Studies in Media and Communications – serie

School shootings have raised considerable interest among scholars as a global (media) cultural phenomenon and have increased specifically in the 1990s developing into a seeming cultural epidemic. This book contributes to the current academic discussion on school shootings by analysing this phenomenon in a broader context of mediatization in contemporary social and cultural life. Mediatized logic has the power to influence us as individuals communicating about the shootings and experiencing the shootings as victimizers, victims, witnesses or bystanders. In three sections, this book explores shootings from different, yet interconnected, perspectives: (1) a theoretical focus on media and school shootings within various sociological and cultural dimensions, specifically how contemporary media transform school shootings into mediatized violence; (2) a focus on the practices of mediatization, with emphasis on mediated coverage of school shootings and its political, cultural, social and ethical implications; and (3) an examination of the audiences, victims and witnesses of school shootings as well as organizations which try to manage these public crimes of significant media interest.

This volume assembles cutting edge research focusing on media and youth. The volume looks broadly at what is understood by the definitions of 'youth' and 'media', when studied together and separately, and how these continue to develop. The volume features papers about institutions that shape this part of the lifecourse, such as the family, school, community organizations. Papers address this theme from a theoretical and methodological framework.

Sponsored by the Communication and Information Technologies Section of the American Sociological Association, this volume brings together nine studies of the digital public sphere. The contributions illuminate three key areas of digital citizenship, namely political engagement, participation networks, and content production. In the first section, authors address relationships including: new media and efficacy, YouTube and young voters, political interest and online news. In the following section, the contributions speak to the importance of participation in social, scholarly, familial, and support networks. Subsequently, in section three on production, two contributions offers insight into unequal production, more specifically, gendered digital production inequalities and the varied responsiveness of microbloggers to different kinds of media events and issues. As a whole, the contributions revisit old questions and answer important new queries about netizenship and the digital public sphere.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Section of the American Sociological Association, Volume 10 of the Communication and Information Technologies Annual, Digital Distinctions & Inequalities, brings together nine studies of this increasingly important form of inequality. Drawn from four continents, the research provides a global overview of the current state of the field in different cultural contexts. As a whole, the volume illuminates the complexities of digital inequalities as they are manifested in groups and societies EURO"even when access is widespread. In their depth and breadth, the volume's contributions provide an indispensable guide to emergent forms of digital inequality as it rapidly evolves.

Sponsored by the Communication and Information Technologies Section of the American Sociological Association, this volume examines wide-ranging aspects of culture, communication, and [new] media broadly defined. Themes include the interplay between [new] media and any of the following: culture, communication, technology, convergence, the arts, cultural production, and cultural change in the digital age. Contributions shed light on emergent phenomena that -sociologists, particularly those studying media or communication, culture scholars will find intriguing.

School shootings have raised considerable interest among scholars as a global (media) cultural phenomenon and have increased specifically in the 1990s developing into a seeming cultural epidemic. This book contributes to the current academic discussion on school shootings by analysing this phenomenon in a broader context of mediatization in contemporary social and cultural life. Mediatized logic has the power to influence us as individuals communicating about the shootings and experiencing the shootings as victimizers, victims, witnesses or bystanders. In three sections, this book explores shootings from different, yet interconnected, perspectives: (1) a theoretical focus on media and school shootings within various sociological and cultural dimensions, specifically how contemporary media transform school shootings into mediatized violence; (2) a focus on the practices of mediatization, with emphasis on mediated coverage of school shootings and its political, cultural, social and ethical implications; and (3) an examination of the audiences, victims and witnesses of school shootings as well as organizations which try to manage these public crimes of significant media interest.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume assembles relevant research focusing on ICTs in Latin America and the Caribbean—two understudied areas of global importance. Regarding Latin America, the mobile broadband revolution is taking place and the spread of mobile telephony and broadband Internet is beginning to reach more economically diverse populations. Concerning the Caribbean, this region reflects perhaps the greatest cultural, geographical and linguistic diversity in the Western hemisphere. Because of historical links with Africa, Europe and other metropoles and the region's proximity to the United States and Latin America, the Caribbean offers a unique angle from which to examine the growth of ICTs. The volume features international editorial teams with leading scholars from the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America. Bringing these voices together, the volume sheds light on how existing policies are meeting challenges to digital inclusion, as well as the benefits of connectivity within these societal contexts.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume assembles the contributions of a dynamic editorial team composed of leading scholars from Brazil and the United States. Volume 13 provides an unparalleled compilation of research on Brazilian media and communication studies guided by the expert hands of prominent scholars from both Brazil and the United States. Over twenty chapters explore five key themes: the new face of news and journalism, social movements and protest, television, cinema, publicity and marketing, and media theory. Selections encompass research on emergent phenomena, as well as studies with a historical or longitudinal dimension, that reflect the Brazilian case as laboratory for exploring the evolving media environment of one of the world’s most fascinating societies.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume focuses on media and social movements. Contributing authors draw on cases as diverse as the Harry Potter Alliance to youth oriented, non-profit educational organizations, in order to assess systematically how media environments, systems, and usage affect collective action in the 21st century. The volume demonstrates that the study of media and social movements has developed into a vibrant sub-field stretched across Communication Studies, Political Science, and Sociology, and illustrates the need for serious interdisciplinary research. Chapters in the volume reinforce the need to examine many kinds of media (such as fiction) for social movements, particularly in terms of recruitment and framing. They show the critical importance of connecting classic and contemporary social movement research when trying to understand topics such as recruitment, identity, and discourse, even when these are playing out in the digital world. Chapters explore the difficulties that organizations face in organizing whether or not they are primarily offline or online; the ways that digital media usage affects various organizational functions and effectiveness; and the importance of examining the role of youth in social movements across all of these topics.

This special volume contributes to the rapidly growing body of eHealth research, presenting a selection of multidisciplinary studies on the role and impacts of technology and the Internet in health communication, healthcare delivery, and patient self-management. The use of the Internet and new communication technologies have impacted nearly every aspect of life in recent years. These technologies hold tremendous promise to improve systems of healthcare and enable people to better understand their health and manage their healthcare. However, there are also risks to the use of eHealth technologies. Empirical evidence is urgently needed to examine the use and impacts of eHealth technologies and to inform targeted health communication interventions. Chapters explore both old and new challenges associated with technology-enabled care. These include the persistence of social determinants in shaping Digital Divides in access and use of eHealth technologies, the unintended consequences associated with electronic medical records and pagers on healthcare professionals’ ability to control their work time, and how self-tracking and quantification may exacerbate gendered norms of the body and health. Other chapters provide updated information on trends in and predictors of people’s trust of health information channels, how people make credibility assessments of online health information, the role of personality traits in perceived benefits in online support group participation, and how online health resources impact people’s sense of empowerment and the use of healthcare services. Finally, chapters explore the future potential of eHealth in addressing the needs of underserved communities and guide the creation of new technology-enabled intervention strategies.

This special volume of Emerald Studies in Media and Communications is entitled Media and Power in International Contexts: Perspectives on Agency and Identity. Scholars of communication, media studies, sociology, and cultural studies come together to examine axioms of power at play across different forms of cultural production. Contributing to these fields, the volume highlights the value of interdisciplinary work and international perspectives to enrich our understandings of agency and identity vis-a-vis key case studies of media consumption and production. International contributions shed new light on the complex ways in which media reinforce and reflect power in different societal and national arenas. The result is a rich interdisciplinary and multi-method exploration of how power is conceptualized and realized through a variety of hegemonic and discursive practices. The authors’ analysis of critical case studies makes important progress towards closing theoretical gaps concerning the study of the complex relationships between media and gender, race, ethnicity, and national identity. In so doing, the volume contributes phenomenological and epistemic knowledge of media and power across disciplines and societal contexts.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume celebrates the section's thirtieth anniversary. Lead editor Barry Wellman joins forces with former and current CITAMS chairs Wenhong Chen, Shelia Cotten, and Laura Robinson, as well as Casey Brienza, founder of the Media Sociology Preconference, to look back at the history of the section, review some of its most important themes, and set the agenda for future discussion. Alongside its sister volume, The "M" in CITAMS@30: Media Sociology, this valuable book shows the impact CITAMS has had, and continues to have, on academic and public discourse. Featuring leading scholars in the fields of sociology of communication, information technologies and media, it reveals how the section had transcended disciplinary boundaries, and demonstrates how it holds the skills to address some of the biggest challenges of our digital age. It is essential reading for all those interested in both the story of CITAMS to date, and the role it will play in the future.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume is the second of a two-part series that celebrates the section’s 30th anniversary. Casey Brienza leads the second of the two volumes - The M in CITAMS@30: Media Sociology - with former CITAMS chairs Laura Robinson, Barry Wellman, Shelia R. Cotten, and Wenhong Chen. Volume 18 continues the discussion begun in Volume 17: Networks, Hacking, and Media--CITAMS@30: Now and Then and Tomorrow. Both volumes highlight some of the best of the vibrant, interdisciplinary scholarship in communication, information technologies and media sociology. Volume 18 develops the field of media sociology vis-à-vis the roles and impacts of the digital and traditional media via rich international case studies that include a broad swath of contexts and cultures. The volume’s authors probe the relationships between inequalities and media, as well as offering a scintillating array of scholarship on cultural production and consumption. Assembled together, the work in this volume showcases the value of interdisciplinary scholarship in the sociological study of media, communication, and information technologies. In keeping with the celebration of the thirty-year anniversary, both volumes open with a foreword by past chair Wenhong Chen and close with an afterword by past chair Shelia Cotten.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this book explores the complex construction of democratic public dialogue in developing countries. Case studies examine national environments defined not only by state censorship and commercial pressure, but also language differences, international influence, social divisions, and distinct value systems.With fresh portraits of new and traditional media throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia, authors delve into the essential role of the media in developing countries. Case studies illuminate the relationship between the State and the media in Russia, as well as the challenges faced by journalists working in Kurdistan. Further cases reveal bureaucratic censorship of books in Brazil, regulatory dilemmas in Australia, state policies in post-colonial Malawi, and the potential of oral culture for the strengthening of democratic conversation.Media, Development and Democracy brings the liberal democratic media model into new terrains where some of its core assumptions do not hold. In doing so, the authors' collective voices illuminate pressing issues facing our current global dialogue and our liberal and democratic expectations concerning communications and the media. This essential volume works as a magnifying glass for our current times, forcing us to question what kind of media we want today

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume of Studies in Media and Communications features social science research that examines the practices, patterns, and messages related to representations of crime in mass media around the world. Chapters focus on a wide range of fact-based and fictional accounts of criminality as depicted in print and broadcast news, documentary and video-on-demand films, and television programs.Stories about crime and criminality have long been the mainstay of news and entertainment media content, and the intersection of crime and media is a common topic in scholarly research. Moreover, substantial evidence indicates that these media depictions are highly influential as people in economically advanced societies - who tend to have little personal experience with crime-form perceptions about criminality, crime rates, characteristics of criminals, and even their own likelihood of victimization. Thus, ongoing examination of crime images within various types of mass media aids in understanding the associated messages and meanings that are disseminated to consumers. This volume will enhance the knowledge of junior and senior scholars in criminology, sociology, journalism, and communication/media studies, particularly because of its inclusion of crime stories in a variety of formats and that represent media content from nations spanning five continents.

Sponsored by the Brazil-U.S.Colloquium on Communication Studies of the Brazilian Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication and the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume of Emerald Studies in Media and Communications is entitled Creating Culture Through Media and Communication. The volume is a vibrant collaboration of global voices addressing the media and communications challenges of our time. Contributors ask us to reconsider the ethical implications of media and technology from historical, contemporary, and future perspectives. In addition, case studies show the diverse ways that cultural media production has ripple effects throughout larger society.Authors ask important questions about how digitalization is shaping our everyday lives, as well as how the ethics of tech is needed now more than ever with the sea change occasioned by AI.

Sponsored by the Brazil-U.S. Colloquium on Communication Studies of the Brazilian Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication and the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume of Studies in Media and Communications is entitled Geo Spaces of Communication Research.The volume brings together scholars from across the Americas to address the complex evolution of political and policy media spaces as they are studied from a range of perspectives. The volume probes how media and digital tech are transforming how individuals, groups, and societies communicate within and across social worlds, as well as how emergent methodologies are evolving to keep pace with these phenomena.

Though algorithms are chosen to eliminate bias in the Learning Health Systems (LHS) that support medical decision making, we are left with unconscious bias present in data due to lack of representation for marginalized populations, particularly in palliative care. Medical practitioners often lack historical foundations for decision making for patients in underrepresented populations, which lead to palliative patients being subjected to uneven quality of care and an absence of treatment goals due to a lack of advocacy and other challenges. Data Ethics and Digital Privacy in Learning Health Systems for Palliative Medicine reviews the ethical foundations that drive our approach, data collection (public data, private data and data privacy), data stratification methodologies to support marginalized and intersectional populations, analysis techniques, algorithmic development to maintain privacy, survival analysis, result interpretation, LHS development, and LHS implementation. These methodologies address the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which clearly establishes the standard to protect digitally held health care data.Informing both research and practice, Data Ethics and Digital Privacy in Learning Health Systems for Palliative Medicine brings attention to an important issue that lies at the intersection of medicine, science, and digital technology and communication.

Digital technologies from the Internet and social media to artificial intelligence and robotics are reshaping the world. They offer joy, participation, and higher productivity, but they have also brought disruption, alienation, control, oppression, and exacerbated inequalities. This volume explores this ongoing transformation and its social implications between domination and participation. Outcomes at any given time are not taken as predetermined but as results of the decisions by a range of diverse social actors who compete, cooperate, or conflict with one another and can draw on differential access to resources within shifting political-legal frameworks and structural contexts. Scholars of communication, media studies, sociology, political ecology, employment and labor relations, science and technology come together to examine the social shaping of digital futures across different world regions and domains.Contributing to these fields, the volume highlights the merits of interdisciplinary research and transnational perspectives to illuminate the intricate complexity in which digital technologies are shaped by and are shaping social relations of power between domination and participation. The authors present critical case studies that make timely progress toward a deeper understanding of these new dynamics and toward broadening the horizon for imagining preferable democratic future alternatives.This volume is sponsored by the International Sociological Association Research Committees on Futures Research (ISARC07), ProFutur, Denkwerk für Antizipative Demokratie, and Initiative for Transnational Futures (ITF).

Digital technologies from the Internet and social media to artificial intelligence and robotics are reshaping the world. They offer joy, participation, and higher productivity, but they have also brought disruption, alienation, control, oppression, and exacerbated inequalities. This volume explores this ongoing transformation and its social implications between domination and participation. Outcomes at any given time are not taken as predetermined but as results of the decisions by a range of diverse social actors who compete, cooperate, or conflict with one another and can draw on differential access to resources within shifting political-legal frameworks and structural contexts. Scholars of communication, media studies, sociology, political ecology, employment and labor relations, science and technology come together to examine the social shaping of digital futures across different world regions and domains.Contributing to these fields, the volume highlights the merits of interdisciplinary research and transnational perspectives to illuminate the intricate complexity in which digital technologies are shaped by and are shaping social relations of power between domination and participation. The authors present critical case studies that make timely progress toward a deeper understanding of these new dynamics and toward broadening the horizon for imagining preferable democratic future alternatives.This volume is sponsored by the International Sociological Association Research Committees on Futures Research (ISARC07), ProFutur, Denkwerk für Antizipative Demokratie, and Initiative for Transnational Futures (ITF).

Governmental entities in the United States have multiple, well publicized failures and challenges when it comes to procuring and integrating new technologies. A quick search will yield a treasure trove of technology procurement and implementation gone wrong. Projects seem to routinely suffer from significant cost overruns, poor fit, and implementation delays. Additionally, while the private sector keeps pace with technology changes and improvements, the government lags behind when it comes to integrating and deploying new technologies.Technology vs. Government examines why government fails at technology acquisitions, innovation, and implementation, the impact on people, and the future opportunities and implications for government service, administration and policy. Underlying the issues discussed in the book is the question of Generation T, a term coined in this book to define the generation born in 2002 and later. Generation T is the first generation to grow up in a societal technology bubble. Their first response in most situations is to reach for technology. How will they work for and interact with government if government doesn’t have the same technology first mindset?Analyzing the relationship between the government in the US and technological adoption, this volume of Studies in Media and Communications provides lessons and principles that are applicable to governments with western-style democracies or similar forms of administration.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), Volume 19 of Emerald Studies in Media and Communications draws on global case studies that examine media use by millennials. By bringing together contributors and case studies from four continents to examine millennial digital media practices, the volume charts out multiple dimensions of Gen Y’s digital media engagements: smartphone use among Israelis, the activities of Brazilian youths in LAN houses, selfies in the New Zealand context, and American millennials engaged in a variety of digital pursuits ranging from seeking employment, to content creation, to gaming, to consuming news and political content. Through these case studies we see parallels in the mediated millennial experience across key digital venues including Twitter and YouTube, and MMOs. None-the-less, contributors also prompt us to keep in mind the importance of those millennials without equal access to resources who must rely on public venues such as libraries and LAN Houses. Across these venues and arenas of practice, the research provides an important collection of research shedding important light on the first generation growing up with the normative expectation to perform digital identity work, create visual culture, and engage in the digital public sphere.