Showing titles in Media Studies

Democratic Delusions explores the potential of our media and tech systems to be democratic and contribute to a just and transformative democracy. This is only possible, Natalie Fenton argues, by first situating our political systems and mediated worlds within global capitalism. By interrogating different media and their relationship to seven key elements of democracy—power, participation, freedom, equality, public good, trust, and hope—the book asks: What is the response of society when the ability of news media to speak truth to power has been restricted by corporate logic?

Delving into speculation about the assassination of JFK, chemtrails, the emergence of the 'New World Order', the sinister experiments at CERN, possible cover-ups regarding Area 51, and the so-called 'Clinton Body Count', this collection provides an essential reference for everyone interested in learning more about the secret forces that may be controlling our world. Taking a balanced and measured approach, it explores why these theories have taken hold, and how much truth lies at their foundations. Do you believe them? Listen to find out.

How did we become a world where facts—shared truths—have lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally? How have we allowed the proliferation of alternative facts, hoaxes, even conspiracy theories, to destroy our trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate...

No one has failed to notice that the current generation of youth is deeply - some would say totally - involved with digital media. Professors Howard Gardner and Katie Davis name today’s young people The App Generation, and in this spellbinding book they explore what it means to be “app-dependent” versus “app-enabled” and how life for this generation differs from life before the digital era.

Early True Believers: The Untold Story of Silicon Alley is a 1990s saga of ambition and innovation set in Manhattan’s Silicon Alley, a swath of downtown that served as New York City’s nerve center of tech entrepreneurship. The series features the stories of a forgotten cohort of early internet visionaries, countercultural social networks, the digital gold rush, and the lavish events that came with it, including one held in an underground Tribeca bunker that abruptly ended in a police raid—a harbinger of the upheaval to come.

Unlock the mysteries hidden behind the curtains of the health and medical world with Secrets in the Shadows: Health and Medical Conspiracy Theories. This thought-provoking book dives deep into more than 20 captivating mini-stories, each exploring a conspiracy theory that challenges the boundaries of belief. This book isn’t just a collection of stories; it’s an invitation to question the narratives we’ve been told. With a mix of historical mysteries, chilling "what-ifs," and startling connections, Secrets in the Shadows will intrigue skeptics and believers alike.

There are a wealth of conspiracies surrounding World War II, from covert assassinations to outlandish secret missions and shocking cover-ups. Intelligence agencies practiced stunning deceptions and disinformation was spread widely, but what truths lie beneath these elaborate theories? Military historian Alexander Macdonald examines the evidence.

In 2018, the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally delivered on something fans had long been waiting for: a feature film with a solo Black superhero. Black Panther introduced viewers to the stunning world of Wakanda and to T'Challa, a young man stepping into his role as king and taking up the mantle of the Black Panther title from his late father. Why Wakanda Matters gives this iconic film the in-depth analysis it deserves under the lens of the latest psychological concepts - as well as delving into the lasting cultural impact of this unforgettable story.

In one of her escapades as a reporter for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, the renowned Nellie Bly feigned insanity in 1889 and slipped, undercover, behind the grim walls of Blackwell's Island mental asylum. She emerged ten days later with a vivid tale about life in a madhouse. Her asylum articles merged sympathy and sensationalism, highlighting a developing professional identity—that of the American newspaperwoman.

Ted Sorensen, JFK’s closest adviser, speech writer and friend, in his own words and final interview, brings us directly into the Oval Office as a member of Kennedy’s inner circle. This film reveals how essential Sorensen was to the administration, as Kennedy said: “My intellectual blood bank”. Not only with the epic speech “Ask not what your country can do for you - Ask what you can do for your country,” but as special counsel to the President.

From the cunning, calculating, government-trained warriors to the psychopathic, homegrown freelancers, you can find them all in Assassinations: The Plots, Politics, and Powers Behind History-Changing Murders. Exposed are the hidden agendas as well as the open warfare. The cynical preparations and devastating aftermaths are laid bare. You will quickly find yourself immersed in a world that is filled with killings made to seem like suicides, murders that were designed to look like heart attacks or overdoses, and accidents that, in reality, were carefully orchestrated deaths.

Propaganda, an influential book written by Edward L. Bernays in 1928, incorporated the literature from social science and psychological manipulation into an examination of the techniques of public communication. Propaganda explored the psychology behind manipulating masses and the ability to use symbolic action and propaganda to influence politics, effect social change, and lobby for gender and racial equality.

Start Publishing Notes' Summary, Analysis, and Review of Timothy Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek includes a summary of the book, review, analysis and key takeaways, and detailed "About the Author" section.

In this incisive new work, Adrian Daub analyzes the global spread of cancel culture discourse as a moral panic, showing that, though its object is fuzzy, talk of cancel culture in global media has become a preoccupation of an embattled liberalism. There are plenty of conservative voices who gin up worries about cancel culture to advance their agendas. But more remarkable perhaps is that it is centrist, even left-leaning, media that have taken up the rallying cry and really defined the outlines of what cancel culture is supposed to be.

Mysteries of the Ancient World examines some of the most bizarre, surprising and unexplained phenomena of the ancient world. Ranging from cold cases millennia in the making to the sudden, baffling disappearances of entire civilizations to the creation of mysterious monuments, it searches for the truth behind these remarkable stories. With a careful analysis of the various theories that have been used over the years to try and understand these curious occurrences, the author gets to the bottom of what really happened.

The first comprehensive account of the biggest wake-up call in the history of the entertainment business: the pivot to streaming. Go inside a disparate group of media and tech companies -- Disney, Apple, AT&T/WarnerMedia, Comcast/NBCUniversal and well-funded startup Quibi – as they scramble to...

His final confession. The one he wasn’t supposed to write. The one they’ll brand as “misinformation” while sliding it under the table. Call it a tell-all, call it damage control, call it his victory lap. He calls it . . . pandemic preparedness, uncut.

A new edition of the first book in the acclaimed Pop Classics series The Worst. Movie. Ever. is a masterpiece. Seriously. Enough time has passed since Showgirls flopped spectacularly that it’s time for a good hard look back at the sequined spectacle. A salvage operation on a very public, very expensive train wreck, It Doesn’t Suck argues that Showgirls is much smarter and deeper than it is given credit for.

Today it's routine to take photos from an airplane window, use a camera underwater, watch a movie, or view an X-ray. But the photographic innovations more than a century ago that made such things possible were experimental, revelatory, and sometimes dangerous—and many of the innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors behind them were memorable eccentrics. In Flashes of Brilliance, writer and photo editor Anika Burgess engagingly blends art, science, and social history to reveal the most dramatic developments in photography from its birth in the 1830s to the early twentieth century.

Pedogate Primer is a concise intro and overview of a growing child abuse epidemic worldwide. Pedogate Primer delves into material that for many may seem like the stuff of conspiracy theory. For this reason the book draws on academic sources, declassified documents and other reliable sources and steers clear of conjecture. Such shocking, true stories need no embellishment.