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.

Emerging Media: Virtual Issues, Legal Principles introduces contemporary media and information studies students to the nexus between law and emerging media technology. With a goal to present a clear and succinct overview of communication and media law, the text presents legal doctrines in accessible terms and in the context of current issues and technology. Author Jason Zenor encourages students to think critically about the psychological, social, and political harms that communication technology can cause. Students are exposed to a myriad of current examples that reflect issues in today's media environment, with legal analysis of how these issues could be resolved. Specific topical areas include censorship, false speech, privacy, civil liability, obscenity, identity rights, intellectual property, consumer protection, and market regulation. Each chapter concludes with a case study and discussion questions so students can apply the legal doctrine to a communication technology problem. Emerging Media provides students with a timely and valuable focus on legal and policy issues attendant to new communication technologies.