Media And Communications Technologies Policies And Challenges

The prevalence of social media avails individual users and organizations with unprecedented access to personal information that was once arduous to gather. Undoubtedly, privacy concerns on social media platforms become critically important as vendors can now potentially have access to a large collection of users' personal information. This book discusses the privacy concerns in using social media. It discusses the negative impact social media has on different populations; the use of social media for job placement; the dangers of social media for the psyche; and videos as a form of transmedia storytelling.

Over 50 years ago, Pepsi sponsored the UNICEF pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair's. They worked with the Walt Disney Company to develop an attraction called the "Children of the World" which boasted a song and included a boat ride that passed by "animated figures frolicking in miniature settings of many lands of the world". This song correctly anticipated the effect communication technology has on how people interact with one another. A line in the song declares that "Though the mountains divide and the oceans are wide / It's a small world after all". Indeed, computer mediated-communication technologies, through cell phones, satellite phones, or the computer-based technologies of Skype or Facetime have trivialised the ability to connect to anyone at anytime, anywhere on the planet. Fast forward 25 years and the software phenomenon known as social media has further compressed not only time and space, but has also democratised news and information. Pundits talk about the 24/7 news cycles where news is available from anyone around the world and from around the clock. This new software has made the local global and the global local.

The Handbook of Research on Information Communication Technology Policy: Trends, Issues and Advancements provides a comprehensive and reliable source of information on current developments in information communication technologies. This source includes ICT policies; a guide on ICT policy formulation, implementation, adoption, monitoring, evaluation and application; and background information for scholars and researchers interested in carrying out research on ICT policies.

Culture, politics, economics and technology all impact upon policy decisions. To investigate the factors that influence communications policy, however, one has to go beyond conventional views of media and communication studies and combine these with policy studies. Communications Policy: Theories and Issues utilizes new research to highlight key debates and developments, and addresses a broad spectrum of contemporary concerns regarding the structure and the organization of communications systems in the past, present and future. Combining theoretical analysis with empirical research findings, this comprehensive text explores the contemporary theories and issues in communications policy that affect all democratic societies as they seek to address the challenges of emerging information and communications technologies. Featuring contributions from distinguished authors across a range of media disciplines, Communications Policy introduces challenging ideas about how communications should be structured in the future and is essential reading for all policy makers, researchers and students of communications policy. Editors: Stylianos Papathanassopoulos is Professor in Media Organization at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is the author of Television in the 21st Century (2005), Media and Politics (2004) and European Television in the Digital Age: Issues, Dynamics and Realities (2002). Ralph Negrine is Professor of Political Communication in the Journalism Studies Department at the University of Sheffield. His previous books include The Transformation of Political Communication (Palgrave, 2008), Television and the Press Since 1945 (1999) and The Communication of Politics (1996). Contributors: Bram Abramson, Johannes M. Bauer, Sandra Braman, Dom Caristi, Alistair Duff, Gisela Gil-Egui, Alison Harcourt, Jackie Harrison, Robert W. McChesney, Serge Proulx, Marc Raboy, Concetta M. Stewart, Yan Tian and Roxanne Welters.

Culture, politics, economics and technology all impact upon policy decisions. To investigate the factors that influence communications policy, however, one has to go beyond conventional views of media and communication studies and combine these with policy studies. Communications Policy: Theories and Issues utilizes new research to highlight key debates and developments, and addresses a broad spectrum of contemporary concerns regarding the structure and the organization of communications systems in the past, present and future. Combining theoretical analysis with empirical research findings, this comprehensive text explores the contemporary theories and issues in communications policy that affect all democratic societies as they seek to address the challenges of emerging information and communications technologies. Featuring contributions from distinguished authors across a range of media disciplines, Communications Policy introduces challenging ideas about how communications should be structured in the future and is essential reading for all policy makers, researchers and students of communications policy. Editors: Stylianos Papathanassopoulos is Professor in Media Organization at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is the author of Television in the 21st Century (2005), Media and Politics (2004) and European Television in the Digital Age: Issues, Dynamics and Realities (2002). Ralph Negrine is Professor of Political Communication in the Journalism Studies Department at the University of Sheffield. His previous books include The Transformation of Political Communication (Palgrave, 2008), Television and the Press Since 1945 (1999) and The Communication of Politics (1996). Contributors: Bram Abramson, Johannes M. Bauer, Sandra Braman, Dom Caristi, Alistair Duff, Gisela Gil-Egui, Alison Harcourt, Jackie Harrison, Robert W. McChesney, Serge Proulx, Marc Raboy, Concetta M. Stewart, Yan Tian and Roxanne Welters.

Complex technology is now widely available and commonplace, with new developments emerging almost every day. So how are we to keep up with and make sense of technological changes behind media and communication systems? Do new technologies change society, or are new media the products of social forces? This book examines how media and communication technologies work and considers the society that develops and uses them. From the telegraph to the future of mobile communication, Stephen Lax takes the reader through a critical examination of the most important technologies to come out of the past century. Each chapter is filled with insightful case studies and thought-provoking examples that clearly explain key concepts, whilst exploring historical context and chronological developments to show that 'new' technology depends upon its history. Assuming no prior technical knowledge, the book addresses both technical and social aspects of these developments, explaining bandwidths and frequencies alongside issues of policy and regulation. Illustrated with clear diagrams, boxes and tables, Media and Communication Technologies helps students to confront and make sense of the technological changes taking place in communications today.