Comunicación y cultura

Exploring the culture and media of the Americas, this handbook places particular emphasis on collective and intertwined experiences and focuses on the transnational or hemispheric dimensions of cultural flows and geocultural imaginaries that shape the literature, arts, media and other cultural expressions in the Americas.

The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas charts the pervasive, asymmetrical flows of cultural products and capital and their importance in the development of the Americas. The volume offers a comprehensive understanding of how Inter-American communication is constituted, framed and structured and covers the artistic and political dimensions that have shaped literature, art and popular culture in the region. Forty-six chapters cover a range of inter-American key concepts and dynamics, divided into two parts:

Literature and Music deals with inter-American entanglements of artistic expressions in the Western Hemisphere, including music, dance, literary genres and developments.
Media and Visual Cultures explores the inter-American dimension of media production in the hemisphere, including cinema and television, photography and art, journalism, radio, digital culture and issues such as freedom of expression and intellectual property.
This multidisciplinary approach will be of interest to a broad array of academic scholars and students in history, sociology, political science; and cultural, postcolonial, gender, literary, globalization and media studies.

Contemplar un cuadro o un paisaje, escuchar una obra musical, sumergirse en un universo sonoro, leer un poema, ver una película: esa es la experiencia estética. En el marco de la cultura humana, entre todas las experiencias vividas, es al mismo tiempo la más banal y la más singular. Es singular porque tiene como condición que uno se dedique a ella sin otro fin inmediato más que esa misma actividad; es banal porque no deja de ser una de las modalidades básicas de la experiencia común del mundo. Por lo tanto, se trata de comprender, como lo demuestra Jean-Marie Schaeffer, no la experiencia de las obras de arte en su especificidad, sino la experiencia estética en su carácter genérico, es decir, independientemente de su objeto.

Os ambientes midiáticos têm se transformado desde o advento das tecnologias digitais, assim como o desenvolvimento de tecnologias móveis, portáteis e táteis. Essas transformações do ecossistema midiático envolvem desde a usabilidade à construção de conteúdos e linguagens com novas arquiteturas. Porém, uma importante transformação tem ocorrido no campo das interfaces, provocando alterações em diversos cenários midiáticos.

O e-book Interfaces Contemporâneas no Ecossistema Midiático, organizado por Taciana Burgos e Rodrigo Cunha, com o prefácio de Carlos Scolari, autor de diversas obras, entre elas os livros Hacer Clic e Las Leyes de la Interfaz, reúne 11 textos redigidos originalmente em espanhol e português para tratar a problemática. Os resultados apresentados representam realidades e contextos diversos, todos eles envolvendo o estudo sobre interface.

O livro resulta de um call for papers internacional, submetidos aos organizadores, que avaliaram e selecionaram o conteúdo e definiram a organização interna da obra. O livro é oferecido gratuitamente para download e leitura, respeitando a filosofia de conhecimento livre e aberto, parâmetros que orientam os projetos da Ria Editorial.

Diante de tantas alterações no ecossistema midiático, o mais importante a se fazer no campo acadêmico é promover um debate em busca de compreender, propor e planejar novos caminhos a seguir. Essa busca por respostas tem sido uma máxima nas diversas áreas do conhecimento, o que inclui as relações públicas e a comunicação estratégica.

Porém, um debate desses significa diversidade de temas a tratar, o que se materializa nesta obra. De igual maneira, para compreender o cenário sobre as temáticas, deve-se considerar a diversidade de realidades culturais, geográficas e econômicas.

Em suas páginas, o livro Inovações em Relações Públicas e Comunicação Estratégica, organizado por Maria Eugênia Porém, Jorge Hidalgo e Jenny Yaguache, com o prefácio de Margarida Kunsch, apresenta em seus 12 capítulos uma diversidade de olhares, realidades e soluções midiáticas oriundas de Brasil, México, Espanha e Equador, reunindo textos em seus idiomas originais. A obra é oferecida gratuitamente para download e leitura, respeitando a filosofia de conhecimento livre e aberto que orienta os projetos da Ria Editorial.

Communication studies is a fragmented field. As a result of its roots in various disciplinary traditions, it is built on fluid intellectual boundaries with no theoretical or analytical center. Should we worry about this state of dispersion or be concerned that the discipline does not meet the basic conditions that define an academic field of inquiry?

Silvio Waisbord argues that communication studies is a post-discipline and that it is impossible to transcend fragmentation and specialization through a single project of intellectual unity. What brings communication studies together is an institutional architecture of academic units, professional associations, and journals, rather than a shared commitment to a common body of knowledge, questions, and debates. This should not, Waisbord argues, be a matter of concern. Communication studies is better served by recognizing dispersion, embracing pluralism, fostering cross-cutting lines of inquiry, and tackling real-world problems, rather than hoping to meet conditions which would qualify it as a discipline.

Communication: A Post-Discipline is important reading for scholars and advanced students of communication studies, as well as anyone interested in the state of this fascinating and vital academic field.

Summary
Cold War–era FBI files on famous scientists, including Neil Armstrong, Isaac Asimov, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Alfred Kinsey, and Timothy Leary.

Armed with ignorance, misinformation, and unfounded suspicions, the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover cast a suspicious eye on scientists in disciplines ranging from physics to sex research. If the Bureau surveilled writers because of what they believed (as documented in Writers Under Surveillance), it surveilled scientists because of what they knew. Such scientific ideals as the free exchange of information seemed dangerous when the Soviet Union and the United States regarded each other with mutual suspicion that seemed likely to lead to mutual destruction. Scientists Under Surveillance gathers FBI files on some of the most famous scientists in America, reproducing them in their original typewritten, teletyped, hand-annotated form.

Readers learn that Isaac Asimov, at the time a professor at Boston University's School of Medicine, was a prime suspect in the hunt for a Soviet informant codenamed ROBPROF (the rationale perhaps being that he wrote about robots and was a professor). Richard Feynman had a “hefty” FBI file, some of which was based on documents agents found when going through the Soviet ambassador's trash (an invitation to a physics conference in Moscow); other documents in Feynman's file cite an informant who called him a “master of deception” (the informant may have been Feynman's ex-wife). And the Bureau's relationship with Alfred Kinsey, the author of The Kinsey Report, was mutually beneficial, with each drawing on the other's data.

The files collected in Scientists Under Surveillance were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by MuckRock, a nonprofit engaged in the ongoing project of freeing American history from the locked filing cabinets of government agencies.

The Scientists Neil Armstrong, Isaac Asimov, Hans Bethe, John P. Craven, Albert Einstein, Paul Erdos, Richard Feynman, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Alfred Kinsey, Timothy Leary, William Masters, Arthur Rosenfeld, Vera Rubin, Carl Sagan, Nikola Tesla

In October 2116, when Donald Trump's lawyer demanded that The New York Times retract an article focused on two women that accused Trump of touching them inappropriately, David McCraw's scathing letter of refusal went viral and he became a hero of press freedom everywhere. But as you'll see in Truth in Our Times, for the top newsroom lawyer at the paper of record, it was just another day at the office.

McCraw has worked at the Times since 2002, leading the paper's fight for freedom of information, defending it against libel suits, and providing legal counsel to the reporters breaking the biggest stories of the year. In short: if you've read a controversial story in the paper since the Bush administration, it went across his desk first. From Chelsea Manning's leaks to Trump's tax returns, McCraw is at the center of the paper's decisions about what news is fit to print.

In Truth in Our Times, McCraw recounts the hard legal decisions behind the most impactful stories of the last decade with candor and style. The book is simultaneously a rare peek behind the curtain of the celebrated organization, a love letter to freedom of the press, and a decisive rebuttal of Trump's fake news slur through a series of hard cases. It is an absolute must-have for any dedicated reader of The New York Times.

Howard Tumber is Professor in the Department of Journalism at City, University of London, UK. He is a founder and co-editor of Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism. He has published widely in the field of the sociology of media and journalism.

Silvio Waisbord is Professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, USA. He was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Communication, and he has published widely about news, politics and social change.

David Jiménez se curtió cubriendo guerras, desastres y revoluciones durante casi dos décadas antes de ser nombrado director de El Mundo. Lo que parecía un reto ilusionante —dirigir el diario en el que entró como becario a los 23 años— se transformó en una batalla por la defensa de la independencia del periódico frente a un establishment político y económico decidido a controlarlo.

Jiménez ofrece un relato único sobre cómo respira la vida en una redacción —sus personajes, rivalidades, traumas y éxitos—, cómo funciona el juego de favores entre los medios y el poder y qué precio pagan quienes se niegan a participar en él. Presidentes, reyes, ministros, banqueros, capos del dinero, comisarios y periodistas protagonizan esta crónica sobre los secretos inconfesables del periodismo y los hilos que gobiernan España.

El Director es, además, un retrato íntimo de las encrucijadas éticas, las relaciones personales, las amistades y deslealtades que se viven cuando se ocupa el despacho de uno de los grandes diarios del país.

Descubre el inmenso poder terapéutico del habla. Un texto interesante, emotivo e imprescindible sobre la importancia y los beneficios de hablar para comunicarnos así como de hablarnos a nosotros. Hablar es la actividad humana más eficaz para proteger la autoestima, gestionar nuestro programa vital, disfrutar de la convivencia y las relaciones afectivas y facilitar nuestro bienestar físico, mental y social.