New Books in Communications
Episodes
Christopher Grobe, “The Art of Confession: The Performance of Self from Robert Lowell to Reality TV” (NYU Press, 2017)
16 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Grobe’s The Art of Confession: The Performance of Self from Robert Lowell to Reality TV (New York University Press, 2017) traces the way...
Dmitry Novikov, “Cybernetics: Past to Future” (Springer Verlag, 2016)
15 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With all of its entailed engagements with epistemology, emergence, and self-organization, cybernetics began (and arguably still is) the science of com...
Andrew Keen, “How To Fix The Future” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2018)
06 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As a historian I find myself constantly asking the question “Is that really new, or is it rather something that looks new but isn’t?” If you rea...
Kevin Patrick, “The Phantom Unmasked: America’s First Superhero” (U Iowa Press, 2017)
02 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In The Phantom Unmasked: America’s First Superhero (University of Iowa Press, 2017), Kevin Patrick examines the history of The Phantom—an American...
Nick Montfort, “The Future” (MIT, 2017)
29 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Popular culture provides many visions of the future. From The Jetsons to Futurama, Black Mirror to Minority Report, Western culture has predicted a fu...
Public Debate and Respectful Engagement with John Corvino
25 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
John Corvino is Professor of Philosophy at the Wayne State University in Detroit. His academic work focuses on topics in moral, social, and legal ph...
Jacob Smith, “Eco-Sonic Media” (University of California Press, 2015)
18 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can we have sound media that is ecologically sound? Can we fine tune our media production and consumption habits to a greener key? How can an environm...
Liam Cole Young, “List Cultures: Knowledge and Poetics from Mesopotamia to Buzzfeed” (Amsterdam UP, 2017)
09 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The list is the origin of culture. At least, that’s according to Umberto Eco, whose words open Liam Cole Young‘s new book, List Cultures: Knowled...
Thomas Mullaney, “The Chinese Typewriter: A History” (MIT Press, 2017)
09 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Mullaney’s new book The Chinese Typewriter: A History (MIT Press, 2017) provides a fascinating first look at the development of modern Chinese i...
Mark Fenster, “The Transparency Fix: Secrets, Leaks, and Uncontrollable Government Information” (Stanford UP, 2017)
30 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Transparency Fix: Secrets, Leaks, and Uncontrollable Government Information (Stanford University Press, 2017) dispels the myth that transparency o...
Rodney Tiffen, “Disposable Leaders: Media and Leadership Coups from Menzies to Abbott” (NewSouth Publishing, 2017)
22 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Disposable Leaders: Media and Leadership Coups from Menzies to Abbott (NewSouth Publishing, 2017), Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor ...
Julien Mailland and Kevin Driscoll, “Minitel: Welcome to the Internet” (MIT Press, 2017)
21 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When discussing Internet history, many within the United States believe the creation myth of an Internet born in Silicon Valley. But aspects of the In...
Alfie Bown, “The Playstation Dreamworld” (Polity, 2017)
20 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How can Lacan help us to understand the subversive potential of video games? In The Playstation Dreamworld (Polity, 2017), Alfie Bown, Assistant Profe...
Mario Luis Small, “Someone to Talk To” (Oxford UP, 2017)
19 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Who do people turn to when they want to talk about serious issues in their life? Do they end up confiding in people they list as confidants? In his ne...
Zek Valkyrie, “Game Worlds Get Real: How Who We Are Online Became Who We Are Offline” (Praeger, 2017)
15 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Zek Valkyrie teaches at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. His new book, Game Worlds Get Real: How Who We Are Online Became Who We Are Of...
Brett L. Abrams, “Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
15 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Brett L. Abrams, author of the book Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality (Rowman & Littlefield, 2...
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, “Personal Stereo” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)
12 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow‘s book, Personal Stereo (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) , which is part of the Object Lessons series, offers a compelling and exper...
Bob Batchelor, “Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
12 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), cultural historian and biographer Bob Batchelor examines the life of...
Jo Littler, “Against Meritocracy: Culture, Power, and Myths of Mobility” (Routledge, 2017)
17 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How does the idea of ‘meritocracy’ serve to reinforce social inequality? In Against Meritocracy: Culture, Power and Myths of Mobility (Routledge,...
Jessica M. Fishman, “Death Makes the News: How the Media Censor and Display the Dead” (NYU Press, 2017)
14 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her book, Death Makes the News: How the Media Censor and Display the Dead (NYU Press, 2017), Jessica M. Fishman examines how death is presented in ...
Stephanie Brookes, “Politics, Media and Campaign Language: Australia’s Identity Anxiety” (Anthem Press, 2017)
12 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Politics, Media and Campaign Language: Australia’s Identity Anxiety (Anthem Press, 2017), Stephanie Brookes, a Lecturer in Journali...
John Powers, “The Buddha Party: How the People’s Republic of China Works to Define and Control Tibetan Buddhism” (Oxford UP, 2016)
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his recent book, The Buddha Party: How the People’s Republic of China Works to Define and Control Tibetan Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2016...
Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, “Marketing the Third Reich: Persuasion, Packaging, and Propaganda” (Routledge, 2017)
06 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One of the defining characteristics of the Nazi regime that ruled Germany from 1933 until 1945 was its attention to presentation as a means of winning...
Marvin Scott, “As I Saw It: A Reporter’s Intrepid Journey” (Beaufort Books, 2017)
31 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Marvin Scott’s new book, As I Saw It: A Reporter’s Intrepid Journey (Beaufort Books, 2017) tells 26 stories of memorable people and events that th...
Free Speech and Free Thinking with Seana Shiffrin
19 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Seana Shiffrin is Professor of Philosophy and Pete Kameron Professor of Law and Social Justice at UCLA. She defends the “thinker theory” of freed...
Lisa M. Corrigan, “Prison Power: How Prison Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation” (U. Press of Mississippi, 2016)
16 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the black liberation movement, imprisonment emerged as a key rhetorical, theoretical, and media resource. Imprisoned activists developed tactics an...
Deborah Parker and Mark L. Parker, “Sucking Up: A Brief Consideration of Sycophancy” (U. of Virginia Press, 2017)
03 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ever since Donald Trump was elected President, he’s created a non-stop torrent of news, so much so that members of the media regularly claim that he...
Clayton Childress, “Under the Cover: The Creation, Production, and Reception of a Novel” (Princeton UP, 2017)
29 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How does a book come into being? In Under the Cover: The Creation, Production, and Reception of a Novel (Princeton University Press, 2017), Clayton C...
Stephen Pimpare, “Ghettos, Tramps, and Welfare Queens: Down and Out on the Silver Screen” (Oxford UP, 2017)
25 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Stephen Pimpare‘s new book, Ghettos, Tramps, and Welfare Queens: Down and Out on the Silver Screen (Oxford University Press, 2017), the reader is...
Andrea L. Stanton, “This is Jerusalem Calling: State Radio in Mandate Palestine” (U of Texas Press, 2013)
14 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the recent booms in the study of the Middle East and North Africa, technology studies still remain scarce: one of the recent attempts to fill ...
Allison Perlman, “Public Interests: Media Advocacy and Struggles Over U.S. Television” (Rutgers UP, 2016)
11 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Since its infancy, television has played an important role in shaping U.S. values and the American sense of self. Social activists recognized this pow...
Rosemary Lucy Hill, “Gender, Metal and the Media: Women Fans and the Gendered Experience of Music” (Palgrave Macmillan 2016)
05 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How do women experience and participate in Metal? This question forms the core of Gender, Metal and the Media: Women Fans and the Gendered Experience...
Noel Brown, “The Children’s Film: Genre, Nation and Narrative” (Wallflower Press, 2017)
19 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Noel Brown is a film and television scholar at Liverpool Hope University. His research has focused on Hollywood and British cinema (classical and cont...
Geoff Martin and Erin Steuter, “Pop Culture Goes to War: Enlisting an Resisting Militarism in the War on Terror” (Lexington Books, 2010)
16 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Two professors from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada have published a book about how American popular culture reinforces militarism i...
Brooke Erin Duffy “(Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media and Aspirational Work” (Yale UP, 2017)
16 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What is life like in the aspirational economy? In (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media and Aspirational Work (Yale University ...
Jennifer Fleeger, “Mismatched Women: The Siren’s Song Through the Machine” (Oxford UP, 2014)
13 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Fleeger‘s Mismatched Women: The Siren’s Song Through the Machine (Oxford University Press, 2014) tells the story of women in film and the...
David Beer, “Metric Power” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
02 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How do metrics rule the social world? In Metric Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) David Beer, Reader in Sociology at the University of York, outlines t...
Riki Wilchins, “TRANS/gressive: How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, the Media, and Congress…and Won!” (Riverdale Avenue Books, 2017)
26 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Before Transgender actors entered popular culture, and before the “T” was included in LGBT, Transgender activism was a small and marginalized move...
Patty Farmer, “Playboy Laughs: The Comedy, Comedians, and Cartoons of Playboy” (Beaufort Books, 2017)
16 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Playboy Laughs: The Comedy, Comedians, and Cartoons of Playboy (Beaufort Books, 2017), Patty Farmer examines the relationship between...
Eileen Le Han, “Micro-Blogging Memories: Weibo and Collective Remembering in Contemporary China” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
12 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Since its invention, the Internet has become a fundamental part of our lives. Since the invention of social media, communicative technologies have cha...
Simone Muller, “Wiring the World: The Social and Cultural Creation of Global Telegraph Networks” (Columbia UP, 2016)
10 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Simone Muller’s Wiring the World: The Social and Cultural Creation of Global Telegraph Networks (Columbia University Press, 2016) is a superb accoun...
Paul C. Jasen, “Low End Theory: Bass, Bodies and the Materiality of Sonic Experience” (Bloomsbury, 2016)
08 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As audio technology has advanced, so has our love-affair with deep bass. Dr. Paul Jasen‘s book, Low End Theory: Bass, Bodies and the Materiality of ...
Thomas Hazlett, “The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology” (Yale UP, 2017)
30 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What better way to explore the history of media regulation than to go on a journey with the former chief economist of the FCC? Prior to introduction o...
Good & Bad Arguments with Trudy Govier
28 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Trudy Govier is Emerita Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Her research is focused on the nature of argument...
Mitchell Stephens, “The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th Century Journalism” (St. Martin’s, 2017)
27 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mitchell Stephens‘s new book, The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th Century Journalism (St. Martins Press, 2017), could be d...
Blake Atwood, “Reform Cinema in Iran: Film and Political Change in the Islamic Republic” (Columbia UP, 2016)
26 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Iranian cinema has close connections to the 1979 Islamic revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini , explicitly pointed to the uses of cinema for religious and r...
Mark Banks, “Creative Justice: Cultural Industries, Work and Inequality” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
20 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How can we address inequity and injustice in cultural and creative industries? In Creative Justice: Cultural Industries, Work and Inequality (Rowman a...
Gillian McIver, “Art History for Filmmakers: The Art of Visual Storytelling” (Bloomsbury, 2016)
14 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Gillian McIver‘s Art History for Filmmakers: The Art of Visual Storytelling (Bloomsbury, 2016) is a ground-breaking book that illustrates the relati...
Clyde Farnsworth, “Tangled Bylines: A Father and Son Cover the Twentieth Century” (U. Missouri Press, 2017)
31 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Journalists intentionally leave themselves out of the stories they cover. In Clyde H. Farnsworth‘s book Tangled Bylines: A Father and Son Cover the ...
James Poyner, “Trump Tweets: His Social Media Phenomenon” (Wilkinson Publishing, 2017)
18 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The title of James Poyner’s book, Trump Tweets: His Social Media Phenomenon (Wilkinson Publishing, 2017), tells you everything you need to know abou...
Different Medias with Eric Alterman
18 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How can we as consumers distinguish between the many different political medias? Eric Alterman is CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journa...
Matt Pearl, “The Solo Video Journalist: Doing It All and Doing it Well in TV Multimedia Journalism” (Focal Press, 2016)
04 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
While the title of Matt Pearl‘s book, The Solo Video Journalist: Doing it All and Doing It Well in TV Multimedia Journalism (Focal Press, 2016), hin...
Jeremy C. Young, “The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Follwoers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870-1940” (Cambridge UP, 2017)
04 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the age of the railroad, social movements, revivals, and campaigns for political office spread like wildfire across the United States. Leaders and ...
Kathleen Collins, “Dr. Joyce Brothers: The Founding Mother of TV Psychology” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)
22 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her book, Dr. Joyce Brothers: The Founding Mother of TV Psychology (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), Kathleen Collins presents an extensive history o...
Democracy and Dialogue Online with Joshua Cohen
20 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Joshua Cohen is a faculty member of Apple University, and is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the School of Law, the Department of Philosophy, and the ...
Donna Freitas, “The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost” (Oxford UP, 2017)
18 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost (Oxford University Press, 2017), Donna Freitas investi...
Rebecca Scales, “Radio and the Politics of Sound in Interwar France, 1921-1939” (Cambridge UP, 2016)
13 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What did sound mean to French people as radio and other listening technologies began to proliferate in the early twentieth century? What was the natur...
Democracy and Social Media with Michael Lynch
05 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Social Media rewards snap judgments and blind conviction. Michael Lynch finds this troubling. Michael P. Lynch is Professor of Philosophy and Direct...
Free Speech Matters with Robert George
05 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The ‘ideological odd couple’ of Robert George and Cornel West jointly authored a statement defending free speech on campus and elsewhere. Find ou...
Steven M. Avella, “Charles K. McClatchy and the Golden Era of American Journalism” (U. Missouri Press, 2016)
04 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Charles K. (CK) McClatchy was a towering figure in the making of Sacramento and the inland empire he liked to call Superior California. As editor of t...
Steve Aldous, “The World of Shaft: A Complete Guide to the Novels, Comic Strip, Films and Television Series” (McFarland, 2015)
29 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Who’s the black private dick That’s a sex machine to all the chicks? (Shaft) Ya damn right Who is the man that would risk his neck For his bro...
Kate Murphy, “Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
22 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From the early days of the BBC in 1922, women were everywhere in the broadcasting company’s offices. They were absent, however, argues Dr. Kate Murp...
James McGrath Morris, “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press” (Amistad, Reprint Edition, 2017)
22 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his acclaimed biography Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (Amistad, Reprint Edition, 2017), James McGrath Morris ...
Travis Linnemann, “Meth Wars: Police, Media, Power” (NYU Press, 2016)
15 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
If all you knew about methamphetamines came from popular culture (“Breaking Bad”) or government anti-drug campaigns (“Faces of Meth”), then yo...
Glyne Griffith, “The BBC and the Development of Anglophone Caribbean Literature, 1943-1958” (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016)
07 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The BBC radio program “Caribbean Voices” aired for fifteen years and introduced writers like George Lamming, Louise Bennett, Sam Selvon and others...
Brian T. Edwards, “After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East” (Columbia UP, 2016)
06 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
American culture is ubiquitous across the globe. It travels to different social contexts and is consumed by international populations. But the relatio...
Dave Karpf, “Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy” (Oxford UP, 2016)
09 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
For the start of 2017, Dave Karpf is back on the podcast with his new book, Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy (Oxfor...
Nicholas A. John, “The Age of Sharing” (Polity Press, 2016)
06 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book The Age of Sharing (Polity Press, 2016), the sociologist and media scholar Nicholas A. John documents the history and current meanings...
Brian Eugenio Herrera, “Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth-Century U.S. Popular Performance” (U. Michigan Press, 2015)
10 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth-Century U.S. Popular Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2015) Brian Eugenio Herrera examines the...
Tom Mills, “The BBC: Myth of a Public Service” (Verso, 2016)
02 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The BBC is often thought to be a great, impartial, defender of British values and society. In The BBC: Myth of a Public Service (Verso, 2016), Tom Mil...
Mary Chapman, “Becoming Sui Sin Far: Early Fiction, Journalism and Travel Writing of Edith Maude Eaton” (McGill-Queens UP, 2016)
12 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Becoming Sui Sin Far: Early Fiction, Journalism and Travel Writing of Edith Maude Eaton (McGill-Queens University Press, 2016) is a collection of work...
Alecia Swasy, “How Journalists Use Twitter: The Changing Landscape of U.S. Newsrooms” (Lexington Books, 2016)
12 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
With messages limited to 140 characters, Twitter once drew skepticism, even scorn, from journalists who saw little role for the social-media platform ...
Kathryn Kleppinger, “Branding the Beur Author: Minority Writing and Media in France, 1983-2013” (Liverpool UP, 2015)
12 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Kathryn Kleppinger’s Branding the Beur Author: Minority Writing and the Media in France, 1983-2013 (Liverpool University Press, 2015) examines the “...
Ashaki Jackson, “Surveillance” (Writ Large Press, 2016)
09 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Now in its fifth printing of a very short life, Ashaki Jackson’s Surveillance examines the relationship between acts of violence, the witnessing of ...
Alison N. Novak, “Media, Millennials, and Politics: The Coming of Age of the Next Political Generation” (Lexington Books, 2016)
06 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The millennial generation (those born from 1980 through the beginning of the 21st century) now comprises the largest voting bloc in the American elect...
Ethan Michaeli, “The Defender: How The Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016)
27 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book The Defender: How The Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), Ethan Michaeli charts the riveting ...
Lucas Graves, “Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism” (Columbia UP, 2016)
14 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In a fragmented media world where anyone can speak, professional journalists are no longer the “gatekeepers” who decide what the public will see a...
Noah Shenker, “Reframing Holocaust Testimony” (Indiana UP, 2016)
07 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I serve on a planning committee for the annual Holocaust Commemoration in Wichita, where I live and teach. Every year when we convene, we remind ourse...
Monika McDermott, “Masculinity, Femininity, and American Political Behavior” (Oxford UP, 2016)
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
With the 2016 presidential election in full swing and rhetoric surrounding each candidate becoming more polarized, how does gender impact the way that...
Milton Chen, “Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in Our Schools” (Jossey Bass, 2012)
26 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It feels like schools are in the midst of unprecedented change — sometimes more in different places and sometimes more in different ways. Many peopl...
Marc Raboy, “Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World” (Oxford UP, 2016)
21 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Our modern networked world owes an oftentimes unacknowledged debt to Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy demonstrates in Marconi: The Man Who Networked t...
Mary Chayko, “Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life” (SAGE, 2016)
13 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
New technology has made us more connected than ever before. This has its advantages: instantaneous communication, expanded circles of influence, acces...
Jean Chalaby, “The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution” (Polity, 2015)
29 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Television had been transformed by the rise of the format. In The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution Jean Chalaby, Professor of Inter...
Daniel Kreiss, “Prototype Politics: Technology-Intensive Campaigning and the Data of Democracy” (Oxford UP, 2016)
29 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Kreiss is back on the podcast with his new book Prototype Politics: Technology-Intensive Campaigning and the Data of Democracy (Oxford Universi...
Samantha Barbas, “Laws of Image: Privacy and Publicity in America” (Stanford Law Books, 2016)
25 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book Laws of Image: Privacy and Publicity in America (Stanford Law Books, 2016), Samantha Barbas provides a history of Americans’ use of...
Jennifier Keishin Armstrong, “Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything” (Simon and Schuster, 2016)
13 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Seinfeld is often referred to as the greatest television show of all time. Although this may be debated, there few who would argue that it holds a pro...
Michael Lesher, “Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in the Orthodox Jewish Communities” (McFarland, 2014)
03 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities (McFarland, 2014) analyzes how and why cases of child sexual abuse have been syste...
Paul Roquet, “Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self” (U. of Minnesota Press, 2016)
31 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Roquet’s wonderful new book begins with an offering of jellyfish and proceeds to teach us how to read the air. Ambient Media: Japanese Atmosphe...
Josh Lambert, “Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture” (NYU Press, 2014)
18 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture (New York University Press, 2014), Josh Lambert, Academic Director of the Yiddish Book Center a...
Benjamin Peters, “How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet” (MIT Press, 2016)
16 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Something we might think of as the Soviet internet once existed, according to Benjamin Peters‘ new book, and its failure was neither natural nor ine...
Ronald R. Kline, “The Cybernetics Moment: Or, Why We Call Our Age the Information Age” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2015)
08 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothe...
Jeremy Ahearne, “Government through Culture and the Contemporary French Right” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
08 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How did two right wing presidents use culture to govern France? In Government through Culture and the Contemporary French Right (Palgrave Macmillan, 2...
Emily Schmitt and Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, “Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency”
06 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The application of behavioral science inside government has gained steam over the past few years with the creation of so-called “Nudge units” popp...
Meredith Conroy, “Masculinity, Media, and the American Presidency” (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015)
06 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Meredith Conroy is the author of Masculinity, Media, and the American Presidency (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015). Conroy is assistant professor of Politica...
Cass Sunstein, “The World According to Star Wars” (Harper Collins, 2016)
28 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Cass Sunstein‘s son, Declan, got dad hooked on Star Wars. And dad, a Harvard Law professor, ended up writing a book about it. “If you’d told me ...
Sahana Udupa, “Making News in Global India: Media, Publics, Politics” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
19 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What role does Bangalore’s private news culture play in shaping the southern Indian metropolis’ ongoing urban transformation? Sahana Udupa‘s new...
Bernard Harcourt, “Exposed: Desire and Disobedience in the Digital Age” (Harvard UP, 2015)
17 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The landscape described in Bernard Harcourt‘s new book is a dystopia saturated by pleasure. We do not live in a drab Orwellian world, he writes. We ...
Joshua Braun, “This Program is Brought to You By . . . Distributing Television Online” (Yale UP, 2015)
07 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“One of the things that was most shocking to me getting into the media business, an MSNBC.com producer tells Josh Braun, was the realization that re...
Mark Carrigan, “Social Media for Academics” (Sage, 2016)
27 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How can academics respond to the rise of social media? Or should they respond at all? In Social Media for Academics (Sage, 2016), Mark Carrigan, from ...
Seth Jacobowitz, “Writing Technology in Meiji Japan” (Harvard UP, 2015)
26 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Seth Jacobowitzs new book opens with a balloon ride and closes with a record-scratching cat, and in between it offers a fascinating history of Meiji m...