This paper is about how cybercafés in small and medium Asian towns highlight
new aspects of modernity. Especially in the context of Asian modernity, the
introduction of ICT-shaped social spaces in the form of cybercafés leads to
multiple conflicting rhetoric of empowerment and progress on the one hand,
and risk and moral degeneration on the o…[Read more]

A distinctive style of “Scottish Gothic’”emerged, after 1815, in fiction by Walter Scott, James Hogg, and fellow members of the Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine circle. This chapter introduces this corpus of Scottish Gothic literature, specifies some ways in which the uncanny entailments of Scottish Gothic relate to religious discourse (very muc…[Read more]

With the rise of populism, both in American and European politics, one question
seems to circulate on a regular basis. Are voters, particularly American voters,
being conned by false promises and needless fear mongering?

Riots broke out in Ferguson, Missouri (USA) after a white police officer shot and
killed a black citizen of Ferguson. We explain how a breakdown of popular
sovereignty in Ferguson contributed to the preexisting hostility in Ferguson. The
rhetorical appeal of “Black Lives Matter” will hopefully lead to the restoration
of a democratic municipal…[Read more]

This paper theorizes a model for the representation of risks in online news media.
Its practicability is demonstrated using Malaysian alternative online newspapers.
Anxiety and uncertainty about a risk event are naturally rooted in discourse and
count as discursive event because they appear on the discourse planes of politics
and the media…[Read more]

The study was aimed at ascertaining the level at which broadcast journalists in
South-East Nigeria deploy the social media in news gathering and transmission.
The survey research method was used while the questionnaire served as the
measuring instrument. The entire 867 broadcast journalists in the South-East
geopolitical zone of Nigeria…[Read more]

In 2014, the MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 flight crash tragedies become a viral issue
and attract the attentions of media and stakeholders, globally, and raise many
crises to the airlines companies, respectively, including the risk of losing their
stakeholders’ trust. The study is to identify the crises management approaches
used for the tragedies…[Read more]

It is trivially true that comedians make jokes and thus are not serious; they are “just playing.” But watching Louis CK, especially his performances in Chewed Up, Shameless, and Hilarious, it is evident that he has more in mind than simply getting his audience to frivolously guffaw. I will make the case that this is so given the content of som…[Read more]

What has proportion to do with humor or irony? And what do either of these have to do with being human? Jokes, laughter, and funniness connote excess, exaggeration, incongruity, dissonance, etc., the opposite of proportion–balance, symmetry, Aristotle’s golden mean. Yet, The Philosopher maintains, the wit has found the ideal moderate position b…[Read more]

In two very influential papers from 2008, Tamar Gendler introduced the concept of “alief” to describe the mental state one is in when acting in ways contrary to their consciously professed beliefs. For example, if asked to eat what they know is fudge, but shaped into the form of dog feces, they will hesitate, and behave in a manner that would be…[Read more]

The contemporary debate between patriotic nationalism and the freedom of
expression has sparked off in the wake of JNU students’ union president arrest on
the charges of sedition post the organization of a cultural program. The incident
infuriated debate amongst the country’s highest intellectuals, parliamentarians,
journalists and many others…[Read more]

The study of journalism and Students’ choice for learning has hardly recognised in
the age of technology and proliferation of media industries. India has witnessed
unprecedented growth of private vocational journalism institutes, where Students’
choice for learning in journalism education remains inadequate attention. The
paper brings an…[Read more]

New arguments found ground after the revolution of Gutenberg and importance of
reading being elevated in comparison to addressing, delivering original hand
writings to masses by copying (Warschauer, 2007) and after centuries, reaching
the point of electronic literacy with many innovations. These arguments reached
a point suggesting that…[Read more]

New media technologies have immense opportunities as well as challenges in
enriching teaching-learning processes which involve the teachers and the taught.
Undoubtedly, the effective use of new media technologies would depend on the
teaching faculty as they are the ones who have to become adept in innovative use
of new media technologies so as…[Read more]

This paper seeks to study the changing relationship between news and public
policies. It would address the changing modes of reporting along with changes in
different strands in public policy, its instruments and actors. Conventional literature
in the field provides a broader perspective related to news and public policy. It is
claimed that…[Read more]

Commercial interests invariably become entwined with making films, with reporting
the news and with other forms of information and entertainment. Pervasive mediagenerated gender and racial stereotypes distort cultural representations and
negatively impact users’ perceptions of society. As students learn to create various
forms of media, their…[Read more]

This research explores how integrating course modality changes through blended
learning technologies impacts the framework of public speaking curriculum. Public
Speaking is a unique area of study, as it involves a large number of student
performances, requires a small class size, and incites increased communication
apprehension in students.…[Read more]

This article draws on the challenges confronting community media in South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria to propose a ‘rethink’ in media policy conception and the political processes for policy-making. It suggests an ‘ethical-political’ policy model as best suited to the contribution of community media towards sophistication in media policy discour…[Read more]

The concept of social capital is quite complex and every scholar defined it differently. Taking into consideration the idea of social capital discussed by Robert Putnam, James Coleman, Michael Woolcock, etc. the current study has determined the variables affecting the social capital. These variables are demographics (social network, education…[Read more]

In India, the practice of permission-based SMS advertising is yet to evolve as a marketing practice and mobile users resist SMS advertising in its current format due to unauthorised spamming. Given this context, what factors constitute the acceptance or rejection of SMS advertising is still unclear. So, the study investigated the factors…[Read more]