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Paid, earned, and social media are all crucial elements of modern electioneering, yet there is a scarcity of supplementary texts for campaigns and election courses that cover all types of media. Equally, media and politics courses cover election-related topics, yet there are few books that cover these subjects comprehensively.This brief and accessible book bridges the gap by discussing media in the context of U.S elections. David A. Jones divides the book into two parts, with the first analyzing the wide array of media outlets citizens use to inform themselves during elections. Jones covers traditional, mainstream news media and opinion/entertainment-based media, as well as new media outlets such as talk shows, blogs, and late-night comedy programs. The second half of the book assesses how campaigns and candidates have adapted to the changing media environment. These chapters focus on earned media strategies, paid media strategies, and social media strategies.Written in a concise and accessible style while including recent scholarly research, the book will appeal to students with its combination of academic rigor and readability. U.S. Media and Elections in Flux will be a useful supplementary textbook for courses on campaigns and elections, media and politics, and American introductory politics.

The real story behind ex-gay ministries and reparative therapy! Nationally known activist Wayne Besen spent four years examining the phenomenon of ex-gay ministries and reparative therapiesinterviewing leaders, attending conferences, and visiting ministries undercover as he accumulated hundreds of hours of research. The result is Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, a groundbreaking exposé of the controversial movement that's revered by independent religious groups and reviled by gay and lesbian organizations. The book presents a historical perspective on the dispute, examining ex-gay groups such as Love In Action, Exodus International, Homosexuals Anonymous, and profiling a cast of characters that includes Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, ex-gay poster boy John Paulk, National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality activist Richard Cohen, and psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer. An in-depth, well-researched, and historically significant account, Anything but Straight is full of startling facts and alarming surprises. The original content and novel material in the book includes: a first-ever comprehensive history of the ex-gay ministries and reparative therapy the inside story of the night the author photographed ex-gay poster boy John Paulk inside a gay bar the author's discovery that Anne Paulk lied about being a lesbian and has admitted to having a strong attraction to men BEFORE she became ex-gay previously undisclosed bizarre techniques used by the ex-gay ministries and reparative therapists the author's exclusive in-depth interviews with leading ex-gay leadersthey disclose their deepest secrets, hidden desires, and true motivations an extraordinary new study that shows that most ex-gay leaders have suffered from substance abuse or severe emotional problemswhile many ex-gay leaders claim they were unhappy being gay, this report helps prove that their dissatisfactions came not from their homosexuality, but from poor life choices and irresponsible behavior new revelations that one of the nation's leading reparative therapists hailed from a secretive cult that was scandalized for practicing nude therapy From the author: Through my extensive experience, I have learned that the extraordinary claims made by the ex-gay groups are without merit and the efficacy of their programs is dubious at best and harmful at worst... One frequent question I get is, Why can't gay activists simply leave'ex-gay'groups alone and let them go about their business? This is exactly what happened for nearly three decades while ex-gay groups labored in near anonymity. But all this recently changed when the ex-gay groups intricately aligned themselves with the anti-gay political agenda of the Religious Right. With ex-gays added to their arsenal, the Right could disingenuously claim to love gay people and offer them hope for change, while simultaneously fighting for punitive legislation. Their insidious message: Since gays and lesbians can change, there is no need for laws that protect them against arbitrary prejudice. Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth is an essential read for activists on both sides of the ex-gay fence, family members of gays and lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender church members, psychiatric and social science professionals, and anyone who has dealt with coming out issues. An appendix of resources and a helpful bibliography make it easy to find additional information on this fascinating topic.

In the late 1980s, after a decade spent engaged in more routine interest-group politics, thousands of lesbians and gay men responded to the AIDS crisis by defiantly and dramatically taking to the streets. But by the early 1990s, the organization they founded, ACT UP, was no more—even as the AIDS epidemic raged on. Weaving together interviews with activists, extensive research, and reflections on the author's time as a member of the organization, Moving Politics is the first book to chronicle the rise and fall of ACT UP, highlighting a key factor in its trajectory: emotion. Surprisingly overlooked by many scholars of social movements, emotion, Gould argues, plays a fundamental role in political activism. From anger to hope, pride to shame, and solidarity to despair, feelings played a significant part in ACT UP's provocative style of protest, which included raucous demonstrations, die-ins, and other kinds of street theater. Detailing the movement's public triumphs and private setbacks, Moving Politics is the definitive account of ACT UP's origin, development, and decline as well as a searching look at the role of emotion in contentious politics.

The book acts as a guide to the images of terrorism that we see daily in the mass media. The author believes that our perceptions of terrorism are formed by the interaction of bureaucratic agencies, academics and private experts. These images and stereotypes that we are offered do not necessarily reflect objective reality.

Although contemporary art may sometimes shock us, more alarming are recent attempts to regulate its display. Drawing upon extensive interviews, a broad sampling of media accounts, legal documents and his own observations of important events, sociologist Steven Dubin surveys the recent trend in censorship of the visual arts, photography and film, as well as artistic upstarts such as video and performance art. He examines the dual meaning of arresting images--both the nature of art work which disarms its viewers and the social reaction to it. Arresting Images examines the battles which erupt when artists address such controversial issues as racial polarization, AIDS, gay-bashing and sexual inequality in their work.