Communications

Effective argumentation is at the very heart of communication and a key component to understanding and conducting communication research. Using clear language, concrete examples, and the Toulmin model of claim-data-warrants, Communication Research Methods introduces students to multiple ways of knowing, helps them think critically about communication, and provides them with the tools they need to explore the often murky depths of communication research.

Social media platforms do not just circulate political ideas, they support manipulative disinformation campaigns. While some of these disinformation campaigns are carried out directly by individuals, most are waged by software, commonly known as bots, programmed to perform simple, repetitive, robotic tasks. Some social media bots collect and distribute legitimate information, while others communicate with and harass people, manipulate trending algorithms, and inundate systems with spam. Campaigns made up of bots, fake accounts, and trolls can be coordinated by one person, or a small group of people, to give the illusion of large-scale consensus. Some political regimes use political bots to silence opponents and to push official state messaging, to sway the vote during elections, and to defame critics, human rights defenders, civil society groups, and journalists. This book argues that such automation and platform manipulation, amounts to a new political communications mechanism that Samuel Woolley and Philip N. Noward call "computational propaganda." This differs from older styles of propaganda in that it uses algorithms, automation, and human curation to purposefully distribute misleading information over social media networks while it actively learns from and mimicks real people so as to manipulate public opinion across a diverse range of platforms and device networks. This book includes cases of computational propaganda from nine countries (both democratic and authoritarian) and four continents (North and South America, Europe, and Asia), covering propaganda efforts over a wide array of social media platforms and usage in different types of political processes (elections, referenda, and during political crises).

Family Communication: Cohesion and Change encourages students to think critically about family interaction patterns and to analyze them using a variety of communication theories. Using a framework of family functions, current research, and first-person narratives, this text emphasizes the diversity of today's families in structure, ethnic patterns, gender socialization, and developmental experiences.

This student introduction examines intercultural communication within the geopolitical, economic, and cultural context of globalization. It takes a social justice approach and provides a framework to create a more fair and equitable world through communication.

In this collection, Ian Morris and Joanne Diaz gather the reflections of twenty-three prominent editors whose little magazines have flourished over the past thirty-five years. Highlighting the creativity and innovation driving this diverse and still vital medium, contributors offer insights into how their publications sometimes succeeded, sometimes reluctantly folded, but mostly how they evolved and persevered. Other topics discussed include the role of little magazines in promoting the work and concerns of minority and women writers, the place of universities in supporting and shaping little magazines, and the online and offline future of these publications.

Until the recent political shift pushed workers back into the media spotlight, the mainstream media had largely ignored this significant part of American society in favor of the moneyed "upscale" consumer for more than four decades. Christopher R. Martin now reveals why and how the media lost sight of the American working class and the effects of it doing so. The damning indictment of the mainstream media that flows through No Longer Newsworthy is a wakeup call about the critical role of the media in telling news stories about labor unions, workers, and working-class readers. As Martin charts the decline of labor reporting from the late 1960s onwards, he reveals the shift in news coverage as the mainstream media abandoned labor in favor of consumer and business interests. When newspapers, especially, wrote off working-class readers as useless for their business model, the American worker became invisible. In No Longer Newsworthy, Martin covers this shift in focus, the loss of political voice for the working class, and the emergence of a more conservative media in the form of Christian television, talk radio, Fox News, and conservative websites. Now, with our fractured society and news media, Martin offers the mainstream media recommendations for how to push back against right-wing media and once again embrace the working class as critical to its audience and its democratic function.

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life partners practical communication and emotional literacy skills with a powerful consciousness and vocabulary to help you create the life you want peacefully. In this internationally acclaimed book, Marshall Rosenberg offers insightful stories, anecdotes, practical exercises and relationship role-plays that will literally change your approach to communication for the better.

Grounded in research, Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives shows how words can shape students' learning, their sense of self, and their social, emotional and moral development. Make no mistake: words have the power to open minds-or close them. --from publisher description.

Public relations has developed as a major force in a growing, global information society. The practice of public relations is changing to include new, interactive media, while continuing to depend on the foundation of traditional media. The multi-disciplinary approach to understanding public relations is provided by the authors who come from business, journalism, communication and advertising backgrounds.

Updated to reflect the latest innovations, this third edition of Social Media helps readers understand the foundations of and principles behind social media; manage and participate within online communities; and succeed in the changing field of modern public relations.

Emphasizing the connection between writing and context, Technical Communication: A Practical Approach 8e uses a fictional company (M-Global) and students' own school and workplace settings to introduce the common genres of technical communication. Featuring numbered guidelines and an ABC format, the book shows how to write a variety of technical documents including business proposals, white papers, scripts, research reports, digital documents and more!

The book's guiding idea is that academics should write to make an impact, not just to get something published somewhere. Your work will be more influential if you approach it reflectively and strategically.