New Books in Communications

Karma ChavezView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Political Science] Karma Chavez is the author of Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities (Illinois University Press, 2013). Dr. Chavez is assistant professor of Communication Arts and Chicano and Latina Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also the co-founder of the Queer Migration Research Network and co-editor of Standing in the Intersection: Feminist Voices Feminist Practices in Communications Studies. Queer Migration Politics focuses on the intersection of political interest between immigration activists and LGBT activists. Chavez shows some of the inclusionary approaches taken by mainstream groups to advocate for a small handful of common policy objectives. The campaign to change US law to permit gay and lesbian citizens to sponsor foreign partners was prominent on the agenda. But Chavez's approach challenges conventional politics by offering a "differential vision" of what coalitional politics might mean. The book has a lot for political scientists and sociologists, as well as scholars in queer studies and immigration policy.

Colette ColliganView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in French Studies] From the end of the nineteenth century through the middle of the twentieth, Paris was a center for the publication of numerous English-language books, including many of a sexually explicit, pornographic nature. Colette Colligan's new book, A Publisher's Paradise: Expatriate Literary Culture in Paris, 1890-1960 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2014) explores the rich and fascinating history of these "Paris editions" across seven decades of literary publishing in France, in English. Troubling too-simplistic notions of British prudishness versus French sexual liberalism and "high" versus "low" literatures, Colligan's book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Paris's expatriate past that remains part of the mythology of the city to this day. The book includes discussion of the cultural, legal, and commercial sides of this story, as well as closer textual analyses of some key examples of "degraded" and high modernist literature. In its chapters, readers will be introduced to characters and works that may not be so well known, including the British expatriate publisher Charles Carrington (whose publishing credits include Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1908). In addition to illuminating the lives of lesser known figures and texts, A Publisher's Paradise also situates the history of "dirty books" published in the French capital to literary legends Sylvia Beach (the owner of the Parisian landmark English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Co. and publisher of James Joyce's Ulysses in 1922) and Vladimir Nabokov (whose novel Lolita was first published by Maurice Girodias' Olympia Press in Paris in 1955). The book will be a rewarding read to anyone interested in the histories of publishing, pornography, and/or Parisian cultural life.

View on AmazonErika G. King learned a lot during research for her book, Obama, the Media, and Framing the U.S. Exit from Iraq and Afghanistan (Ashgate, 2014), but one item surprised her a bit more than most. "One might have thought, but one would be wrong … that media organizations might just come together and say, 'Yes, Iraq was a difficult war, but we accomplished something, and now it's over and things can be seen in a slightly positive light,' " King said. "But I found it very interesting that journalists for these national media organizations used Obama's moment in the sun to present some very negative outlooks about what Iraq had represented to talk about–how many of them felt culpable in their early interpretations and support of the Iraq war." Obama, the Media, and Framing the U.S. Exit from Iraq and Afghanistan is a qualitative look at narratives and shifting rhetoric. King's research reveals the interplay between the Obama administration and the media during this crucial and recent period of American history. Scholars and consumers of journalism and political science research will find this book to be an invaluable addition to their collection.

Sara BannermanView on AmazonIn The Struggle for Canadian Copyright: Imperialism to Internationalism, 1842-1971, Sara Bannerman narrates the complex story of Canada's copyright policy since the mid-19th century. The book details the country's halting attempts to craft a copyright regime responsive both to its position as a net importer of published work and to its peculiar political geography as a British dominion bordering the United States. Bannerman charts Canada's early, largely unsuccessful effort to craft a less restrictive policy in the run up to, and aftermath of, the 1886 Berne Convention-the multilateral agreement that established the enduring framework for the international copyright system. The main obstacle, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, was Britain's insistence on a uniform and Berne-friendly policy throughout the empire. Even as those imperial constraints fell away over the first half of the 20th century, Canada increasingly aligned with powerful net exporters like France and Britain–in large part, Bannerman shows, to strengthen the country's image as a model international citizen. The Struggle for Canadian Copyright is a story of constraint–the country's copyright independence was never won–but Bannerman's account also highlights the historical contingency of the restrictive norms that dominate international IP policy. A companion website includes archival documents and other materials.

Joseph UscinskiView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Journalism] "When we criticize the news, who are we really criticizing?" This is the final question asked by Professor Joseph Uscinski in his book, The People's News: Media, Politics, and the Demands of Capitalism (NYU Press, 2014). The answer, Uscinski says in his interview, is us–the consumer. News producers, he writes, are merely responding to the demands of consumers, adjusting news content based on ratings, polls and audience demographics. The People's News views news through the lens of news as a commodity beholden to market forces, not as a type of media. Combining the academic disciplines of media effects and political economy, The People's News is a well-researched and well-reported look at what happens when the concepts of free press and democracy collide.

Robert DarntonView on AmazonRobert Darnton, author of books, articles, and Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University Library at Harvard. Darnton joins host Jonathan Judaken to discuss the future of libraries, the printed press, and his project – the Digital Public Library of America, or D.P.L.A. – which he hopes will foster a culture of "Open Access" to help promote the free communication of knowledge and sharing of intellectual wealth in order to create this "digital commonwealth."

Patrick Burkart[Cross-posted from New Books in Popular Culture] Patrick Burkart's Pirate Politics: The New Information Policy Conflicts (MIT Press, 2014) considers the democratic potential and theoretical significance of groups espousing radical perspectives on intellectual property and cyber-liberty.  Focusing on the Swedish Pirate Party, Burkart details the history of these movements, noting the ways in which they have impacted both the local politics of Europe and the international culture industries.  Employing conceptual models drawn from both critical theory and new social movement theory, Burkart makes a compelling case that the politics of piracy must understood as a defense of common culture.  Just as social movements have come together to protect the environment, pirate politics aim to keep the Internet a space in individual and communal rights are not overrun by the interests of governments and corporations.

Melissa AronczykView on AmazonIn Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity, Melissa Aronczyk locates the rise of nation branding as a response to the perceived need to sculpt national identity in the face of a fiercely competitive global economy. In tracking the history of the nation-branding phenomenon, Aronczyk recounts the rise and spread of the very idea of national "competitiveness," a discourse that, in effect, created a market that branding specialists then tapped. The book engages with the large scholarly literature on nations and nationalism, arguing that nation branding should not be dismissed as merely the invasion of business practices into the national imaginary–though it has this character, undeniably–but that the practice should also be read as a discourse that maintains, extends, and reconstitutes the nation. Based on dozens of interviews with nation-branding specialist over a five-year period, Aronczyk develops major case studies of Poland and Canada in particular, and substantial treatments of a number of other cases spanning the globe, including Botswana, Chile, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, and Libya. In Branding the Nation, Aronczyk tells the story of how national identity came to be seen, and sold, as a form of added value in a competitive global market, and how these campaigns fed back into the ongoing process of thinking, and imagining, the nation.

Thomas Bey William BaileyView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Music] Thomas Bey William Bailey is the author of Unofficial Release: Self-Released and Handmade Audio in Post-Industrial Society (Belsona Books, 2012). He is a psycho-acoustic sound artist and writer on saturation culture. Thomas traces the history of self-released audio from its origins in mail-art networks of the 1970s to the present day practice of using antiquated media – the humble cassette tape – for the dissemination of experimental sounds. Net-labels, mp3 blogs, tape traders, and their many casts of characters are examined along the way as changing technologies impact the strategies for resilience among self-releasing audio artists.

Greg HaingeView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Critical Theory] What is noise? In his new book Noise Matters: Towards an Ontology of Noise (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), Greg Hainge, Reader in French at University of Queensland, Australia, explores this question. The book is written within the tradition of critical theory and is at once playful and punning, as well as suffused with challenging and perceptive analysis. The core position of the book is that we need to move beyond the dichotomous understanding of noise that sees it as either something to be removed or rejected, an unnecessary distraction from a core signal, or something that should be celebrated, but in celebration co-opted into being something that isn't noise. For Hainge we need a new understanding of noise, an understanding that seeks to celebrate noise through a range of engagements with cultural and theoretical phenomena. Noise is not just about sound, but figures in all forms of communication. The book takes on the accepted readings of work in music, such as John Cage's 4'33", literature, such as Sartre's Nausea, as well as photography and film. These new approaches, mediated by the concern with noise, will be of interest to a range of readers from across the humanities, as well as for specialists in film and music theory and aesthetics. The project of founding on ontology of noise is also a contribution to the growing field of noise studies, which is the kind of interdisciplinary academic area that is emerging within the noisy world of the contemporary academy.

Thomas E. PattersonView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Journalism] Is truth in journalism the same as balance? Is fairness really fair to news consumers, or is fairness merely a code word used by journalists looking to get out of the line of fire? In his latest book, Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism (Vintage, 2013), Thomas E. Patterson gets at the heart of a journalism epidemic threatening the democratic process. Patterson is Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press and a faculty member at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Patterson calls for journalists to become experts in a subject, whether it's foreign policy, economics, or other matters. Knowledge-based journalism will give journalists tools they need to go beyond the he-said/she-said reporting model and will allow for a level of analysis that better serves the American people. Invoking the observations and wisdom of Walter Lippmann, Informing the News is an important work intended for journalism scholars, journalists, journalism educators, and anyone with a vested interest in a democratic society.

Jonathan SterneView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Science, Technology, and Society] MP3: The Meaning of a Format (Duke University Press, 2012) is a fascinating study of the MP3 as a historical, cultural, conceptual, and social phenomenon. In the course of an account of the MP3 that has surprising connections to telephony and the economics of perception, Jonathan Sterne usefully shifts our attention from media-in-general to a more specific focus on material formats, "the stuff beneath, beyond, and behind the boxes our media come in." MP3 explores the process by which AT&T learned how to make money from the gaps in human hearing. By the 1980s, Sterne shows, engineers had developed methods for using what cannot be heard within the audible spectrum as the basis for a system of data compression for digital sound transmission. The same decade saw a subgroup of the International Organization for Standardization, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), devise a standard for digital video and audio with the help of a series of tests that gauged listeners' levels of sonic annoyance. Sterne shows how the MP3 format emerged out of these overlapping material and social contexts of perception, technics, and experimentation. There are cat pianos and cat telephones (not what you think!) here, as well as accounts of cybernetics and information theory, histories of the domestication of noise, considerations of the challenge of archiving digital mashups, and vignettes about Suzanne Vega and Tom's Diner. It's a wonderful book about an important part of our daily media landscape, and it was great fun to talk about it!

Heidi CampbellView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Religion] What does religion have to do with technology? Many people think that religious practitioners are inherently opposed to new technological developments. The reality of the situation is that religious communities have a very complex relationship with technology. Heidi Campbell, professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University, examines the intersection religion and technology in When Religion Meets New Media (Routledge, 2010). Her main query is what responses do Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities have to new forms of media. Campbell pinpoints the various structural components of religious communities' engagement with technologies through a number of case studies, including the Amr Khaled phenomenon, the Gulen Movement, Shabbat in an Orthodox Jewish home, the "Pause, its prayer time" ad campaign, the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life, Islamic apps, and the kosher cellphone, among several others. In When Religion Meets New Media, she offers a comprehensive theoretical model for investigating religion in the digital world, the "Religious-social shaping" approach, which frames a study in a religious community's core beliefs and patterns, history and tradition, negotiation process, and communal discursive framing. As one of the leading scholars in the area of religion, media, and digital culture, Campbell is well-suited for the task. In our conversation we discuss the history of religion online, religious authority, communal interactions with traditional texts, the media as a conduit, mode of knowing, and social institution, and the future of the study of digital religion. Campbell also gives us a sense of where the field is moving and topics that are gaining purchase among scholars. Her efforts with the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies are helping scholars across disciplines connect for collaborative research. We also briefly discussed one of the products of this network, Campbell's edited collection Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds (Routledge, 2013). The chapters of this volume include theoretical and methodological introductions to themes in the study of digital religion (Ritual, Identity, Community, Authority, Authenticity, and Religion) with two corresponding case studies.

George BrockView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Journalism] George Brock approached his book about newspapers and journalism in the digital age unwilling to write another gloom-and-doom narrative about the death or decline of the industry. When he studied the historical development of journalism and current trends, he found the industry is what is always has been: volatile, evolving, and vital to society's well being. Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age (Kogan Page, 2013) is an important look at the industrial, economic, and pragmatic realities of a shifting industry. Using modern case studies, including the phone-hacking scandal that brought down Great Britain's News of the World, as well as historical research and recent data, Brock examines where journalism was, is and will be. Brock, head of City University London's prestigious graduate school of journalism, has produced a work that transcends academia without sacrificing methodology or theory. "Because journalism lives on the frontier between democratic purposes and the commercial market," Brock writes, "it is constantly being reorganized and renegotiated."

Ian SamsonView on Amazon[Cross-posted from New Books in Sociology] In our digital world, it does seem like paper is dying by inches.  Bookstores are going out of business, and more and more people get their news from the internet than from newspapers.   But how irrelevant has paper really become? As Ian Samson argues in his new book, Paper: An Elegy (Harper Collins, 2012), not only is paper still vital in our society, it pretty much dominates all our lives.  From advertising to currency, to board games and origami, paper still revolves around most business and leisure.  Even "post-paper" products, such as e-readers, imitate the aesthetics and feel of paper, mirroring it in spirit if not in product.  And how many of us have heard, "yes, I have an e-book reader, but I just really like the feel of a book in my hand"?  In this interview, Ian Samson tells us about the history of paper, its uses throughout time, and our love affair with the "ultimate man-made material."