Matthew Powers is Associate Professor of Communication and Associate Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement at the University of Washington. He is the author of NGOs as Newsmakers (2018). Currently, he is working with Sandra Vera-Zambrano on a book entitled What Journalists Are For. Adrienne Russell is Mary Laird Wood Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement at the University of Washington. She is the author of Networked (2011) and Journalism as Activism (2016), and co-editor of Journalism and the NSA Revelations (2017) and International Blogging: Identity, Politics and Networked Publics (2009).

'By convening a rich set of scholars, ideas, methods, and stakes, Powers and Russell offer not only a compelling and actionable interdisciplinary image of contemporary media research, but also a roadmap for how to understand and shape media for years to come. This collection helps you think in new ways, with admirable clarity, depth, and creativity.' Mike Ananny, Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism, USC Annenberg

• 1. Introduction; Matthew Powers and Adrienne Russell; Part I. Living in a Datafied World; 2. The corporate reconfiguration of the social world Nick Couldry; 3. Public communication in a promotional culture Melissa Aronczyk; Part II. Journalism in Times of Change; 4. Press freedom and its context Daniel Hallin; 5. What are journalists for today? Matthew Powers and Sandra Vera-Zambrano; 6. Noise and the values of news Stephanie Craft and Morten Stinus Kristensen; Part III. Media and Problems of Inclusion; 7. Journalism and inclusion Rodney Benson; 8. Afrotechtopolis: how computing technology maintains racial order Charlton McIlwain; 9. Exploiting subalternity in the name of counter-hegemonic communication: Turkey's global media outreach initiatives Bilge Yesil; Part IV. Engagement with and through Media; 10. Constructive engagement across deep divides – what it entails and how it changes our role as communication scholars Hartmut Wessler; 11. Fostering engagement in an era of dissipating publics Lynn Schofield Clark; Part V. The Role of Scholars; 12. What is communication research for? Wrestling with the relevance of what we do Seth C. Lewis; 13. Communication as translation: notes toward a new conceptualization of communication Guobin Yang; 14. What are we fighting for? Academia or the humility of knowledge Nabil Echchaibi; Epilogue: what media for what public life? Silvio Waisbord.