Social Sciences Media Studies

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who in his perennial best seller On Killing revealed that most of us are not "natural born killers" - and who has spent decades training soldiers, police, and others who keep us secure to overcome the intrinsic human resistance to harming others and to use firearms responsibly when necessary - turns a laser focus on the threat posed to our society by violent video games.

In artist Paul Klee’s The Twittering Machine, the bird-song of a machine acts as bait to lure humankind into a pit of damnation. Leading political writer Richard Seymour argues that this is a chilling metaphor for our relationship with social media. Former social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction machine. We are users, waiting for our next hit as we like, comment and share. We write to the machine as individuals, but it responds by aggregating our fantasies, desires and frailties into data, and returning them to us as a commodity experience.

In this startling group memoir, four friends - Black and White, gay and straight, immigrant and American-born - use Toni Morrison’s novels as a springboard for intimate and revealing conversations about the problems of everyday racism and living whole in times of uncertainty. Tackling everything from first love and Soul Train to police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, the authors take up what it means to read challenging literature collaboratively and to learn in public as an act of individual reckoning and social resistance.

This title lists specifically what a woman needs to know in order to keep her man sexually fulfilled. It also takes the guesswork out of dating and sexual compatibility. It’s not enough to seduce a man if you can’t hold on to him afterwards. You must stimulate his secret nature in the bedroom or the next woman will. You can find love, sex, and happiness if you study the compatibility of your love interest. The fulfillment of your needs as well as your mates is the foundation of every relationship - especially sexual. Learn emotional and sexual secrets that will keep you ahead of the game.

News for All the People reveals how racial segregation distorted the information Americans received from the mainstream media. It unearths numerous examples of how publishers and broadcasters actually fomented racial violence and discrimination through their coverage. And it chronicles the influence federal media policies exerted in such conflicts. It depicts the struggle of Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American journalists who fought to create a vibrant yet little-known alternative, democratic press.

Accomplished feminist activist and executive Latanya Mapp Frett delivers a powerful and practical exploration of the factors that make a feminist social movement impactful in its place and time. In the book, you'll discover popular and not-so-popular social movements and the leaders, art, research, and narratives that drove them. The author explains what made these social movements so effective and explains the steps that organizations, nonprofits, and social impact professionals can take to replicate that success on the ground and in the present.

Sady Doyle, hailed as "smart, funny, and fearless" by the Boston Globe, takes listeners on a tour of the female dark side, from the biblical Lilith to Dracula's Lucy Westenra, from the T-Rex in Jurassic Park to the teen witches of The Craft. She illuminates the women who have shaped our nightmares: Serial killer Ed Gein's "domineering" mother Augusta; exorcism casualty Anneliese Michel, starving herself to death to quell her demons; author Mary Shelley, dreaming her dead child back to life.

Whether it’s playing through blockbuster-esque adventures, diving deep into hidden bits of story and lore, or building relationships that change the fate of the world itself, video games are bringing stories to life in ways that are immediate, interactive, and immersive. Focusing on some of the best and most memorable experiences in gaming, The Greatest Stories Ever Played examines the relationship between gaming and storytelling in a new way.

Mometrix Test Preparation's ATI TEAS Secrets Study Guide is the ideal prep solution for anyone who wants to pass their Test of Essential Academic Skills, Sixth Edition. The exam is extremely challenging, and thorough test preparation is essential for success.

Dieses Hörbuch ist den Gedanken der journalistischen Aufklärung verpflichtet. Zu ihren Kernaufgaben zählen die Kritik und Kontrolle politischer Macht. In der Praxis jedoch wird die Presse häufig zum Apologeten der Mächtigen und zum publizistischen Verteidiger des Status Quo. Statt Macht- und Gewaltverhältnisse aufzuklären, vernebelt sie oft die Interessen von Machteliten und wird so zum Helfer der Gegenaufklärung. Dieses Hörbuch zeigt, wie Kritik und Kontrolle von Eliten wieder in den Mittelpunkt der Recherche rücken können. Baab bietet einen Werkzeugkasten mit Instrumenten der Aufklärung.

Screenwise offers a realistic and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Using the foundation of their own values and experiences, parents and educators can learn about the digital world to help set kids up for success in a world fueled by technology.

When Moya Bailey first coined the term misogynoir, she defined it as the ways anti-Black and misogynistic representation shape broader ideas about Black women, particularly in visual culture and digital spaces. She had no idea that the term would go viral, touching a cultural nerve and quickly entering into the lexicon. Misogynoir now has its own Wikipedia page and hashtag, and has been featured on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time.

All forms of recreational digital consumption—whether on smartphones, tablets, game consoles, or TVs—have skyrocketed in the younger generations. Most media experts do not seem overly concerned about this situation: children are adaptable, they say, they are "digital natives," their brains have changed and screens make them smarter. But other specialists—including some pediatricians, psychiatrists, teachers, and speech therapists—dispute these claims, and many parents worry about the long-term consequences of their children's intensive exposure to screens.

Your menstrual cycle is your fifth vital sign - a barometer of health and wellness that is as telling as your pulse or blood pressure. Yet most of us see our periods as nothing more than a source of inconvenience and embarrassment. The reasons for this are vast and complex and many are rooted in misogyny. The fact is, women the world over are taught the bare minimum about menstruation, and the messages they do receive are negative: That periods are painful and gross, that they turn us into hormonal messes, and that they shouldn't be discussed.

With his distinctive blend of frontline determination and a journalist's knack for a good story, former CBS anchorman Dan Rather looks at the awesome struggles and everyday accomplishments he's witnessed at home and around the globe. Ranging from the Iraq conflict to a schoolyard shooting in Arkansas, from the Oklahoma City bombing to encounters with world-renowned figures such as Princess Diana, Bill Gates, and Dolly Parton, Deadlines and Datelines provides unique insights from one of America's premier newsmen.

Wonderfully narrated by Karen Chilton, Afrofuturism is an engaging, hip, and accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism. Author Ytasha Womack introduces listeners to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works.

In our "wireless" world it is easy to take the importance of the undersea cable systems for granted, but the stakes of their successful operation are huge, as they are responsible for carrying almost all transoceanic Internet traffic. In The Undersea Network, Nicole Starosielski follows these cables from the ocean depths to their landing zones on the sandy beaches of the South Pacific, bringing them to the surface of media scholarship and making visible the materiality of the wired network.

From YouTube's Head of Culture and Trends, a rousing and illuminating behind-the-scenes exploration of Internet video's massive impact on our world. Whether your favorite YouTube video is a cat on a Roomba, 'Gangnam Style', the 'Bed Intruder' song, an ASAPscience explainer, Rebecca Black's 'Friday', or the 'Evolution of Dance', Kevin Allocca's Videocracy reveals how these beloved videos and famous trends - and many more - came to be and why they mean more than you might think.

Almost forty years ago, Neil Postman argued that television had brought about a fundamental transformation to democracy. By turning entertainment into our supreme ideology, television had recreated public discourse in its image and converted democracy into show business. In Trolling Ourselves to Death, Jason Hannan builds on Postman's classic thesis, arguing that we are now not so much amusing, as trolling ourselves to death. Contrary to the popular view of the troll as an exclusively anonymous online prankster, Hannan asserts that trolls have emerged from the cave, so to speak.

From the popular and award-winning staff writer for The Atlantic, an eye-opening look at how the current media landscape has incentivized us to see our fellow citizens as characters in an ongoing entertainment—and how we can fight back against this phenomenon.