This book offers a comprehensive overview of TED talks as a digital-multimodal video genre, exploring the ways in which myriad rhetorical, structural, digital, and multimodal resources are used to communicate scientific knowledge to lay audiences. Drawing on insights from genre analysis, the systemic functional approach to multimodal discourse analysis, and the social semiotic approach to multimodality, the volume examines the communicative contexts in which TED talks are constructed, their rhetorical structure, the deployment of multimodal tools, and diachronic developments. The book reflects on the ways in which TED talks are uniquely positioned to offer new insights into how experts disseminate scientific knowledge for non-specialist audiences, constructed as they are within a community defined by a fluidity and diversity of audiences and speakers. The volume offers strategies for not only making the process of disseminating specialized knowledge more engaging and accessible but also expanding their own semiotic and communicative repertoires, increasingly crucial in our digitally driven era. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of English for Specific Purposes, multimodality, discourse analysis, and digital communication.

In the evolution of global capitalism and geopolitics, digitalization presents a new and yet unresolved chapter. In the lead up to digitalization, neoliberalism weakened the welfare states of the global North and the developmental states of the global South where they existed. Neoliberalism also disorganized working classes, as Left parties and labor organization declined across the globe. Into this deregulated and unchecked context, digitalization proceeded, and technology companies inserted themselves into multiple sectors, making use of first mover advantage and monopolistic practices to drive out smaller and less advanced firms. We can now characterize a landscape in which states have been weakened, working classes disorganized, and rival firms greatly handicapped, allowing big tech to operate as all-powerful quasi-monopolies. They enjoy unprecedented concentration of wealth, power, and advantage. Worryingly, deregulated technology now penetrates many areas of life with surveillance and control, setting us on a path towards anti-democratic, neo-imperial, and exclusionary futures. Aaron Schneider offers a popular and sovereign alternative, with particular focus on labor and the global South.

The practices of world politics are now scrutinised in a way that is unprecedented, with even those previously – or conventionally assumed to be – disengaged from international affairs being drawn into world politics by social media. Interactive websites allow users to follow election results in real-time from the other side of the world, and online mapping means that the world ‘out there’ is now available on your mobile phone. Understanding Popular Culture and World Politics in the Digital Age engages these themes in contemporary world politics, to better understand how digital communication through new media technologies changes our encounters with the world. Whether the focus is digital media, social networking or user-generated content, these sites of political activity and the artefacts they produce have much to tell us about how we engage world politics in the contemporary age. This volume represents the starting point of a dialogue about how digital technologies are beginning to impact the research and practice of scholars and practitioners in the field of International Relations, with the collection of cutting-edge essays dealing specifically with the intertextuality of world politics and digital popular culture. This book will be of use to International Relations research academics (and critically engaged publics) interested in the core themes of global politics – subjectivity, militarism, humanitarianism, civil society organisation, and governance. The book also employs theories and techniques closely associated with other social science disciplines, including political theory, sociology, cultural studies and media studies.

In an age where science and technology hold sway and the humanities face a crisis, this book explores the evolving role of literature. It delves into how American self-help culture shapes contemporary ideals of success, mindfulness, and happiness, with a particular focus on its influence in science communication, notably in TED talks. Moreover, it underscores the enduring relevance of literature in the digital era by analyzing speculative novels that challenge established norms, including those propagated by TED. These novels include Richard Powers' Generosity: An Enhancement, Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy and Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story. They question the Western preference for visual perception, which perpetuates a human-centric worldview. By focusing on literary synesthesia in the readings, this book emphasizes sensory experiences and human-nonhuman interactions. It adopts the concept of research as assemblage and uses a diverse range of theories and approaches, while it foregrounds critical posthumanism and new materialism. Ultimately, it advocates for a less anthropocentric approach to reading and presents literature as a "transdisciplinary life science" capable of fostering a "kinship of posthumanity."

Designed to trick the eye and stimulate the imagination, special effects have changed the way we look at films and the worlds created in them. Computer-generated imagery (CGI), as seen in Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Men in Black, and The Matrix, is just the latest advance in the evolution of special effects. Even as special effects have been marveled at by millions, this is the first investigation of their broader cultural reception. Moving from an exploration of nineteenth-century popular science and magic to the Hollywood science fiction cinema of our time, Special Effects examines the history, advancements, and connoisseurship of special effects, asking what makes certain types of cinematic effects special, why this matters, and for whom. Michele Pierson shows how popular science magazines, genre filmzines, and computer lifestyle magazines have articulated an aesthetic criticism of this emerging art form and have helped shape how these hugely popular on-screen technological wonders have been viewed by moviegoers.

Popular Music in the Post-Digital Age explores the relationship between macro environmental factors, such as politics, economics, culture and technology, captured by terms such as 'post-digital' and 'post-internet'. It also discusses the creation, monetisation and consumption of music and what changes in the music industry can tell us about wider shifts in economy and culture. This collection of 13 case studies covers issues such as curation algorithms, blockchain, careers of mainstream and independent musicians, festivals and clubs-to inform greater understanding and better navigation of the popular music landscape within a global context.

Provides a thorough overview of digital learning methods and their practical application in the modern language classroom English Language Learning in the Digital Age is a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical background and real-world application of IDLE (Informal Digital Learning of English). Designed for teachers and future teachers preparing to teach English as a second or other language, this highly practical guide focuses on incorporating digital technology into curricula to draw upon the extracurricular exposures to English that many students experience outside of the classroom. With some creativity and care, teachers can find ways to bring these experiences with English into the classroom, ultimately improving student learning outcomes. Offering a specific focus on examples and case studies drawn from language education in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, this text employs a three-part structure beginning with the theories behind autonomous learning and the importance of informal language learning for young adults. Part two demonstrates various methods for integrating games, social media, e-books, language software, mobile apps, and other digital resources into the classroom. The third section addresses the use of IDLE methods to bridge the gap between informal and formal uses of English, the advantages and disadvantages of IDLE in flipped classrooms and online teaching, and how IDLE strategies can enhance mandated curricula and better prepare students for national exams. The book concludes with a brief discussion of the future of language learning and the need to include digital technologies and learner-driven strategies in education policy. This unique text: Offers practical methods for bringing informal student learning into the classroom Presents a wide range of engaging digital learning activities that can complement traditional language courses and improve language acquisition Reviews mobile apps for the translation and practice of vocabulary, grammar, and other components of language learning Provides real-life examples of how teachers can develop lessons and curricula, such as watching and making vlogs and reading transcripts of podcasts and audiobooks Includes access to a companion website containing video interviews with English learners and teaching plans reflecting TESOL Technology Standards and CEFR Reference Level Descriptors for English English Language Learning in the Digital Age is an ideal textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of language education and language acquisition, as well as teachers and teachers-in-training who are preparing to teach English in countries where English is not the primary language.

This compendium looks at the current status and practices of teaching and learning facilitated/enabled by digital technologies, reviews challenges/issues associated with classroom teaching, online teaching and hybrid-learning, and discusses success factors and future directions of teaching and learning in the digital era.The book also provides a number of studies at different perspectives of using digital technologies for teaching and learning.This useful reference text benefits teaching staff or administrators at education institutions (especially higher education providers) to update their professional knowledge and skills.

Just as Harvard University is a place “where world-class professors, innovative research, and a dynamic student community come together to advance education and foster change in the world”, Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), founded in 1920, grants students and visiting scholars who are determined to “learn to change the world” valuable opportunities to meet great professors and participate in shaping meaningful research. The book’s twenty interviews are organized into five parts: Values and Goals, Development, Media, Student Life and Institutions, and Putting Learning into Practice—Engineering Education. While our team of interviewees consists largely of HGSE professors and administrators, it also includes world-renowned professors and deans from other Harvard schools, as well as an outstanding representative of global engineering education transformation. Each chapter consists of an interviewee profile, editors’ note, the interview dialogue itself, references, and notes, so that our dear readers can experience the impact of the interviewees’ ideas and reliably trace their sources. While each individual interview is an instructive snapshot of a specific area of educational research and practice, we hope that the collection as a whole will enlighten and inspire each of our readers to do their part to improve the world. Contributors are: Jane (Chao) Bai, Joseph Blatt, Jack (Jiajie) Chen, Chris Dede, Catherine Elgin, Tracy Elizabeth, Tianyu Fu, Yidan Gao, Hunter Gehlbach, Paul Harris, Helen Haste, Mingzhu He, Thomas Hehir, Siang Huat (Jason Hong), Arthur Kleinman, Charles H. Langmuir, Stephen Lassonde, Harry Lewis, Yinqi Li, Yi (Elaine) Lin, Jed F. Lippard, Richard K. Miller, Siwen Zhang Minero, Samuel Odamah, Robert L. Selman, Nancy Sommers, Justin M. Thomas, Sonia Maria Pereira Vidigal, Lianjiang Wang, Richard Weissbourd, Gary Yu, Haiqin Yu, Ting Zhang, Jing Zhao, Qiuzi Zhou, Songyu Zhu and Julie.

This book explores the trend of retro and nostalgia within contemporary popular music culture. Using empirical evidence obtained from a case study of fans’ engagement with older music, the book argues that retro culture is the result of an inseparable mix of cultural and technological changes, namely, the rise of a new generation and cultural mood along with the encouragement of new technologies. Retro culture has become a hot topic in recent years but this is the first time the subject has been explored from an academic perspective and from the fans’ perspective. As such, this book promises to provide concrete answers about why retro culture dominates in contemporary society. For the first time ever, this book provides an empirically grounded theory of popular music, retro culture and its intergenerational audience in the twenty-first century. It will appeal to advanced students of popular music studies, cultural studies, media studies, sociology and music.