Some new books and journals that may be of interest

The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, by Jonathan Zittrain (Yale, 2008). “The Internet’s current trajectory is one of lost opportunity. Its salvation, Zittrain argues, lies in the hands of its millions of users. Drawing on generative technologies like Wikipedia that have so far survived their own successes, this book shows how to develop new technologies and social structures that allow users to work creatively and collaboratively, participate in solutions, and become true “netizens.”—from The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It blog

Global Capital, Local Culture: Transnational Media Corporations in China, by Anthony Y.H. Fung (Peter Lang Publishing, 2008). Uses interview and other data to examine the China strategies of such companies as Warner Bros. Pictures and Viacoms MTV Channel among others as they adapt to the political and economic constraints of working in China.

Global TV: Exploring Television and Culture in the World Market, by Denise D. Bielby and C. Lee Harrington (New York University, 2008). “Explores the cultural significance of global television trade and asks how it is so remarkably successful despite the inherent cultural differences between shows and local audiences. How do culture-specific genres like American soap operas and Latin telenovelas so easily cross borders and adapt to new cultural surroundings? Why is "The Nanny," whose gum-chewing star is from Queens, New York, a smash in Italy? Importantly, Bielby and Harrington also ask which kinds of shows fail. What is lost in translation? Considering such factors as censorship and other such state-specific policies, what are the inevitable constraints of crossing over?” –Publisher’s website


Hate on the Net: Extremist Sites, Neo-Fascism On-line, Electronic Jihad, by Antonio Roversi (Ashgate, 2008). A detailed study of websites that incite violence, whether real or symbolic. Four types are focused on: football hooligans, neo-fascists, neo-Nazies, and Middle-Eastern militant Islamists.

The Internet and American Business, edited by William Aspray and Paul E. Ceruzzi (MIT Press, 2008). Historical anthology explores the multiple impacts of the Internet on business practices since 1992.

Internet Alley: High Technology in Tyson’s Corner, 1945-2005, by Paul E. Ceruzzi. (MIT, 2008). This study combines “elements of economic geography, sociology, business history, regional planning, and political science as [Ceruzzi] explores how one of the nation’s most important centers of information technology developed.” --Chris Sterling, George Washington University.

Jewish Identity in Western Pop Culture: The Holocaust and Trauma Through Modernity, by Jon Stratton (Palgrave Macmillan). The post-Holocaust experience with emphasis on aspects of its impact on popular culture.

Media and Values: Intimate Transgressions in a Changing Moral and Cultural Landscape, by David E. Morrison, Matthew Kieran, Michael Svnnevig and Sarah Ventress (Intellect, 2008). “…Illuminates citizens’ moral reasoning about the media, culture, and government. A tour de force of nuanced interdisciplinary scholarship…offers wised-ranging insights into the responsibilities of the communication industry, the justifications and consequences of telecoms regulation—and the nature of the good society itself” –Robert M. Entman, George Washington University

Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television, by John Thornton Caldwell (Duke University Press, 2008). Combines ethnographic and other perspectives in a study of Los Angeles-based film and television production workers, from directors and producers to such crew members as gaffers and camera operators.

The Journal of e-Media Studies
The Journal of E-Media Studies is a new on-line, open access journal that has recently launched their first issue. Focusing on the history and theory of electronic media, especially television and new media, its editorial board includes a rich assortment of scholars--Toby Miller, Lynn Spigel, Robert McChesney, and Anna McCarthy, to name a few. Its inaugural issue features the following essays: Toward A Visceral Scholarship Online: Folkvine.org and Hypermedia Ethnography by Craig Saper; E-poetry: Between Image and Performance -- A Cultural Analysis, by Jan Baetens and Jan Van Looy; Que'est-ce qu'une madeleine interactive? Chris Marker's Immemory and the Possibility of a Digital Archive by Erika Balsom; Horace Newcomb in Conversation with Tara McPherson by Tara McPherson; A (Very) Personal History of the First Sponsored Film Series on National Television by Stanley Rubin, in addition to review pieces.