Special Issues Roundup

Measuring Exposure: Papers from the Annenberg Media Exposure Workshop, edited by Martin Fishbein and Robert Hornik is the special double issue of Communication Methods and Measures (Volume 2, Numbers 1-2, January-June 2008). The workshop, held at the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania, asked six questions. 1) How reliable are general measures of exposure?, 2) How can we measure exposure to a specific type of content across media?, 3) How should multiple media use and multi-tasking be taken into account in assessing exposure?, 4) What alternative approaches should be considered for measuring content? 5) How do you assess what content is out there?, and 6) What receiver issues need to be taken into account in developing measures of exposure? One or two papers in the issue are devoted to each of these questions.

Ilan Kapoor and Shahnaz Khan edit the special issue of Topia (Number 19, Spring 2008), Islam and Cultural Politics. As the editors explain in the introduction, the issue focuses on two views of Islam: The Dominant View: Islam as "Other" and The Postcolonial View: Islam as Open and Political.

Communication and the Community of Sport is the topic of the Western Journal of Communication, edited Bob Krizek (Volume 72, Number 2, April-June 2008).

Social Semiotics (Volume 18, Number 2, June 2008) deals with The Star and the Celebrity Confessional. Edited by Sean Redmond, the issue includes 10 articles on celebrity confessions, racism and celebrity, celebrity motherhood, confessional art, among others. Celebrities include the usual suspects: Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Jodie Foster, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Russell Crowe.

The International Communication Gazette (Volume 70, Numbers 3-4, June/August, 2008) is titled Communicative Cities featuring seven articles on urban communication, networks, and public space. Gary Gumpert and Susan J. Drucker are co-editors.

And two cultural studies journals devote issues to the environment:

Cultural Studies and the Environment, Revisited is the special issue of Cultural Studies (Volume 22, Numbers 3-4, May/July 2008), guested-edited by Phaedra C. Pezzullo.

Kitty van Vuuren and Libby Lester guest-edit the Eco-Media issue of Media International Australia (Number 127, May 2008) which includes Celebrity Conservation: Interpreting the Irwins (to return to a subject above).

January journal roundup

A few end of year 2007 special issues to point out:

The fourth issue of Social Semiotics (Volume 17, December 2007) is heavily devoted to Michael Jackson (Framing Michael Jackson: Celebrity on Trial) exploring "many questions about celebrity scandal, cultural performance and identity, intersecting with ideas about race, gender and sexuality," according to Jenny Kitzinger and Sujata Moorti in the issue's Introduction.

Communication Research and the Study of Surveillance is the topic of The Communication Review (Volume 10, Number 4, 2007), edited by Kelly Gates and Shoshana Magnet.

Paul J. Lavrakas edits Public Opinion Quarterly's (Volume 71, Number 5, 2007) special issue titled: Cell Phone Numbers and Telephone Surveying in the U.S. While the issue focuses on the use of cell phones in surveys, it leads off with a historical piece on two of the most influential researchers on survey methods with telephones, Warren Mitofsky and Joseph Waksberg.

The Journal of Mass Media Ethics, which explores questions of media morality, devotes a special issue (Volume 22, Number 7, 2007) to the question, "Who Is a Journalist?" Edited by Wendy Wyatt, the issue features an interesting article on the role of "fake news" (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report) in media criticism, among others.

And while not a theme issue, Comm history buffs should check out Critical Studies in Media Communication's (Volume 24, Number 5, 2007) Critical Forum which is devoted to Daniel Czitrom's Media and the American Mind with short pieces by Jack Lule, Sue Curry Jansen, David Park, Jefferson Pooley, and Peter Simonson, followed by a response to the contributors from Czitrom himself.