COMM212/J211 Doss

Shaheed Nick Mohammed's Communication and the Globalization of Culture: Beyond Tradition and Borders provides a unique perspective on the concept of culture and its fate in the globalized, mediated environment. Acknowledging widespread fears of cultural erosion at the hands of dominant global forces, Mohammed argues that what we understand as culture has always been the product of global forces, including those of trade and exchange. Our very conceptions of culture are questioned. The sanctity of tradition, religion, and heritage, the book suggests, should give way to an appreciation of the quite mundane origins of cultural artifacts, invented often as matters of political or social expedience, adopted sometimes in accidents of history and canonized by time into the catechisms of cultural belief. Communication and the Globalization of Culture also suggests several mechanisms by which pragmatic social practices and fictional discourses make their way into the cultural beliefs and traditions of societies. Shaheed Nick Mohammed examines how the modern globalized environment gives rise to cultural practices that demonstrate cultural inventions, imagined communities, and manufactured cultural products, suggesting that such inventions and imaginations are not uniquely modern but rather a continuation of cultural inventions that long pre-date our media-globalized environment.

Social media is ubiquitous. From Facebook and Twitter to YouTube, the blogosphere, and Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games, people have plugged into numerous online venues for social, intellectual, and leisure activities. The pervasiveness of social media calls for ethical reflection, and one of the most pertinent values at stake is that of truth. Current figures estimate there are more than 1 billion social media users worldwide with the ability to connect with people who share similar interests, to present themselves as experts on anything and everything no matter their qualifications, and to contribute the types of factual information formerly limited to professional communication outlets such as news agencies. It's this wide-ranging definition of truth that demands evaluation of the myriad ways social media affect society. This volume does just that by collecting insights from leading experts in the communication and philosophy disciplines as they examine a variety of issues related to the value of truth in the realm of social media.

In Social Media Communication: Concepts, Practices, Data, Law and Ethics,Jeremy Harris Lipschultz presents a wide-scale, interdisciplinary analysis and guide to social media. Examining platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Youtube and Vine, the book explores and analyzes journalism, broadcasting, public relations, advertising and marketing. Lipschultz focuses on key concepts, best practices, data analyses, law and ethics--all promoting the critical thinking professionals and students need to use new networking tools effectively and to navigate social and mobile media spaces. Featuring contemporary case studies, essays from some of the industry's leading social media innovators, and a comprehensive glossary, this practical, multipurpose textbookgives readers the resources they'll need to both evaluate and utilize current and future forms of social media. For more information about the book, supplementary updates and teaching materials, follow Social Media Communicationonline at:　 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaCommunication Twitter: @JeremyHL #smc2015 SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/jeremylipschultz