Showing titles in Media Studies

Noir - as a style, movement, or sensibility - has its roots in hardboiled detective fiction by writers like Chandler and Hammett, and films adapted from their novels were among the first called "film noir" by French cineastes. But film isn't the only medium with a taste for a dark story. Hundreds of noir dramas have been produced for television, featuring detectives and femmes fatales, gangsters, and dark deeds, continuing week after week, with a new disruption of the social order. In TV Noir, television historian Allen Glover presents the first complete study of the subject.

Acht Monate lang tauchte Tobias Ginsburg inkognito in die Szene der "Reichsbürger" und rechten Verschwörungstheoretiker ein. Er baute sich eine Scheinidentität im Netz auf und bewegte sich unter AfD-Politikern, gewaltbereiten Neonazis und friedensbewegten Esoterikern in Braun, Sektierern und Systemumstürzlern. Sein Buch ist ein ebenso erschütternder wie komischer Streifzug durch eine Welt böser Verführer und verführter Irregeleiteter, das zugleich einen neuen, literarischen Ton in die investigative Reportage einführt.

In this book in praise of wait times, award-winning author Jason Farman passionately argues that the delay between call and answer has always been an important part of the message. Traveling backward from our current era of Twitter and texts, Farman describes how societies have worked to eliminate waiting in communication and how they have interpreted those times' meanings. And in a rebuttal to the demand for instant communication, Farman makes a powerful case for why good things can come to those who wait.

Es wird alles immer schlimmer, eine schreckliche Nachricht jagt die andere: Die Reichen werden reicher, die Armen ärmer. Es gibt immer mehr Kriege, Gewaltverbrechen, Naturkatastrophen. Viele Menschen tragen solche beängstigenden Bilder im Kopf. Doch sie liegen damit grundfalsch. Unser Gehirn verführt uns zu einer dramatisierenden Weltsicht, die mitnichten der Realität entspricht, wie der geniale Statistiker und Wissenschaftler Hans Rosling erklärt.

Through their part in some huge controversies, conspiracy theorists are being branded the Number One Enemies of our times - the new heretics. They are seen to threaten the very fabric of modern society, spreading doubts and fears that result in Washington Capitol invasions, transmission mast burnings or the spread of anti-vaxx material. Yet the theorists prefer to call themselves "truth seekers" and see the mainstream establishment as the real disruptor, treating its increasingly harsh censorship as direct validation of their views.

Social worker, activist, and cultural commentator Feminista Jones explores how Black women are changing culture, society, and the landscape of feminism by building digital communities and using social media as powerful platforms. As Jones reveals, some of the best-loved devices of our shared social media language are a result of Black women’s innovations, from well-known, movement-building hashtags (#BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, and #BlackGirlMagic) to the now ubiquitous use of threaded tweets as a marketing and storytelling tool.

What would you do if the odds were against you? When no matter how much you try to look for the elusive answers, the people who are powerful enough to help you are not cooperating? Worse, what if they are out to prevent you from finding out the truth? In all disappearances cases, the law authorities' help is crucial - they could make or break the case resolution. In this book, more than just learning about the cases of missing people, you will realize the struggle of families and friends who mysteriously lost a loved one, what they did, and how they coped.

Fake News: Falsehood, Fabrication and Fantasy in journalism examines the causes and consequences of the "fake news" phenomenon now sweeping the world’s media and political debates. Drawing on three decades of research and writing on journalism and news media, the author engages with the fake news phenomenon in accessible, insightful language designed to bring clarity and context to a complex and fast-moving debate.

Our devices and data are woven into our lives. We can't simply reject them. Margaret Morris argues we need to adapt technology creatively to our needs and values. In Left to Our Own Devices, Morris offers examples of individuals applying technologies in unexpected ways - uses that go beyond those intended by developers and designers. Morris examines these kinds of personalized life hacks, chronicling the ways that people have adapted technology to strengthen social connection, enhance well-being, and affirm identity.

Now in its second edition, The Virtues of Captain America is updated to include all the new developments in Captain America's saga. This edition also offers new material on Sam Wilson—formerly Captain America's partner the Falcon who recently became Captain America himself—and how his interpretation of the role compares to Steve Rogers's.

The consequences of adopting the cynical but popular worldview are many, including needless pessimism, missed investment opportunities, and - surprisingly - even poorer health. Yet An Embarrassment of Riches provides a powerful antidote. Green begins with a robust survey of the many ways our lives are becoming longer, easier, safer, healthier and more prosperous. He then embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of the ideas and the many men and women - both living and dead - who are still enriching our lives today.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were only three major television networks. And there was only one Harlan Ellison taking them all to task in a series of weekly essays he wrote for the countercultural, underground newspaper, the Los Angeles Free Press, a.k.a. “The Freep”. For nearly four years, he channel-surfed through the mire of ABC, CBS, and NBC, finding little of value but much to critique. No one offered a more astute analysis of the idiot box’s influence on American culture, or its effects on the intelligence and psyche of viewers.

We've all heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words, but what if we don't understand what we're looking at? Social media has made charts, infographics, and diagrams ubiquitous - and easier to share than ever. However, they can also lead us astray. Charts lie in a variety of ways - displaying incomplete or inaccurate data, suggesting misleading patterns, and concealing uncertainty. In How Charts Lie, data visualization expert Alberto Cairo teaches us to not only spot the lies in deceptive visuals, but also to take advantage of good ones to understand complex stories.

News for All the People reveals how racial segregation distorted the information Americans received from the mainstream media. It unearths numerous examples of how publishers and broadcasters actually fomented racial violence and discrimination through their coverage. And it chronicles the influence federal media policies exerted in such conflicts. It depicts the struggle of Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American journalists who fought to create a vibrant yet little-known alternative, democratic press.

The pantheon of big-budget, commercially successful films encompasses a range of genres, including biblical films, war films, romances, comic-book adaptations, animated features, and historical epics. In Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History authors Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale discuss the characteristics, history, and modes of distribution and exhibition that unite big-budget pictures, from their beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the present.

In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable.

An empowering, forward-thinking solution for creating intentional and healthy social media habits from an expert on media, technology, and health.

Black helicopters are believed by some to be used for the surveillance of patriotic groups opposed to the takeover of the United States by foreign powers. Those sinister, silent, Black Hawk Down-style copters are hard to miss, but what exactly is their role?

Almost everyone is doing it. Aimlessly scrolling through their social media feeds. From presidents to the postmen, most people you know and probably even yourself. Mindlessly, your fingers move across the screen, and content, from selfies to memes, flickers by at a blistering pace. Why is it that the screen sometimes seems more important than looking up and being present in real life? And what does it mean that more and more people are turning into so-called "Scroll Zombies"? Sven Rollenhagen thoughtfully discusses social media use and how it affects us both psychologically and physically.

In this edition, Larry Abraham has at last revised, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, and brought it up to date. The events of the last fifteen years have served Larry's thesis quite well. As far as Larry is concerned, the history of 1970-85 has been a kind of giant grab-bag of goodies that reinforce his original thesis. The arguments for the existence of a conspiracy are stronger today than they have ever been, especially when we lay them alongside of what was said and written before.