Media and Public Relations Research in Post-Socialist Societies tracks the birth, development, and contemporary expansion of communication research, with a focus on public relations and media research in post-socialist societies. This collection illuminates the current state of media and communication studies in Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and Central Asia. Contributors discuss and demonstrate various issues of disciplinary roots and tensions, institutional constraints, study development, and contemporary status. This book also illustrates diverse types of traditional and contemporary communication studies from humanities and social science perspectives, ranging from linguistics to health communication. This collection focuses on both traditional and modern scholarship that has arisen due to international scholarly efforts, the advent of technology, and national research interests. Readers will have the opportunity to intellectually discuss the conceptual, theoretical, and practical issues that have occurred within the past twenty years regarding public relations, mass communication, and media studies in post-socialist societies. The analyses in this book lead readers to consider potential resolutions to some of the current dialectical tensions that are affecting post-socialist communication studies and contemplate how reflecting on these tensions informs the broader field of communication worldwide.

While the broader field of communication studies is gaining more global prominence, this is an era when the underrepresented voices are fortunately becoming more recognized. Communication Theory and Application in Post-Socialist Contexts illustrates how Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe—the post-socialist region—represents a population of more than 400 million who embody a wide array of communication experiences. This book aims to capture significant communication tendencies in several post-socialist countries and situate these tendencies within communication theory and application. It contains the examples of theory-building and adaptation as well as applied projects implemented in national and local contexts. Only by inclusive incorporation of the underrepresented experiences in the field’s discussions can the communication discipline continue to assert its relevance in and for the global community. This book serves as a resource for anyone on the quest of diversifying and globalizing communication studies.

This book provides a critical analysis of the politics of migration in Eastern Europe and an in-depth understanding of the role played by media and public discourse in shaping migration and migration policy. Ruxandra Trandafoiu looks at emigration, diaspora, return, kin-minority cross-border mobility, and immigration in Eastern Europe from cultural, social and political angles, tracing the evolution of migration policies across Eastern Europe through communication, public debate and political strategy. Trandafoiu investigates the extent to which these potential ‘models’ or policy practices can be comparable to those in Western European countries, or whether Eastern Europe can give rise to a migration ‘system’ that rivals the North American one. Each chapter bridges the link between policy and politics and makes a case for considering migration politics as fundamentally intertwined with media representation and public debate. Drawing on comparative case studies of countries including Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine, the book considers how migration is both managed and experienced from political, social and cultural viewpoints and from the perspectives of a range of actors including migrants, politicians, policymakers and journalists. This book will be key reading for advanced students and researchers of migration, media, international relations, and political communication.

Digital Media and the Preservation of Indigenous Languages in Africa: Toward a Digitalized and Sustainable Society presents cutting-edge epistemological debates, academic case studies, and empirical research from African scholars on the intersection of digital media technologies, artificial intelligence, and the preservation of Indigenous languages in the continent. This edited collection provides a methodology for African researchers, practitioners, and marginalized communities to integrate digital technologies into their lives to foster innovation, advance the documentation and preservation of underrepresented languages, and promote African-centered epistemologies. Contributors to this edited volume argue that African societies should acknowledge and embrace digital media platforms. Despite these platforms’ potential as sites of epistemic colonialism, they are essential for promoting ways of life that reflect the diversity and importance of Indigenous cultures. For Indigenous languages and local epistemologies to flourish in this rapidly evolving technological era, African communities must employ a variety of contemporary practices and strategies to document, protect, and preserve ways of being that have formerly been relegated to the periphery.

This handbook focuses on new threats to psychological security that are posed by the malicious use of AI and how it can be used to counteract such threats. Studies on the malicious use of AI through deepfakes, agenda setting, sentiment analysis and affective computing and so forth, provide a visual representation of the various forms and methods of malicious influence on the human psyche, and through this on the political, economic, cultural processes, the activities of state and non-state institutions. Separate chapters examine the malicious use of AI in geopolitical confrontation, political campaigns, strategic deception, damage to corporate reputation, and activities of extremist and terrorist organizations. This is a unique volume that brings together a multidisciplinary range of established scholars and upcoming new researchers from 11 countries. This handbook is an invaluable resource for students, researchers, and professionals interested in this new and developing field of social practice and knowledge.

"This book captures contemporary debates around indigenous languages and social change communication. Contributors bring together voices from the margins to engage in dialogue about common social change issues in Latin America, Africa, and Asia"--

Indigenous Language for Development Communication in the Global South brings together voices from the margins in underrepresented regions of the Global South, within the context of scholarship focusing on indigenous languages and development communication. Contributors present cases as a starting point for further research and discussions about indigenous language and development communication in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Scholars of communication, sociology, linguistics, and development studies will find this book of particular interest.

This lively book offers the first comprehensive examination of character assassination. In modern politics as well as in historical times, character attacks abound. Words and images, like psychological weapons, have sullied or destroyed numerous individual reputations. How does character assassination "work" and when or why does it not? Are character attacks getting worse in the age of social media? Why do many people fail when they are under character attack? How should they prevent attacks and defend against them? Moving beyond discussions about corporate reputation management and public relations canons, Character Assassination and Reputation Management is designed to help understand, critically analyze, and effectively defend against such attacks. Written by an international and interdisciplinary team of experts, the book begins with a discussion of theoretical and applied features of the "five pillars" of character assassination: (1) the attacker, (2) the target, (3) the media, (4) the audience, and (5) the context. The remaining chapters present engaging in-depth discussions and case studies suitable for homework and class discussion. These cases include: Historic figures Leaders from modern times Women in politics U.S. presidents World leaders Political autocrats Democratic leaders Scientists Celebrities Featuring an extensive glossary of key terms, critical thinking exercises, and summaries to encourage problem-based learning, Character Assassination and Reputation Management will prove invaluable to the undergraduate and postgraduate students in communication, political science, global affairs, history, sociology, and psychology departments.

Transcultural Images in Hollywood Cinema discusses how cinema, particularly Hollywood, impacts the cultural identities we construct for ourselves in order to make sense of who we are in the world. The politics of representation in cinema influence the boundaries of ethnic and racial characteristics and invent cultural and symbolic meanings that create a conventional image throughout the world. The transnational perspective, dissolves, fragments, and decentralizes this image, leaving the nationalist understanding of identity to a hybrid form. Cultures and identities that are expanded across borders form a mosaic by combining their local characteristics with those of the host cultures. This book examines the transnational and transcultural characteristics of Hollywood cinema. The narrative, cinematographic, and aesthetic structures of Hollywood cinema are turned upside down as chapters analyze gender, social, cultural, and economic-political contexts. Scholars of international communication, film, and social sciences will find this book particularly interesting.

This important book chronicles, responds to, and advances the leading theories in the public relations discipline. Taking up the work begun by the books Public Relations Theory and Public Relations Theory II, this volume offers completely original material reflecting public relations as practiced today. It features contributions by leading public relations researchers from around the world who write about new developments in the field. Important subjects include: a turn to more humanistic, social, dialogic, and cocreational perspectives on public relations; changes in the capacity and use of new information technologies; a greater emphasis on non-Western international and intercultural public relations that considers an increasingly politically polarized culture; and issues of ethics that look beyond how clients and the traditional mass media are treated and into much broader questions of voice, agency, race, identity, and the economic and political status of publics. This book is a touchstone for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations theory and a key reference for researchers.