Showing titles in Media Studies

Tyrants on Twitter is the first detailed analysis of how Chinese and Russian agents weaponize Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to subvert the liberal international order. In addition to examining the 2016 US election, David L. Sloss explores Russia's use of foreign influence operations to threaten democracies in Europe, as well as China's use of social media and other digital tools to meddle in Western democracies and buttress autocratic rulers around the world.

Drawing on secret police files, Marilyn Monroe's private diary and never-before-published first-hand testimony, this audiobook proves that Robert Kennedy was directly responsible for her death. It details the legendary star's tumultuous personal involvement with him and his brother, President John Kennedy, and how they sought to silence her. The new evidence and testimony is provided by Mike Rothmiller, who, as a detective of the Organized Crime Intelligence Division of the LAPD, had direct personal access to hundreds of files on exactly what happened to Marilyn Monroe in 1962. 

Since the first day after the tragedy was announced, controversy has surrounded the death of rap and cultural icon Tupac Shakur. In this work, preeminent researcher on the topic John Potash puts forward his own theories of the events leading up to and following the murder in this meticulously researched and exhaustive account of the story. 

Identitätspolitik zwischen Vernunft und Exzess. Wer gendert, das Z-Wort meidet und im Schlaf aufsagen kann, wofür die Buchstabenwürmer LGBTQIA* und BIPoC stehen, gilt in seinen Kreisen als "woke". Die Mehrheitsgesellschaft dagegen fragt: Haben wir keine anderen Sorgen? Petra Gerster und Christian Nürnberger führen durch das Minenfeld, das die deutsche Sprache durch identitätspolitische Forderungen geworden ist.

Von der Macht, Gefahr und Faszination der Verschwörungstheorien: Warum Menschen glauben, was eigentlich nicht zu glauben ist. Verschwörungstheorien haben seit einigen Jahren Hochkonjunktur. Was noch vor wenigen Jahren als Randphänomen belächelt wurde, ist endgültig in der Mitte der Gesellschaft angekommen – höchste Zeit also, sich genauer anzuschauen, womit wir es da eigentlich zu tun haben! Zahlreiche Studien haben festgestellt, dass in letzter Zeit immer mehr Menschen an irrationale und nicht belegbare Erzählungen glauben.

In 2010—long before the release of Lemonade—Professor Kevin Allred created the university course "Politicizing Beyonce" to both wide acclaim and controversy. He outlines his pedagogical philosophy in Ain't I a Diva?, exploring the process of teaching Beyonce and what it means to use a superstar to blow up the canon. Allred brings his syllabus to life by pairing music videos and songs with historical and academic texts, and combines analysis with classroom anecdotes.

The chemical compound DDT first earned fame during World War II by wiping out insects that caused disease and boosting Allied forces to victory. Americans granted it a hero’s homecoming, spraying it on everything from crops and livestock to cupboards and curtains. Then, in 1972, it was banned in the US. But decades after that, a cry arose to demand its return.

This classic in the field of ufology is filled with hard-hitting eyewitness testimony of one of the most important events of all time: the actual recovery of a UFO outside of Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. For more than seventy years, government authorities have led us to believe the wreckage was merely a very conventional weather balloon - but the witnesses who were there continue to tell a different story. Witness to Roswell once again provides a "can't put down" written account of what really transpired in Roswell decades ago.

On a summer night in 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving home through New Hampshire when a bright object appeared in the sky and began following them. When the couple finally pulled over to get a better look, the object vanished before their eyes. With nothing else to do, Betty and Barney returned to their car and kept driving into the night. The encounter left them rattled, but what came next was even more arresting: the following day, the Hills realized they couldn’t remember anything from almost two hours of their drive.

Un video, un post, una foto, un meme, una frase, una canzone diventano tormentoni, improvvisamente prendono a circolare, colonizzando, grazie a computer, smartphone, tv, giornali, la nostra attenzione e la nostra mente. Perché certe idee circolano più di altre? Che cosa rende più o meno virale un'immagine o un prodotto culturale? Il libro aiuta a capire i meccanismi che presiedono alla riproduzione e alla trasmissione delle idee, assicurandone la propagazione e il successo o decretandone il fallimento.

Imagine losing a loved one in the public eye. A media frenzy ensues and spreads your family name through the news. Reporters ambush you, and across the country, strangers gossip about your personal loss. Welcome to the circus. In Media Circus, Kim Goldman, now a dedicated victims' advocate who works with families across the country, presents the first collective look at these ordinary, grieving victims - forced to manage their very private trauma and despair in a very public way.

Oggi, l'inondazione di immagini a cui molti bambini, adolescenti e adulti vanno incontro per l'abitudine di stare per molte ore davanti a uno schermo, (televisione, telefonino) espropria gli stessi di quel tipo di azione che è caratterizzato dal linguaggio parlato e dalla comunicazione sociale. Insomma, la tendenza naturale che l'individuo ha di immaginare, giocare, dialogare, viene lentamente ma progressivamente repressa dall'influenza di questi mezzi moderni di comunicazione.

Gerade in einer Zeit voller Umbrüche und Veränderungen suchen viele Menschen Halt und Orientierung in esoterischen Welterklärungsmodellen. Horoskope verraten, was die eigene Zukunft bringen wird. Der spirituelle Heiler wird zur Leitfigur. Der Esoterikmarkt boomt! Ist der Glaube an unsichtbare Kräfte, die unser Leben in die richtige Bahn lenken sollen, nur eine harmlose Spinnerei? Oder bringt der Esoterik-Trend gefährlichere Risiken mit sich, als es auf den ersten Blick erscheinen mag? Die Bestseller-Autorinnen klären auf.

The American Revolution was not only a political contest for liberty, equality, and independence (for white men, at least); it was also a contest to define certain accounts of reality to be truthful while defining others as false and dangerous. Misinformation Nation argues that we must also conceive of the American Revolution as a series of misperceptions, misunderstandings, and uninformed overreactions.

Over recent decades the proliferation of conspiracy theories has fueled alternative explanations and false narratives for events and circumstances, influencing minds around the globe. While some turn out to be true, others turn out to be driven by an agenda created for monetary or political gain. Who really killed JFK? Is Covid-19 a Chinese bioweapon? Was Princess Diana murdered? Were the Moon landings hoaxed? Were the 911 attacks an inside plot by government factions? Conspiracy Machine examines the validity of these theories.

Have you ever wondered who actually rules the world? Where did they come from? Why do they have power? We may believe that we actually elect our leaders, but the truth is much more sinister and ancient. In actual fact, wealth and power was created over a vast period of time from within the world of the occult. Secret societies emerged within royalty and religion. Secret societies that had occult knowledge. Today we can still see traces of their original belief systems in huge business, governments, organizations, buildings, art and so much more.

We are living in a world of deception. We are constantly deluded and manipulated to do as we are told. It is often a very subtle system of control, but sometimes it is so obvious that nobody would even believe it. Ancient secret societies have grown over generations and their descendants now hold power in the biggest businesses, governments, organizations and religions on the planet. Using fear and enticement, they feed from us. Whether it is a global pandemic or a celebrity scandal, the hand of the hidden elite is in control.

Despite the high number of programs and their evident popularity, paranormal reality television has to date received little critical attention. Ghost Channels provides an overview of the paranormal reality television genre, its development, and its place in television history. Conducting in-depth analyses of over thirty paranormal television series, author Amy Lawrence suggests these programs reveal much about Americans' contemporary fears. 

The television industry is changing, and with it, the small screen's potential to engage in debate and present valuable representations of American history. Founded in 1972, HBO has been at the forefront of these changes, leading the way for many network, cable, and streaming services into the "post-network" era. Despite this, most scholarship has been dedicated to analyzing historical feature films and documentary films, leaving TV and the long-form drama hungry for coverage. Rebecca Weeks fills the gap in this area and defends the historiographic power of long-form dramas.

While quackery—loosely defined as the spread of false "knowledge," often accompanied by various versions of "snake oil"—is not a novel phenomenon, it has never posed as great a threat to public health as today. In Quack Quack, Dr. Joe Schwarcz focuses on the deluge of anecdotes, cherry-picked data, pseudoscientific nonsense, and seductive baseless health claims that undermine efforts to educate the public about evidence-based science. The wide scope of the topics drawn from past and present aims to cast a life preserver to people drowning in a sea of misinformation.