This book is an essential resource for media educators working to promote critical thinking, creativity, and civic engagement through their teaching. Connecting theory and research with creative projects and analyses of pop culture, it models an integrated and practical approach to media education. In order to prepare learners to successfully navigate rapid shifts in digital technology and popular culture, media educators in both secondary and university settings need to develop fresh, innovative approaches. Integrating concepts and practices from the fields of media studies, media arts, and media literacy, this book prepares teachers to help their students make connections between their studies, uses of media, creative expression, and political participation. As educators implement the strategies in this book in their curricula and pedagogy, they will be empowered to help their students more thoughtfully engage with media culture and use their intelligence and imagination to address pressing challenges facing our world today. Making Media Matter is an engaging and accessible read for educators and scholars in the areas of media literacy, media and cultural studies, media arts, and communication studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

"This book is an essential resource for media educators working to promote critical thinking, creativity, and civic engagement through their teaching. Connecting theory and research with creative projects and analyses of pop culture, it models an integrated and practical approach to media education. In order to prepare learners to successfully navigate rapid shifts in digital technology and popular culture, media educators in both secondary and university settings need to develop fresh, innovative approaches. Integrating concepts and practices from the fields of media studies, media arts, and media literacy, this book prepares teachers to help their students make connections between their studies, uses of media, creative expression, and political participation. As educators implement the strategies in this book in their curricula and pedagogy, they will be empowered to help their students more thoughtfully engage with media culture and use their intelligence and imagination to address pressing challenges facing our world today. Making Media Matter is an engaging and accessible read for educators and scholars in the areas of media literacy, media and cultural studies, media arts, and communication studies"--

How the 2016 news media environment allowed Trump to win the presidency The 2016 presidential election campaign might have seemed to be all about one man. He certainly did everything possible to reinforce that impression. But to an unprecedented degree the campaign also was about the news media and its relationships with the man who won and the woman he defeated. Words that Matter assesses how the news media covered the extraordinary 2016 election and, more important, what information—true, false, or somewhere in between—actually helped voters make up their minds. Using journalists' real-time tweets and published news coverage of campaign events, along with Gallup polling data measuring how voters perceived that reporting, the book traces the flow of information from candidates and their campaigns to journalists and to the public. The evidence uncovered shows how Donald Trump's victory, and Hillary Clinton's loss, resulted in large part from how the news media responded to these two unique candidates. Both candidates were unusual in their own ways, and thus presented a long list of possible issues for the media to focus on. Which of these many topics got communicated to voters made a big difference outcome. What people heard about these two candidates during the campaign was quite different. Coverage of Trump was scattered among many different issues, and while many of those issues were negative, no single negative narrative came to dominate the coverage of the man who would be elected the 45th president of the United States. Clinton, by contrast, faced an almost unrelenting news media focus on one negative issue—her alleged misuse of e-mails—that captured public attention in a way that the more numerous questions about Trump did not. Some news media coverage of the campaign was insightful and helpful to voters who really wanted serious information to help them make the most important decision a democracy offers. But this book also demonstrates how the modern media environment can exacerbate the kind of pack journalism that leads some issues to dominate the news while others of equal or greater importance get almost no attention, making it hard for voters to make informed choices.

Photography became a dominant medium in cultural life starting in the late nineteenth century. As it happened, viewers increasingly used their reactions to photographs to comment on and debate public issues as vital as war, national identity, and citizenship. Cara A. Finnegan analyzes a wealth of newspaper and magazine articles, letters to the editor, trial testimony, books, and speeches produced by viewers in response to specific photos they encountered in public. From the portrait of a young Lincoln to images of child laborers and Depression-era hardship, Finnegan treats the photograph as a locus for viewer engagement and constructs a history of photography's viewers that shows how Americans used words about images to participate in the politics of their day. As she shows, encounters with photography helped viewers negotiate the emergent anxieties and crises of U.S. public life through not only persuasion but action, as well.

Most scientists and researchers aren’t prepared to talk to the press or to policymakers—or to deal with backlash. Many researchers have the horror stories to prove it. What’s clear, according to Nancy Baron, is that scientists, journalists and public policymakers come from different cultures. They follow different sets of rules, pursue different goals, and speak their own language. To effectively reach journalists and public officials, scientists need to learn new skills and rules of engagement. No matter what your specialty, the keys to success are clear thinking, knowing what you want to say, understanding your audience, and using everyday language to get your main points across. In this practical and entertaining guide to communicating science, Baron explains how to engage your audience and explain why a particular finding matters. She explores how to ace your interview, promote a paper, enter the political fray, and use new media to connect with your audience. The book includes advice from journalists, decision makers, new media experts, bloggers and some of the thousands of scientists who have participated in her communication workshops. Many of the researchers she has worked with have gone on to become well-known spokespeople for science-related issues. Baron and her protégées describe the risks and rewards of “speaking up,” how to deal with criticism, and the link between communications and leadership. The final chapter, ‘Leading the Way’ offers guidance to scientists who want to become agents of change and make your science matter. Whether you are an absolute beginner or a seasoned veteran looking to hone your skills, Escape From the Ivory Tower can help make your science understood, appreciated and perhaps acted upon.

Download your free digital copy of Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black Racism! At the heart of racist attitudes and behaviors is anti-Black racism, which simply put, is the disregard and disdain of Black life. Anti-Black racism negatively impacts every aspect of the lives of Black people. Edited by renowned scholar and psychologist Kevin Cokley, Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black Racism explores the history and contemporary circumstances of anti-Black racism, offers powerful personal anecdotes, and provides recommendations and solutions to challenging anti-Black racism in its various expressions. The book features chapters written by scholars, practitioners, activists, and students. The chapters reflect diverse perspectives from the Black community and writing styles that range from scholarly text supported by cited research to personal narratives that highlight the lived experiences of the contributors. The book focuses on the ways that anti-Black racism manifests and has been confronted across various domains of Black life using research, activism, social media, and therapy. In the words of Cokley: "It is my hope that the book will provide a blueprint for readers that will empower them to actively confront anti-Blackness wherever it exists, because this is the only way we will progress toward making Black lives matter." Making Black Lives Matter is a book that is meant to be shared! The goal for Cognella for publishing this book is to amplify the voices of those who need to be heard and to provide readers free access to critical scholarship on topics that affect our everyday lives. We''re proud to provide free digital copies of the book to anyone who wants to read it. So, we encourage you to spread the word and share the book with everyone you know. Learn more about Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black Racism! If you post about the book on social media, please use the hashtags #MakingBlackLivesMatter and #Cognella to join the conversation! Chapters and contributors include: Introduction - Kevin Cokley, Ph.D. Part I - Activism Chapter 1: "Historical Overview of the Black Struggle: Factors Affecting African American Activism" - Benson G. Cooke, Edwin J. Nichols, Schuyler C. Webb, Steven J. Jones, and Nia N. Williams Chapter 2: "Facilitating Black Survival and Wellness through Scholar-Activism" - Della V. Mosley, Pearis Bellamy, Garrett Ross, Jeannette Mejia, LaNya Lee, Carla Prieto, and Sunshine Adam Chapter 3: "Confronting Anti-Black Racism and Promoting Social Justice: Applications through Social Media" - Erlanger A. Turner, Maryam Jernigan-Noesi, and Isha Metzger Chapter 4: "#Say Her Name: The Impact of Gendered Racism and Misogynoir on the Lives of Black Women" - Jioni A. Lewis Part II - Public Policy Chapter 5: "A Tale of Three Cities: Segregation and Anti-Black Education Policy in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin" - Annika Olson Chapter 6: "Policing the Black Diaspora: Colonial Histories and Global Inequities in Policing and Carceral Punishment" - Ricardo Henrique Lowe, Jr. Chapter 7: "Building Health Equity among Black Young People with Lived Experience of Homelessness" - Norweeta G. Milburn and Dawn T. Bounds Chapter 8: "Anti-Blackness and Housing Inequality in the United States: A History of Housing Discrimination in Major Metropolitan Cities" - Tracie A. Lowe Part III - Community Voices Chapter 9: "Values-Driven, Community-Led Justice in Austin: A Project" - Sukyi McMahon and Chas Moore Chapter 10: "Leveraging the Power of Education to Confront Anti-Black Racism" - David W. Nowlin, Robert Muhammad, and Llyas Salahud-din Chapter 11: "Let the Òrìṣà Speak: Traditional Healing for Contemporary Times" - Ifetayo I. Ojelade Chapter 12: "The Victorious Mind: Addressing the Black Male in a Time of Turmoil" - Rico Mosby Part IV - Student Voices Chapter 13: "Unsung, Underpaid, and Unafraid: Black Graduate Students'' Response To Academic and Social Anti-Blackness" - Marlon Bailey, Shaina Hall, Carly Coleman, and Nolan Krueger Chapter 14: "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black" - Marlie Harris, Mercedes Holmes, Kuukuwa Koomson, and Brianna McBride Chapter 15: "From Segregation and Disinclusion: The Anti-Black Experience of Graduate School" - Keoshia Harris and TaShara Williams Read the press release to learn more about Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black Racism.