity have economic, political, national security, and cultural implications and ramifications that cross the US-Canadian border. This multidisciplinary book presents the latest research to demonstrate the interconnected nature of the challenges facing the Basin. Chapters by U.S. and Canadian scholars and practitioners represent a wide range of natural science and social science fields, including environmental sciences, geography, political science, natural resources, mass communications, environmental history and communication, public health, and economics. The book covers threats from invasive species, industrial development, climate change, agricultural and chemical runoff, species extinction, habitat restoration, environmental disease, indigenous conservation efforts, citizen engagement, environmental regulation, and pollution.Overall the book provides political, cultural, economic, scientific, and social contexts for recognizing and addressing the environmental challenges faced by the Great Lakes Basin.

Environmental conditions do not exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by science, politics, history, public policy, culture, economics, public attitudes, and competing priorities, as well as past human decisions. In the case of Central Asia, such Soviet-era decisions include irrigation systems and physical infrastructure that are now crumbling, mine tailings that leach pollutants into soil and groundwater, and abandoned factories that are physically decrepit and contaminated with toxic chemicals. Environmental Crises in Central Asia highlights major environmental challenges confronting the region's former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. They include threats to the Caspian and Aral seas, the impact of climate change on glaciers, desertification, deforestation, destruction of habitat and biodiversity, radioactive and hazardous wastes, water quality and supply, energy exploration and development, pesticides and food security, and environmental health. The ramifications of these challenges cross national borders and may affect economic, political, and cultural relationships on a vast geographic scale. At the same time, the region's five governments have demonstrated little resolve to address these complex challenges. This book is a valuable multi-disciplinary resource for academics, scholars, and policymakers in environmental sciences, geography, political science, natural resources, mass communications, public health, and economics.

With its unique focus on video game engines, the data-driven architectures of game development and play, this innovative textbook examines the impact of software on everyday life and explores the rise of engine-driven culture. Through a series of case studies, Eric Freedman lays out a clear methodology for studying the game development pipeline, and uses the video game engine as a pathway for media scholars and practitioners to navigate the complex terrain of software practice. Examining several distinct software ecosystems that include the proprietary efforts of Amazon, Apple, Capcom, Epic Games and Unity Technologies, and the unique ways that game engines are used in non-game industries, Freedman illustrates why engines matter. The studies bind together designers and players, speak to the labors of the game industry, value the work of both global and regional developers, and establish critical connection points between software and society. Freedman has crafted a much-needed entry point for students new to code, and a research resource for scholars and teachers working in media industries, game development and new media.

Presidents and Black America: A Documentary History is the first of its kind to document all of the presidents and their complex relationships with African Americans, from the earliest days of the Republic through the start of the Obama administration. Scholars and students will be able to follow trends and contradictions in those relationships; such as acceptance and rejection of slavery, the struggle for political rights and economic opportunity, policies of tokenism, the rebuff to affirmative action, and the growth of black political power and influence. This reference will incorporate primary and secondary documents ranging from speeches, executive orders, statutes, and correspondence to articles and editorials from contemporary African American and mainstream publications, political cartoons, and congressional debates. Many of the documents will contradict established opinions about individual presidents.(For example it is fairly widely-known that Andrew Johnson was an avowed white supremacist but less well-known that Woodrow Wilson tried to segregate previously-integrated government offices.) Chapter introductions with historical data on the respective presidents and short headnotes place the documents in context.

This book provides case studies, many incorporating in-depth interviews and surveys of journalists. It examines issues such as journalists' attitudes toward their contributions to society; the impact of industry and technological changes; culture and minority issues in the newsroom and profession; the impact of censorship and self-censorship; and coping with psychological pressures and physical safety dilemmas. Its chapters also highlight journalists' challenges in national and multinational contexts. International scholars, conducting research within a wide range of authoritarian, semi-democratic, and democratic systems, contributed to this examination of journalistic practices in the Arab World, Australia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Samoa, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States.

Environmental conditions do not exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by science, politics, history, public policy, culture, economics, public attitudes, and competing priorities, as well as past human decisions. In the case of Central Asia, such Soviet-era decisions include irrigation systems and physical infrastructure that are now crumbling, mine tailings that leach pollutants into soil and groundwater, and abandoned factories that are physically decrepit and contaminated with toxic chemicals. Environmental Crises in Central Asia highlights major environmental challenges confronting the region's former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. They include threats to the Caspian and Aral seas, the impact of climate change on glaciers, desertification, deforestation, destruction of habitat and biodiversity, radioactive and hazardous wastes, water quality and supply, energy exploration and development, pesticides and food security, and environmental health. The ramifications of these challenges cross national borders and may affect economic, political, and cultural relationships on a vast geographic scale. At the same time, the region's five governments have demonstrated little resolve to address these complex challenges. This book is a valuable multi-disciplinary resource for academics, scholars, and policymakers in environmental sciences, geography, political science, natural resources, mass communications, public health, and economics.

A comprehensive guide to no-cost entertainment, travel, and recreation opportunities in Michigan.

This study focuses on what images from photography, mobile communications, and the Internet reveal about looking. Exploring subjectivity by critically examining the look, it elaborates on the nature of the photographic frame and its relation to interpretive practices.