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Increasingly social activists, journalists and policy makers have expressed concern over the proliferation of conspiracy theories in the public space. There is a growing fear of their impact on social cohesion and democracy, their power to erode trust in state institutions and science. These concerns often come with an expectation that it is the responsibility of academics to engage with conspiracy beliefs by countering them. But should they? In this book, contributors show that like everything that relates to conspiracy theories, even the answer to this question is not straightforward and can vary across disciplines and schools, can be influenced by disciplinary ethical codes of conduct, research methodologies, and specific approaches to conspiracy theories. Foregrounding a variety of approaches, from across disciplines (psychology, anthropology, sociology and media studies), academic seniority (from young scholars to full professors), and countries (USA, Ireland, UK, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Greece), the chapters in this book are in deep conversation with each other, offering multiple alternative takes on the issue of what should academics do with conspiracy theories. Together, the book embodies several bold and compelling provocations to dealing differently with conspiracy theories. This timely volume introduces perspectives of scholars representing media studies, anthropology, psychology and sociology and discusses case studies concerning politics, health, environment and security. It will be a key resource for researchers, scholars and practitioners engaged in these fields and will also appeal to anyone interested in conspiracy theories and other related phenomena such as disinformation or fake news. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal for Cultural Research.

This open access book focuses on the textual features, or ‘strategies’, which form popularization discourse. In popularization discourse, research findings from academia are re-presented to make them noteworthy to society and influential for everyday life. Popularization involves recontextualization, or reimagination of findings in an everyday and newsworthy context, and reformulation, the use of audience-appropriate language to increase text comprehension and engagement. ‘Re-presenting research’ presents an empirically grounded, analytic framework for the analysis of popularization texts. Its applicability spans across disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary fields, and overarches science communication, science journalism, and research communication. The book offers theoretical background information on popularization discourse, empirical underpinning of the construction of the framework, and practical applicability in examples from multiple text types and academic fields. This book acts as a guide for those working with or on popularization discourse – whether it is to analyze it or learn about it.

This book examines the media reform processes and re-democratization projects of Ghana and Nigeria's emerging democracies. It evaluates and critiques these reform processes, arguing that because of dependency approaches resulting from the transplanting of policy framework from the West into these emerging democracies, the policy goals and objectives of the reforms have not been achieved. Consequently, the inherent socio-cultural, economic and political factors, coupled with the historical antecedents of these countries, have also affected the reform process. Drawing from policy documents, analyses and interviews, Ufuoma Akpojivi argues that the lack of citizens'active participation in policy processes has led to neo-liberalization and the continued universalization of Western ideologies such as democracy, media freedom and independence. Akpojivi posits that the recognition of socio-cultural, political and economic factors inherent to these emerging democracies, coupled withthe communal participation of citizens, will facilitate true media reform processes and development of these countries.

Die Digitalisierung ermöglicht neue Formen der Einflussnahme durch Kommunikation. Leben wir dadurch in einer medialen Kampfzone der Meinungsbeeinflussung? Die gegenwärtige Konjunktur der Strategischen Kommunikation führt zu Verunsicherungen in Bezug auf die Glaubwürdigkeit des Journalismus und die gesellschaftliche Funktion der Medien. Für viele Interessengruppen sind digitale soziale Netze äußerst hilfreich, um spezifische Interessen wirkungsvoll öffentlich bekannt zu machen. Im Extremfall stellt das Internet jedoch das ideale propagandistische Medium dar.Das Lenken von Menschen oder die Veränderung des Verhaltens von Menschen durch (öffentliche) Kommunikation ist durch Big Data und Algorithmen heute einfacher möglich denn je. Durch große Datenmengen und Computer, die schnell Korrelationen finden und systematisieren, ist das Verhalten von Menschen bereits jetzt zum Beispiel in Werbung und Wahlkampfstrategien zum Teil berechenbar geworden. Es können damit leicht kommunikative Anreize gesetzt werden, die mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit das erwünschte Verhalten hervorrufen.Der vorliegende Band beschäftigt sich mit Medienhandeln im Zeichen von Propaganda, PR und Big Data und fragt nach Potenzialen und Risiken Strategischer Kommunikation.Mit Beiträgen vonTanja Evers, Markus Feiks, Rüdiger Funiok, Thilo Hagendorff, Jutta Krautter, Thomas Leif, Kerstin Liesem, Uta Müller, Lars Rademacher, Christian Schicha, Christopher Storck, Christian Trentmann, Denise Weigelt, Christian Wiencierz, Markus Wiesenberg und Guido Zurstiege

Academic communication is characterised by a form of communicative pluralism that is based on both the recipient and the communication channel. This volume highlights the role played by the specific demands, thought processes, insights and routines of various disciplines in academic communication.

The participatory turn in media, arts and design along with interrelated developments in the proliferation of social and network media have changed our understanding of the contemporary mediascape. Mobile Story Making in an Age of Smartphones reveals how smartphones and storytelling are forming a symbiosis that empowers twenty-first century citizens and creatives around the world. The edited collection further develops definitions and debate around creative mobile media and its impact on media, art and design. It brings together mobile artists, digital ethnographers, filmmakers working with smartphones, illustrators, screenwriters as well as musicians utilizing apps and mobile devices, who explore new directions in the creative arts with a focus on screen production. Lastly, it demonstrates how mobile devices and smartphones can make a difference in peoples'lives and catalyses creativity in order to tackle current socio-cultural issues.

Dieser Band beschäftigt sich mit den vielfältigen Bezügen zwischen Migration, Bildung und Medien. Es werden Theorieansätze zur Erklärung internationaler Migration mit Theorien der Integration, Akkulturation bzw. Assimilation von MigrantInnen mit Theorien zur transnationalen Migration sowie unterschiedlichen Forschungs- und didaktischen Anwendungsfeldern zur Migrations- und Diversitätspädagogik verknüpft. Darüber hinaus liegt der Fokus auf der Rolle von Medien in Migrationsprozessen sowie dem Zusammenspiel von Medien und Migration. Hierbei geht es u.a. um die Frage der Darstellung von Migration, MigrantInnen und Diversität in den Medien. Auf diese Weise werden empirische und theoretische Ansätze zu Migration und Medien mit medienpädagogischen und mediendidaktischen sowie migrations- und diversitätspädagogischen Ansätzen und Anwendungsfeldern verknüpft.Mit Beiträgen von:Nancy Andrianne, Wolfgang Aschauer, Georg Auernheimer, Lea Braun, Jonas Christensen, Ricarda Drüeke, Elisabeth Klaus, Anita Moser, Sule Dursun, Helga Embacher, Sylvia Hahn, Birgit Heinrich, Gerhard Hetfleisch, Marc Hill, Mishela Ivanova, Haliemah Mocevic, Alois Nußbaumer, Manfred Oberlechner, Robert Obermair, Michael Offenboeck, Brigitta Pallauf, Lisa Rosen, Argyro Panagiotopoulou, Maximilian Sailer, Wassilios Baros, Brunhilde Scheuringer, Christine Trueltzsch-Wijnen, Elisabeth Vierthaler

Medialisierung und Mediatisierung gehören zu den erfolgreichsten, aber auch häufig diskutierten Ansätzen der Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. Zentral ist die Frage nach Medienwandel und gesellschaftlichem Wandel. Hier haben sich zwei Traditionen herausgebildet, die auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise (qualitative vs. quantitative Verfahren) die Rolle der Medien in der modernen Gesellschaft erforschen.Während die Mediatisierungsforschung die Veränderungen von Kommunikation im Alltag der Menschen etwa durch Smartphones in den Blick nimmt, konzentriert sich die Medialisierungsforschung auf den Einfluss der Massenmedien in gesellschaftlichen Teilbereichen wie Politik, Wissenschaft und Sport. Der Band erläutert die Herkunft der Ansätze, stellt zentrale Studien und Erkenntnisse vor und diskutiert Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede.

This open access edited volume provides theoretical, practical, and historical perspectives on art and education in a post-digital, post-internet era. Recently, these terms have been attached to artworks, artists, exhibitions, and educational practices that deal with the relationships between online and offline, digital and physical, and material and immaterial. By taking the current socio-technological conditions of the post-digital and the post-internet seriously, contributors challenge fixed narratives and field-specific ownership of these terms, as well as explore their potential and possible shortcomings when discussing art and education. Chapters also recognize historical forebears of digital art and education while critically assessing art, media, and other realms of engagement. This book encourages readers to explore what kind of educational futures might a post-digital, post-internet era engender.

This open access book discusses how the involvement of citizens into scientific endeavors is expected to contribute to solve the big challenges of our time, such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity, growing inequalities within and between societies, and the sustainability turn. The field of citizen science has been growing in recent decades. Many different stakeholders from scientists to citizens and from policy makers to environmental organisations have been involved in its practice. In addition, many scientists also study citizen science as a research approach and as a way for science and society to interact and collaborate. This book provides a representation of the practices as well as scientific and societal outcomes in different disciplines. It reflects the contribution of citizen science to societal development, education, or innovation and provides and overview of the field of actors as well as on tools and guidelines. It serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to get involved in and learn more about the science of citizen science.

This open access book promotes the idea that all media types are multimodal and that comparing media types, through an intermedial lens, necessarily involves analysing these multimodal traits. The collection includes a series of interconnected articles that illustrate and clarify how the concepts developed in Elleström’s influential article The Modalities of Media: A Model for Understanding Intermedial Relations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) can be used for methodical investigation and interpretation of media traits and media interrelations. The authors work with a wide range of old and new media types that are traditionally investigated through limited, media-specific concepts. The publication is a significant contribution to interdisciplinary research, advancing the frontiers of conceptual as well as practical understanding of media interrelations. This is the first of two volumes. It contains Elleström’s revised article and six other contributions focusing especially on media integration: how media products and media types are combined and merged in various ways.

This Open Access book tracks the latest trends in the theory, research, and practice of entertainment-education, the field of communication that incorporates social change messaging into entertaining media. Sometimes called edutainment, social impact television, narrative persuasion, or cultural strategy, this approach to social and behavior change communication offers new opportunities including transmedia and digital formats. However, making media can be a chaotic process. The realities of working in the field and the rigid structures of scholarly evaluation often act as barriers to honest accounts of entertainment-education practice. In this collection of essays, experienced practitioners offer unique insight into how entertainment-education works and present a balanced view of its potential pitfalls. This book gives readers an opportunity to learn from the successes and mistakes of the experts, taking a behind-the-scenes look at the business of making entertainment-education media.

This open access handbook presents a multidisciplinary and multifaceted perspective on how the ‘digital’ is simultaneously changing Russia and the research methods scholars use to study Russia. It provides a critical update on how Russian society, politics, economy, and culture are reconfigured in the context of ubiquitous connectivity and accounts for the political and societal responses to digitalization. In addition, it answers practical and methodological questions in handling Russian data and a wide array of digital methods. The volume makes a timely intervention in our understanding of the changing field of Russian Studies and is an essential guide for scholars, advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying Russia today.

This open access book addresses three themes which have been central to Leydesdorff's research: (1) the dynamics of science, technology, and innovation; (2) the scientometric operationalization of these concept; and (3) the elaboration in terms of a Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations. In this study, I discuss the relations among these themes. Using Luhmann's social-systems theory for modelling meaning processing and Shannon's theory for information processing, I show that synergy can add new options to an innovation system as redundancy. The capacity to develop new options is more important for innovation than past performance. Entertaining a model of possible future states makes a knowledge-based system increasingly anticipatory. The trade-off between the incursion of future states on the historical developments can be measured using the Triple-Helix synergy indicator. This is shown, for example, for the Italian national and regional systems of innovation.

This open access book promotes the idea that all media types are multimodal and that comparing media types, through an intermedial lens, necessarily involves analysing these multimodal traits. The collection includes a series of interconnected articles that illustrate and clarify how the concepts developed in Elleström’s influential article The Modalities of Media: A Model for Understanding Intermedial Relations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) can be used for methodical investigation and interpretation of media traits and media interrelations. The authors work with a wide range of old and new media types that are traditionally investigated through limited, media-specific concepts. The publication is a significant contribution to interdisciplinary research, advancing the frontiers of conceptual as well as practical understanding of media interrelations. This is the second of two volumes. It contains a concluding article by Elleström and seven contributions concentrated on the issue of media transformations: how media characteristics are transferred and transfigured among various media products and media types.

This open access book shows the breadth and various facets of e-Science, while also illustrating their shared core. Changes in scientific work are driven by the shift to grid-based worlds, the use of information and communication systems, and the existential infrastructure, which includes global collaboration. In this context, the book addresses emerging issues such as open access, collaboration and virtual communities and highlights the diverse range of developments associated with e-Science. As such, it will be of interest to researchers and scholars in the fields of information technology and knowledge management.

This book examines women's participation in the Olympic Games since they were allowed to be included in that global arena. Using a holistic, social scientific approach, and emphasizing the rhetoric of sport mediatization, Female Olympians reviews the literature relative to sexism, racism, and ageism before providing historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives such as the gendered language of Olympic reportage, religious considerations, women's bodies relative to their training for the Games, drugs and doping, and female Paralympians. With numerous critical case studies, never-before assembled data, and personal interviews with athletes, this volume offers insights that both investigate and celebrate female Olympians'successes.

This book presents an analysis of the current Lebanese media system. From a theoretical angle, it discusses the extent to which this system can be analyzed using the ideal types put forth by Hallin and Mancini in their seminal work Comparing Media Systems. Sarah El-Richani assesses the complex dimensions developed by the two scholars and utilizes their work as inspiration for a process of remodeling, amending the sub-indicators to identify salient factors and suggesting a new model. Featuring the views of over 60 stakeholders, this book gives a rare, critical, and concise account of the Lebanese media system.

This volume explores how to engage audiences both beyond and within the academy more deeply in environmental research through arts-based forms. It builds on a multi-pronged case study of scripts for documentary film, audio-visual and stage formats, focusing on how the identity of a place is constructed and contested in the face of environmental concerns around fossil-fuel extraction in a globalized, visual society--and specifically on the rising, international public-relations war over Alberta's stewardship of the tar sands. Each script is followed by discussion of the author's choices of initiating idea, research sources, format, voices, world of the story, structure and visual style, and other notes on the convergence of synthesis, analysis and (re)presentation in the script. Included are lively analysis and commentary on screenwriting and playwriting theory, the creation and dissemination of the scripts, and reflections to ground a proposed framework for writing eco-themed scripts for screen, audio-visual and stage formats.

Focusing on narratives with supernatural components, Karen J. Renner argues that the recent proliferation of stories about evil children demonstrates not a declining faith in the innocence of childhood but a desire to preserve its purity. From novels to music videos, photography to video games, the evil child haunts a range of texts and comes in a variety of forms, including changelings, ferals, and monstrous newborns. In this book, Renner illustrates how each subtype offers a different explanation for the problem of the “evil” child and adapts to changing historical circumstances and ideologies.

This edited book is the first of its kind to systematically address the intersection of e-democracy and European politics. It contributes to an improved understanding of the role that new media technologies play in European politics and the potential impact that Internet-based political participation processes may have on modern-day representative democracy in Europe. A unique, holistic approach is taken to examine e-democracy's current state and prospects in Europe from three, partially overlapping and interlocking perspectives: e-public, e-participation and e-voting. The authors provide both theory-inspired reflections on e-democracy's contribution to the formation of the European public sphere, as well as rich empirical analyses of contemporary e-participation phenomena such as the European Citizens'Initiative or e-voting practices in Estonia. Based on the presented findings, the concluding chapter combines a prospective outlook with recommendations for future paths towards meaningful integration of e-democracy in European politics and governance.

This book considers the ways in which Muslims view the way they are being viewed, not viewed, or incorrectly viewed, by the West. The book underscores a certain “will-to-visibility” whereby Muslims/ Arabs wish just to be “seen” and to be marked as fellow human beings. The author relates the failure to achieve this visibility to a state of desperation that inextricably and symmetrically ties visibility to violence. When Syrian and Palestinian refugees recently started refusing to be photographed, they clearly ushered the eventual but inevitable collapse of the image and its final futility. The photograph has been completely emptied of its last remaining possibility of signification. The book attempts to engage with questions about the ways in which images are perceived within cross cultural contexts. Why and how do people from different cultural backgrounds view the same image in opposing ways; why do cartoon, photographs, and videos become both the cause and target of bloody political violence – as witnessed recently by the deadly attacks against Charlie Hebdo in France and in the swift military response by the US, Jordan, France, and others to videotaped violence by ISIS.

Viele hundert Sender im deutschsprachigen Bereich wollen unverwechselbare Sendungen ausstrahlen, mit unverwechselbaren Persönlichkeiten. Trotzdem gibt es nur wenige Moderatoren, die es bis zum Kultstatus geschafft haben. Warum ist das so? Was unterscheidet erfolgreiche Kommunikatoren von weniger erfolgreichen? Wer es an die Spitze schaffen will, benötigt viele Kompetenzen: technische Kompetenz, Fachwissen und Sachkompetenz, journalistische Kompetenz, lokale Kompetenz, stimmliche und sprachliche Kompetenz, Unterhaltungskompetenz, kommunikative und kreative Kompetenz, Ausdauer und Stabilität. All diese Bereiche behandelt dieser Beststeller – und dies bereits in der 4. Auflage.

Während illegale Immigraten zumeist keine öffentliche Stimme haben, werden zahlreiche Repräsentationen dieser Migranten in der irischen Gesellschaft durch das Parlament sowie durch Printmedien verbreitet. Der Band untersucht, wie illegale Immigration im Diskurs zweier irischer Institutionen – das irische Parlament sowie Printmedien – in den 2000er-Jahren dargestellt wird. Durch die Methode der Kritischen Diskursanalyse werden die Hauptargumente identifiziert, die illegale Immigration belegen. Dadurch wird aufgezeigt, dass ein großer Bestandteil des Diskurses negativ ist und eine Kontrolle der illegalen Immigration angestrebt wird. Diese negativen Diskurse tragen dazu bei, den Grundgedanken des Nation-State, Praktiken der Ungleichheit und der Exklusion sowie legitimisierte Ausdrücke von Rassismus zu unterstützen. Dr. Elaine Burroughs unterrichtet zurzeit an der Maynooth University und ist außerdem Research Assistant am University College Dublin, Irland. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen im Bereich der Migration, Repräsentation und Diskursanalyse.