This book restores water, both fresh and salt, to its central position in human endeavour, ecology and environment. Water access and the environmental and social problems of development are major issues of concern in this century. Drawing on water's many formations in debating human relationship with a major source of life and a major factor in contemporary politics, this book covers oceans and rivers to lagoons, billabongs and estuaries in Asia, Oceania and the West Pacific. In an interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary analysis of the water problem, the contributors address the physical descriptors of water and water flow, and they interrogate the politicised administrations of water in closely corresponding regions. Water, Sovereignty and Borders in Asia and Oceania identifies new discursive possibilities for thinking about water in theory and in practice. It presents those discourses that seem most useful in addressing the multiple crises the region is facing and thus should be of interest to scholars of Asian Studies, Geography, Environmental and Cultural Studies.

Fierce competitiveness between established and emerging major cities, such as Berlin, London, Shanghai and Sydney, has led to a pressure to excel as desirable locations for business, cultural activities, highly skilled migrants and tourists. At the same time, the transformation of settled and new migrant communities creates complex urban borders and variegated representations (academic, cinematic, popular, official) of the city. While cities increasingly deploy cosmopolitan images portraying the diversity of past and present populations and activities, this continues to coexist with parochialism as a mood and mode of cultural formations and a reflection of local specificities. This volume brings together cultural analysts, social scientists, and media and film scholars to explore the ways in which core cities generate competing claims on, and visions of, their use and their future, and thus have engaged with the necessity to brand their image for international consumption and for internal coherence.

This book examines the influence of mobile media technology on the lives of young people in East and North Asia, South East Asia and Australia. It discusses the impact information communication technologies have today on social identity, well-being, participation and exclusion. It explores current media practices and their innovative, transformative and disruptive uses at the local, the regional, the national, and the global level. In particular, it analyses mobile media not as a discrete object, but rather as part of a dynamic communication and information environment in which human-object relations are constantly reconfigured. It covers key theoretical and conceptual themes in youth mobile media research focusing on social, cultural and political aspects, including coverage of key themes such as regulation and technology, practices, pedagogies, aesthetics, social change, and representations of mobile youth. The book includes new accounts of recent research into the uses of mobile media by young people, and how these are situated in a broader socio-political context. Case studies include mobile panics in Australia (the notorious Kings of Wirrabee sexual assault case) and Japan (the scandals of high school girls as teenage prostitutes) in which mobile media use has had significant impact. This book offers an up-to-date examination of the influence of information communication technologies on young people's lives in the region.

Fierce competitiveness between established and emerging major cities, such as Berlin, London, Shanghai and Sydney, has led to a pressure to excel as desirable locations for business, cultural activities, highly skilled migrants and tourists. At the same time, the transformation of settled and new migrant communities creates complex urban borders and variegated representations (academic, cinematic, popular, official) of the city. While cities increasingly deploy cosmopolitan images portraying the diversity of past and present populations and activities, this continues to coexist with parochialism as a mood and mode of cultural formations and a reflection of local specificities. This volume brings together cultural analysts, social scientists, and media and film scholars to explore the ways in which core cities generate competing claims on, and visions of, their use and their future, and thus have engaged with the necessity to brand their image for international consumption and for internal coherence.

Fresh water, salt water, and brackish water in Asia, Oceania, and the West Pacific are at the focus of this book. From oceans and rivers to lagoons, billabongs and estuaries, it draws on water's many formations in debating human relationships as a major source of life and a major factor in contemporary politics. Water access and the environmental and social problems of development are some of the major issues of concern in this century. This book brings multidisciplinary perspectives - from the angle of social sciences, cultural theory, policy-making, environmental studies and physical sciences - to research and decision-making processes. It is organized around the themes of fresh and salt, and borders and sovereignty. By situating water as both an object of thematic enquiry and as a lens of description and analysis in pursuing these themes, the contributors address the physical descriptors of water and water flow, interrogating the politicized administrations of water in closely corresponding regions. Water, Sovereignty and Borders in Asia and Oceania identifies new discursive possibilities for thinking about water in theory and in practice. It presents those discourses that seem most useful in addressing the multiple crises that the region is facing and thus will be of interest to scholars of Asian studies, geography, the environment and cultural studies.

Multinational media companies increasingly look to China as a highly important market for the future, but with what degree of confidence should they do so? Media in China is about a new kind of revolution in China - a revolution in which rapidly commercializing media industries confront slow-changing power relations between political, social and economic spheres. This interdisciplinary collection draws on the expertise of industry professionals, academic experts and cultural critics. It offers a variety of perspectives on audio-visual industries in the world's largest media market. In particular, the contributors examine television, film, music, commercial and political advertising, and new media such as the internet and multimedia. These essays explore evolving audience demographies, new patterns of media reception in regional centres, and the gradual internationalization of media content and foreign investment in China's broadcasting industries. This book will of use to students and professionals involved in media and communication, as well as anyone interested in contemporary China.

Multinational media companies increasingly look to China as a highly important market for the future, but with what degree of confidence should they do so? Media in China is about a new kind of revolution in China - a revolution in which rapidly commercializing media industries confront slow-changing power relations between political, social and economic spheres. This interdisciplinary collection draws on the expertise of industry professionals, academic experts and cultural critics. It offers a variety of perspectives on audio-visual industries in the world's largest media market. In particular, the contributors examine television, film, music, commercial and political advertising, and new media such as the internet and multimedia. These essays explore evolving audience demographies, new patterns of media reception in regional centres, and the gradual internationalization of media content and foreign investment in China's broadcasting industries.
This book will of use to students and professionals involved in media and communication, as well as anyone interested in contemporary China.

Comparing the major Pacific Rim cities of Sydney, Hong Kong and Shanghai, this book examines world city branding. Whilst all three cities compete on the world's stage for events, tourists and investment, they are also at the centre of distinct film traditions and their identities are thus strongly connected with a cinematic impression. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book not only analyses the city branding of these cities from the more widely researched perspectives of tourism, marketing and regional development, but also draws in cultural studies and psychology approaches which offer fresh and useful insights to place branding and marketing in general. The authors compare and contrast qualitative and quantitative original data as well as critically analyzing current texts and debates on city branding. In conclusion, they argue that city branding should contribute not only to regional development and identity, but also to sustainable economic well-being and public happiness.

We usually associate contemporary urban life with movement and speed. But what about those instances when the forms of mobility associated with globalized cities - the flow of capital, people, labor and information - freeze, or decelerate? How can we assess the value of interruption in a city? What does valuing stillness mean in regards to the forward march of globalization? When does inertia presage decay - and when does it promise immanence and rebirth?
Bringing together original contributions by international specialists from the fields of architecture, photography, film, sociology and cultural analysis, this cutting-edge book considers the poetics and politics of inertia in cities ranging from Amsterdam, Berlin, Beirut and Paris, to Beijing, New York, Sydney and Tokyo. Chapters explore what happens when photography, film, mixed media works, architecture and design intervene in public spaces and urban communities to disrupt speed and growth, both intellectually and/or practically; and question the degree to which mobility is aspirational or imaginary, absolute or transient. Together, they encourage a re-assessment of what it means to be urban in an unevenly globalizing world, to live in cities built around mythologies of perpetual progress.

This book examines the influence of mobile media technology on the lives of young people in East and North Asia, South East Asia and Australia. It discusses the impact information communication technologies have today on social identity, well-being, participation and exclusion. It explores current media practices and their innovative, transformative and disruptive uses at the local, the regional, the national, and the global level. In particular, it analyses mobile media not as a discrete object, but rather as part of a dynamic communication and information environment in which human-object relations are constantly reconfigured. It covers key theoretical and conceptual themes in youth mobile media research focusing on social, cultural and political aspects, including coverage of key themes such as regulation and technology, practices, pedagogies, aesthetics, social change, and representations of mobile youth. The book includes new accounts of recent research into the uses of mobile media by young people, and how these are situated in a broader socio-political context. Case studies include mobile panics in Australia (the notorious Kings of Wirrabee sexual assault case) and Japan (the scandals of high school girls as teenage prostitutes) in which mobile media use has had significant impact. This book offers an up-to-date examination of the influence of information communication technologies on young people's lives in the region.

Contributing to the growing debates on children and media worldwide, Little Friends explores the pervasive presence of film culture in the lives of children in China. The book also introduces the work of the little-known Children's Film Studio and the Film Course, a reform-period attempt by Chinese filmmakers and policy leaders to control the media to which schoolchildren were exposed. Stephanie Donald uses expansive firsthand interviews, children's drawings, and film history to tell a compelling cinematic story before it is forgotten in the onrush of globalized culture. She is especially careful to bring in the interests and experiences of children themselves. The book follows the trajectory of contemporary media analysis in privileging the use as well as the content of media. The author's "turn" to the end-user enriches her discussion of media literacy, cultural competencies, and perhaps especially in the Chinese case consideration of the desired uses of media in relation to state priorities and social expectations. This is a trend that belongs to an era of digital experimentation and commercial development; in interactive television, streamed news and entertainment, and the multiple, unintended uses of Internet and mobile technologies. Notwithstanding the contemporary context, Donald's arguments consider a range of media deployment that, although not especially new in technological terms, offer new insights into a formalized Chinese media system for children. Scholars and students of Asian and children's film and education will find this unique work a fascinating window into Chinese culture and society and a provocative exploration of media culture.

In Hollywood's search for cheap, distinctive, and authentic locations, producers and directors are taking their business to foreign soil. Only one of the five 2002 Best Picture nominees was shot in the United States-The Hours, filmed in Hollywood, Florida. Contracting Out Hollywood addresses the American trend of "runaway productions"-the growing practice of producing American films and television programs on foreign shores. Greg Elmer and Mike Gasher have gathered a group of contributors who seek to explain the phenomenon from historical, political, economic, and cultural perspectives, using case studies, challenges to contemporary screen, media, and globalization theories, and analyses of changing government politics toward cultural industries.

This unique textbook is a manageable introduction to all the theories and approaches that make up media studies, giving students an informed, balanced and global view of media today. Exploring the evolution of media internationally, this book offers theory and evidence in its discussion of past and present modes of media. Divided into four parts, readers are offered insight into critical theories and topics such as 'Social and Global Change,' 'the Influence of Media,' 'Intercultural Communication' and 'News as a Form of Knowledge.' Written by leading experts within media studies, Balnaves, Donald and Shoesmith lend their wealth of knowledge to the student reader through this text, guiding them through the progression of cultural and media studies. Genuinely global and cutting-edge, this leading textbook is the ideal learning resource for lecturers of media studies and undergraduate and postgraduate students seeking gain a thorough understanding of worldwide media, past and present.

This magnificently produced atlas provides a unique visual survey of the profound economic, political, and social changes taking place in China, as well as their implications for the world at large.
China has the world's fastest-growing economy and is the second-largest trading nation. With its pro-entrepreneurial outlook and population of 1.3 billion, it offers unique opportunities for domestic and overseas investors. This dynamic volume provides an abundance of information on China's new wealth, growing unemployment, mass migration to the cities, and trade disputes.
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* Vivid full-color maps convey a wealth of information quickly and efficiently
* Comprehensive information on China's population, employment, agriculture, industry, and economics
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A comprehensive guide to the global communications revolution. The book is presented in the form of over 50 colour maps which graphically depict the global diffusion of old and new media. As well as presenting up-to-date data, the book extrapolates trends on a wide variety of topics illustrating the huge disparities across the media world. The topics covered include: print media and the digital age; phones/mobiles; media moguls; media piracy; world music; global villages; learning online; film production; Websites of the world; advertising standards and regulation; and the world of ratings.

The child has existed in cinema since the Lumiere Brothers filmed their babies having messy meals in Lyons, but it is only quite recently that scholars have paid serious attention to her/his presence on screen. Scholarly discussion is now of the highest quality and of interest to anyone concerned not only with the extent to which adult cultural conversations invoke the figure of the child, but also to those interested in exploring how film cultures can shift questions of agency and experience in relation to subjectivity. Childhood and Nation in World Cinema recognizes that the range of films and scholarship is now sufficiently extensive to invoke the world cinema mantra of pluri-vocal and pluri-central attention and interpretation. At the same time, the importance of the child in figuring ideas of nationhood is an undiminished tic in adult cultural and social consciousness. Either the child on film provokes claims on the nation or the nation claims the child. Given the waning star of national film studies, and the widely held and serious concerns over the status of the nation as a meaningful cultural unit, the point here is not to assume some extraordinary pre-social geopolitical empathy of child and political entity. Rather, the present collection observes how and why and whether the cinematic child is indeed aligned to concepts of modern nationhood, to concerns of the State, and to geo-political organizational themes and precepts.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2018 The Wizard of Oz brought many now-iconic tropes into popular culture: the yellow brick road, ruby slippers and Oz. But this book begins with Dorothy and her legacy as an archetypal touchstone in cinema for the child journeying far from home. In There's No Place Like Home, distinguished film scholar Stephanie Hemelryk Donald offers a fresh interpretation of the migrant child as a recurring figure in world cinema. Displaced or placeless children, and the idea of childhood itself, are vehicles to examine migration and cosmopolitanism in films such as Le Ballon Rouge, Little Moth and Le Havre. Surveying fictional and documentary film from the post-war years until today, the author shows how the child is a guide to themes of place, self and being in world cinema.

The child has existed in cinema since the Lumiere Brothers filmed their babies having messy meals in Lyons, but it is only quite recently that scholars have paid serious attention to her/his presence on screen. Scholarly discussion is now of the highest quality and of interest to anyone concerned not only with the extent to which adult cultural conversations invoke the figure of the child, but also to those interested in exploring how film cultures can shift questions of agency and experience in relation to subjectivity. Childhood and Nation in World Cinema recognizes that the range of films and scholarship is now sufficiently extensive to invoke the world cinema mantra of pluri-vocal and pluri-central attention and interpretation. At the same time, the importance of the child in figuring ideas of nationhood is an undiminished tic in adult cultural and social consciousness. Either the child on film provokes claims on the nation or the nation claims the child. Given the waning star of national film studies, and the widely held and serious concerns over the status of the nation as a meaningful cultural unit, the point here is not to assume some extraordinary pre-social geopolitical empathy of child and political entity. Rather, the present collection observes how and why and whether the cinematic child is indeed aligned to concepts of modern nationhood, to concerns of the State, and to geo-political organizational themes and precepts.