Comunicación y cultura

Popular Media Cultures seeks to explore the relationship between audiences and media texts, their paratexts and interconnected ephemera, and the related cultural practices that add to and expand the narrative worlds with which fans engage. The book discusses how audiences make meaning out of established media texts such as Doctor Who, Made in Chelsea and Star Trek, the Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter franchises, and infamous examples of the horror genre by writing and creating new ones. Authors focus on the cultural work done by media audiences, how they engage with new technologies and how convergence culture impacts on the strategies and activities of popular media fans. This collection brings together leading academics in the fields of film, television, fan and cultural studies to open up and take further the debates surrounding popular media, its producers, its audiences, and the cultures in which they are ultimately located.

En este libro se profundiza en el conocimiento de la obra de arte en tanto dispositivo cultural de significados múltiples. Se analiza la evolución, desde la Edad Moderna hasta hoy, de los lugares (tanto físicos como imaginarios) donde el artista lleva a cabo el proceso creador, la interacción que se produce entre ambos y su incidencia —directa o indirecta— en la identidad del propio artista y de su obra; y se indaga en la cuestión de la identidad y la representación, atendiendo a diversos medios —desde la arquitectura y las artes plásticas tradicionales hasta la creación audiovisual, pasando por engranajes complejos de exhibición y difusión mediática— y diferentes épocas, a partir de una serie de casos concretos de impacto y relevancia de la Edad Moderna y Contemporánea.

La pluralidad de autores necesariamente implica variedad en las herramientas de análisis y de reflexiones pero esa diversidad se articula en torno a los conceptos fundamentales de «los lugares del arte», «identidad» y «representación», que sirven de hilo argumental y brindan al lector la ocasión para reflexionar sobre estos temas a lo largo de la Edad Moderna y Contemporánea.

Esta publicación, en dos volúmenes, es el resultado del proyecto de investigación «Los lugares del arte. Del taller del artista al espacio expandido en la sala de exposición» (HAR211009406) del que forman parte diversos investigadores de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Departamentos de Historia del Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo), y recoge también las aportaciones de autores especialistas de otras universidades españolas y extranjeras que han contribuido con sus investigaciones al debate e intercambio de ideas entre la comunidad universitaria.

Vida extra uneix les experiències de la periodista Gina Tost i el dissenyador de videojocs Oriol Boira per explicar com els jocs i videojocs formen part de la cultura, relacions i, cada cop més, els hàbits socials. Aquest llibre pretén que cada persona o professió pugui –des del seu punt de vista– treure profit d’aquesta disciplina lúdica per seduir, motivar o reinventar activitats o processos. Els videojocs i els beneficis que ens aporten a la nostra vida quotidiana: darrere de la pantalla hi ha més que un simple joc.

The Fourth Edition of the award-winning Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere remains the only comprehensive introduction to the growing field of environmental communication. In the updated and revised edition, Robert Cox and Phaedra C. Pezzullo include four new chapters introducing students to "Visual and Popular Culture Portrayals of the Environment," "Digital Media and Environmental Activism," "Sustainability and the Greening of Campuses and Corporations," and "Citizen's (and Nature's) 'Standing': Environmental Protection and the Law." All 14 chapters include expanded discussion of key communication concepts, new case studies, and global or international examples. Coverage of recent developments–the impact of digital technologies on environmental journalists, innovations in visual graphics (such as infographics and interactive maps), initiatives by climate scientists and media producers in communicating with the public, growth of digitally-mediated global networks, or debates over legal protection of non-human nature–bring students and teachers up to date in important areas of environmental communication. And case studies of controversies such as hydraulic "fracking," climate change, and the destruction of rainforests, as well as the role of digital "network of networks" in organizing the global People's Climate March–illustrate relevant application of the principles of communication in these environmental events. Finally, the Fourth Edition includes an expanded Glossary of key terms and new pedagogical materials–"Act Locally!" exercises, "Discussion Questions," and "Suggested Resources" with recommended readings, documentary films, and websites for students and instructors who are interested in further examination of topics covered in each chapter.

Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education shows how researchers working in the area of technology and education can use critical perspectives to broaden the "ed-tech" research imagination, opening up new topics, asking new questions, developing theory and articulating an agenda for informed action.

Digital Online Culture, Identity and Schooling in the Twenty-First Century provides a cultural, ideological critique of identity construction in the context of virtualization. Kimberly Rosenfeld explores the growing number of people who no longer reside in one physical reality but live, work, and play in multiple realities. Rosenfeld's critique of neo-liberal practices in the digital environment brings to light the on-going hegemonic and counter-hegemonic battles over control of education in the digital age. Rosenfeld draws conclusions for empowering the population through schooling, and how it should understand, respond to, and help individuals live out the information revolution.

Like nations and regions, cities have become aware of the importance of building a convincing reputation to engage their local and global stakeholders – residents, businesses, investors, tourists, students, sports and cultural organisations. Thanks to this wide potential reach, the city brand has expanded from a mere tourism strategy into a multifaceted tool of e-governance in the hands of local administrations and their civic partners by addressing key issues such as active citizenship, social inclusion and promotion of cultural heritage and mega-events like world fairs. This book explores city branding in the public sector from a privileged linguistic, discursive and semiotic perspective, analysing how local municipal governments use new media in their communication agendas.

American Education in Popular Media examines how popular media including mass magazines, radio, film, and television have represented schooling in the United States over the course of the twentieth century. Historical essays explore prevalent portrayals of students and professional educators while addressing contested purposes of schooling in American society. Terzian and Ryan highlight the educative and normative dimensions of popular media in outlining roles for teachers, students, and administrators at educational institutions ranging from elementary schools to universities.

This study shares the tendency, which has been widely maintained in Europe over recent years, to approach the problems of communication and the culture industry with the tools of economic theory. The oldest approaches to the mass communications media have often been criticized, and basically viewed from the standpoint of political domination and ideological reproduction. The critical aspect of the communication and culture economy, by contrast, is that attention has been focused on investigating the functions of the media in the process of capital accumulation, thereby prioritizing the problems of advertising and the mass communications media as a privileged locus for the accumulation of capital at the current stage of capitalist development. Drawing on Marxist theory and concepts, as well as on various theoretical contributions developed by prominent political economists, Bolaño develops a unique approach to understanding the culture industry, offering an interesting intervention in debates surrounding media and communication.

This book brings together a range of perspectives from around the globe to address questions of media ethics and justice both in local contexts and in a transnational, global environment. A common denominator running through such disparate investigations of theories and practices of media ethics and justice in democracies as diverse as India, South Africa, Pakistan, and the United States, is how specific media practices relate to the global. There is general acknowledgement that similarities between ethical systems have to emerge in local contexts, rather than the other way around. In presentation of case studies and philosophical debates, the concept of justice in media ethics is illuminated from various angles. A common theme in these essays is the acknowledgement that ethics and justice are central to the evolution of a democratic public sphere saturated with media images and narratives.