Two New Reference Books on Social Movement Media, Political Communication

Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media, edited by John D. H. Downing (Sage, 2010). A one-volume encyclopedia featuring over 250 essays on the role of media in social movements in the 20th and 21st centuries. "Thematic essays address selected issues such as human rights media, indigenous peoples' media, and environmentalist media, and on key concepts widely used in the field such as alternative media, citizens' media, and community media. The encyclopedia engages with all communication media: broadcasting, print, cinema, the Internet, popular song, street theater, graffiti, and dance" (publisher's website).

Key themes include: Cinema, Television, and Video; Cultural Contestations; Feminist Media; Gay and Lesbian Media; Human Rights Media; Independence Movement Media; Indigenous Peoples' Media; Information Policy Activism; Internet;Labor Media; News; Performance Art Media; Popular Song; Press; Radio; and Regions.

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Sourcebook for Political Communication Research:Methods, Measures, and Analytical Techniques, by Erik P. Bucy, R. Lance Holbert (Routledge, 2010).

"...covers the major analytical techniques used in political communication research, including surveys, experiments, content analysis, discourse analysis (focus groups and textual analysis), network and deliberation analysis, comparative study designs, statistical analysis, and measurement issues. It also includes such innovations as the use of advanced statistical techniques, and addresses digital media as a means through which to disseminate as well as study political communication. It considers the use of methods adapted from other disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, and neuroscience." --Publisher's website

Look for the chapter co-authored by Kathleen Hall Jamieson with Kate Kenski (ASC alum '06) and Jeffrey Gottfried (ASC PhD candidate) titled: The Rolling Cross-Section: Design and Utility for Political Research.

Both these title can be found at in ASC Reference.

Article Feature: Shoe Throwing as Political Protest

From the latest Media, War & Conflict (August 2009; Vol. 2, No. 2).

The art of shoe-throwing: shoes as a symbol of protest and popular imagination

Yasmin Ibrahim

University of Brighton, UK, y.ibrahim@brighton.ac.uk

The art of shoe-throwing has captured popular imagination and is here to stay as a form of popular political protest. In a recent incident, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao became a near-victim of a notorious flying shoe during his visit to London in February 2009. Shoe-throwing has become a celebrated art form ever since an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at then US President George W. Bush, eternally sealing Bush's last presidential moments with the iconic image of the shoe. Popular acts of communication and protests enter new forms of relationships with audiences and global spectators beyond the political context and the shoe-throwing incident is no exception. It has been consummately appropriated into popular culture and entertainment in the multimedia platforms of the internet, transforming political images and political protests into voyeuristic entertainment for the masses.