Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet (2023)

Ted Striphas

A history of how culture and computation came to be entangled. This book pinpoints the critical junctures at which algorithmic culture began to coalesce in language long before it materialized in the technological wizardry of Silicon Valley. Revising and extending the methodology of “keywords,” Ted Striphas examines changing concepts and definitions of culture, including the development of the field of cultural studies, and stresses the importance of language in the history of technology.

All My Friends Live in My Computer: Trauma, Tactical Media, and Meaning (2021)

Samira Rajabi

Explores how everyday people use social media to try to make sense of their suffering and connect with others who are suffering.

Beyond Straw Men: Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care (2023)

Phaedra C. Pezzullo

Moves beyond ‘hot take’ or straw man fallacies by illustrating how affective counter publics mobilized around plastics reveal broader stories about environmental justice and social change. Pezzullo engages public controversies and policies through analysis of hashtag activism, campaign materials, and podcast interviews with headline-making advocates.

Cases in Public Relations Strategy (2018)

Edited by Burton St. John, Diana K. Martinelli, Robert S. Pritchard, Cylor Spaulding

Draws on original, real-world case studies to provide students with a strategic approach to meeting the needs of a client before, during, and beyond a campaign. This practical, client-oriented text shows students how to systematically evaluate and adapt to the needs of a particular client—whether big or small, global or local, for-profit or nonprofit—in order to launch the most effective campaign.

Communicating Climate Change (2022)

Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Burton St. John III

This edited collection focuses on theoretical and applied research-based observations concerning how experts, advocates, and institutions make climate change information accessible to different audiences.

Deep Horizons: A Multisensory Archive of Ecological Affects and Prospects (2023)

Brianne Cohen, Erin Espelie and Bonnie Etherington

Gathers contributions from multiple disciplines to investigate intersectional questions of how the changing planet affects specific peoples, communities, wildlife species, and ecosystems in varying and inequitable ways. This is a free, open-source book and accessible online.

Everything for Everyone, The Radical Transition that is Shaping the Next Economy (2018)

Nathan Schneider

Examines how a new generation is working to transform the Internet economy through the radical tradition of cooperative business.

The Global Foundations of Public Relations, Humanism, China and the West (2021)

Edited by Robert E. Brown, Burton St. John, Jenny Zhengye Hou

Explores the growing humanistic turn in public relations processes and proposes that this has compelling parallels in the roots of Chinese philosophies.

The Global Public Relations Handbook: Theory, Research and Practice (2020)

Edited by Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and Dejan Vercic (2020)

Offers state-of-the-art discussions of the global public relations industry, blending research-based theory with practice, and presented in essays from both academics and practitioners. 

A Guide to UX Design and Development (2023)

Joseph Labrecque

Gain a thorough understanding of the two pillars of any User Experience project: the mission and the process. The mission is to keep the user in mind at each step or milestone as the developer progresses through the project. The process is how that mission is accomplished through collaboration and the use of research, design and development technologies. This book walks you through a developer's journey through the UX process, from start to finish.

Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life (2024)

Nathan Schneider

Shows how the internet can learn from governance legacies of the past to become a more democratic medium. The internet has been plagued by a bias, both cultural and technical, for building communities as fiefdoms. As a consequence, we’ve been trained to give up on the democratic potential of online communities. This book explains how online spaces could be sites of a creative and democratic renaissance.

The Institutions Changing Journalism (2022)

Edited by Patrick Ferrucci and Scott A. Eldrisge II

Bringing together original contributions from a worldwide group of scholars, this book critically explores the changing role and influence of institutions in the production of news.

Interactive Documentary – Decolonizing Practice-Based Research (2022)

Edited by Kathleen M. Ryan and David Staton

Interactive documentary is still an emerging field that eludes concise definitions or boundaries. Grounded in practice-based research, this collection seeks to expand the sometimes exclusionary field, giving voice to scholars and practitioners working outside the margins. Editors Kathleen M. Ryan and David Staton have curated a collection of chapters written by a global cohort of scholars to explore the ways that interactive documentary as a field of study reveals an even broader reach and definition of humanistic inquiry itself. 

The JavaScript Workshop: Learn to develop interactive web applications with clean and maintainable JavaScript code (2019)

Joseph Labrecque, Jahred Love, Daniel Rosenbaum, Nick Turner, Gaurav Mehla, Alonzo L. Hosford, Florian Sloot, Philip Kirkbride

If you're looking for a programming language to develop flexible and  efficient apps, JavaScript is a great choice. However, while offering real benefits, the complexity of the entire JavaScript ecosystem can be overwhelming. This Workshop is a smarter way to learn JavaScript. It is specifically designed to cut through the noise and help build your JavaScript skills from scratch, while sparking your interest with engaging activities and clear explanations.

The Lab Book: Situated Practices in Media Studies (2021)

Darren Wershler, Lori Emerson and Jussi Parikka

An important new approach to the study of laboratories, presenting a practical method for understanding labs in all walks of life. The Lab Book uses historical and contemporary examples of how laboratories are fundamentally connected to changes in the contemporary university.

Love in the Time of Self-Publishing: How Romance Writers Changed the Rules of Writing and Success

Christine M. Larson (2024)

Romancelandia's history of self-organization and mutual aid among romance authors provides a powerful yet cautionary example for independent workers seeking better labor terms in the digital economy, highlighting the importance of solidarity and inclusivity for achieving fair treatment from platforms.

Making Nonprofit News - Market Models, Influence and Journalistic Practice (2019)

Patrick Ferrucci

Examines the essence of nonprofit journalism on multiple levels of analysis, explaining how individuals, routines, organizational makeup and outside institutions all affect news production at nonprofit news organizations. 

Mastering Adobe Animate 2021 (2021)

Joseph Labrecque

Step into the world of animation and go beyond the fundamentals of Adobe Animate to bring experiences to life through expert-led content.

Mastering Adobe Animate 2023 (2023)

Joseph Labrecque

A comprehensive guide to designing modern, animated, and interactive content using Animate.

Media and Religion: The Global View (2021)

Edited by Stewart Hoover and Nabil Echchaibi

This volume of Media and Religion considers the mediation of religion in the context of global relations of power, culture, and communication.  

My Life as an Artificial Creative Intelligence (2022)

Mark Amerika

A series of intellectual provocations that investigate the creative process across the human-nonhuman spectrum. Playful and provocative, Amerika flips the script on contemporary AI research.

News For Us: Citizen-Centered Journalism (2020)

Paula Lynn Ellis, Paul Voakes and Lori Bergen

The first-ever guide to a new journalism approach-one that enriches the skill set of the 21st-century journalist with the mindset of civic engagement.

Pin Up! The Subculture: Negotiating Agency, Representation & Sexuality with Vintage Style (2020)

Kathleen M Ryan

Pin Up! The Subculture is the first book to explore the contemporary international subculture of pin up, women (and men) who embrace vintage style, but not vintage values.

Reframing Africa? Reflections on Modernity and the Moving Image (2022)

Edited by Cynthia Kros, Reece Auguiste and Pervaiz Khan

This book takes readers on a series of stimulating intellectual journeys from the late nineteenth century to the contemporary era to explore notions of modernity in the production and reception of the African moving image and of African archival practices. Ideas are presented from multiple historical and contemporary perspectives, while inviting new voices to participate in discussions about the future of the African moving image.

Remembering Lucille, A Virginia Family’s Rise from Slavery and a Legacy Forged a Mile High (2018)

Polly McClean

The rise of the African American middle class through the historical journey of Lucile and her family from slavery, using their personal story as a lens through which to examine the greater experience of middle-class Blacks in the early twentieth century.

Reviving Rural News: Transforming the Business Model of Community Journalism in the US and Beyond (2024)

Teri Finneman, Nick Mathews, Patrick Ferrucci (2024)

Based on extensive research into weekly rural publishers and rural readers, Reviving Rural News demonstrates that a new financial approach to community journalism is urgently needed and viable.

The Routledge Companion to Public Relations

Edited By Donnalyn Pompper, Katie R. Place, C. Kay Weaver

This collection explores the dynamic growth in thinking about public relations’ role in our changing global society. It provides an authoritative reference for educators and a one-stop repository of public relations knowledge, scholarship, and debates for the enquiring professional. It is an essential resource for students and researchers in public relations, communication, marketing, media, and cultural studies.

Seeing Human Rights, Video Activism as a Proxy Profession (2023)

Sandra Ristovska

As video becomes an important tool to expose injustice, an examination of how human rights organizations are seeking to professionalize video activism.

Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (2023)

Josh Shepperd

Despite uncertain beginnings, public broadcasting emerged as a noncommercial media industry that transformed American culture. Shepperd looks at the people, institutions and influences behind the media reform movement in the drive to create what became the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.

Where Ideas Go to Die: The Fate of Intellect in American Journalism (2020)

Michael McDevitt

Ideas die at the hands of journalists. This is the controversial thesis in a sweeping examination of anti-intellectualism in American journalism. McDevitt argues that news media engage in a form of social control, routinely suppressing ideas that might offend audiences.

Wronged and Dangerous: Viral Masculinity and the Populist Pandemic (2023)

Karen Ashcraft

Introduces “viral masculinity” as a way to reduce the risks to public health caused by the surge in populism and tackles the deep connection between our social and physical worlds.