Download or read book The Blogfather written by Iain Dale and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Iain Dale's Diary caught the beginning of the great blog wave and rode it until Twitter became the dominant form of digital communication. Dale was key in transforming British political comment - melding political convictions, personal views, gossip and emotional honesty. His diary of the Westminster Village quickly built up hundreds of thousands of readers and became a must for those on the inside and those on the outside as well. Dale had something for everyone and not just political geeks: chance encounters, domestic dramas, the travails of supporting West Ham, and even the joys of walking the dog. We miss it. Read all about it in The Blogfather, an offer you shouldn't refuse." - Adam Boulton

Download or read book Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies written by Susannah Gardner and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2005-03-11 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this instant-communication world, buzz means business! And one of the greatest ways to get customers and potential customers buzzing about your business is with a Web log, commonly called a blog. Blogs can help you: Introduce the people behind your business Discuss relevant issues Provide a clearinghouse for information and expertise Show your business as a good corporate citizen Support an exchange of ideas Get honest feedback from your customers Affect public opinion If you’re new to blogging, or if you know the mechanics of a blog but want some help refining and targeting yours, Buzz Marketing With Blogs For Dummies will get you going right away. An expert blogger shows you the ins and outs of putting together a professional-looking blog, walks you through the jargon, helps you decide what your blog should do, and even explains various software solutions. You’ll find out how to: Set up and maintain a blog, write in blogging style, and observe blogging etiquette Define your audience and target your blog to reach them Involve your customers, earn their trust, educate the public, and build community Avoid possible legal pitfalls while keeping your blog interesting Encourage contributions and links to your blog Use images and design an eye-catching format Optimize your blog for top search engine ratings, track your results, and measure your success Written by Susannah Gardner, who has taught online journalism, directed multimedia efforts, and provided custom Web solutions to clients, Buzz Marketing With Blogs For Dummies even shares tips from the experts who establish and maintain some of the top-rated business blogs. You’ll discover the secrets of success, how to spot and solve problems, what software can enhance your blogging life, and a whole lot more. It like having a staff of experts on call!

Download or read book Typing Politics written by Richard Davis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The power of political blogs in American politics is now evident to anyone who follows it. In Typing Politics, Richard Davis provides a comprehensive yet concise assessment of the growing role played by political blogs and their relationship with the mainstream media. Through a detailed content analysis of the most popular political blogs--Daily Kos, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, and Wonkette--he shows the degree to which blogs influence the traditional news media. Specifically, he compares the content of these blogs to four leading newspapers noted for their political coverage: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Times. He explains how political journalists at these papers use blogs to inform their reportage and analyzes general attitudes about the role of blogs in journalism. Drawing on a national survey of political blog readers, Davis concludes with a novel assessment of the blog audience. Compact, accessible, and well-researched, Typing Politics will be an invaluable contribution to the literature on a phenomenon that has reshaped the landscape of political communication.

Download or read book The Dictionary of Conservative Quotations written by Iain Dale and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2013-09-11 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You'll need this thoughtful and entertaining assembly of conservative quotations if you're at all keen on politics. With more than 2,000 key quotes, this authoritative collection contains all the best conservatives and their sayings, whether they were standing up for what's right or standing up to the left, showing off their wit or showing that their foes were witless. It's got all the big names: everyone from Aquinas to Bagehot, Churchill to Cameron, Shakespeare to Thatcher. In The Dictionary of Conservative Quotations you'll find humour (Quayle) and inspiration (Burke), political punches (Hague) and ancient wisdom (Aristotle), all wrapped up into one slick, easy-to-use compendium. This book makes a vital reference source for anyone who cares for politics or the Conservatives and is a must-have for everyone with an interest in conservative thought.

Download or read book The Argument written by Matt Bai and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-07-29 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely cited by journalists and bloggers as the man to read to understand the political races, New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai has written a book about the Democratic Party that's as riveting as it is timely and vital. The Argument takes readers to the front lines of the grassroots progressive movement that is seizing power from the party's weakened D.C. establishment, capturing a colorful cast of donors and power brokers struggling to articulate a direction: an argument. The result is a fascinating, uniquely candid look at present-day politics.

Download or read book The Future of Reputation written by Daniel J. Solove and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teeming with chatrooms, online discussion groups, and blogs, the Internet offers previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication. But there's a dark side to the story. A trail of information fragments about us is forever preserved on the Internet, instantly available in a Google search. A permanent chronicle of our private lives--often of dubious reliability and sometimes totally false--will follow us wherever we go, accessible to friends, strangers, dates, employers, neighbors, relatives, and anyone else who cares to look. This engrossing book, brimming with amazing examples of gossip, slander, and rumor on the Internet, explores the profound implications of the online collision between free speech and privacy. Daniel Solove, an authority on information privacy law, offers a fascinating account of how the Internet is transforming gossip, the way we shame others, and our ability to protect our own reputations. Focusing on blogs, Internet communities, cybermobs, and other current trends, he shows that, ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet may impede opportunities for self-development and freedom. Long-standing notions of privacy need review, the author contends: unless we establish a balance between privacy and free speech, we may discover that the freedom of the Internet makes us less free.

Download or read book Social Media in Iran written by David M. Faris and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2015-11-20 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social Media in Iran is the first book to tell the complex story of how and why the Iranian people—including women, homosexuals, dissidents, artists, and even state actors—use social media technology, and in doing so create a contentious environment wherein new identities and realities are constructed. Drawing together emerging and established scholars in communication, culture, and media studies, this volume considers the role of social media in Iranian society, particularly the time during and after the controversial 2009 presidential election, a watershed moment in the postrevolutionary history of Iran. While regional specialists may find studies on specific themes useful, the aim of this volume is to provide broad narratives of actor-based conceptions of media technology, an approach that focuses on the experiential and social networking processes of digital practices in the information era extended beyond cultural specificities. Students and scholars of regional and media studies will find this volume rich with empirical and theoretical insights on the subject of how technologies shape political and everyday life.

Download or read book Welcome to the Suck written by Stacey Peebles and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our collective memories of World War II and Vietnam have been shaped as much by memoirs, novels, and films as they have been by history books. In Welcome to the Suck, Stacey Peebles examines the growing body of contemporary war stories in prose, poetry, and film that speak to the American soldier’s experience in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War. Stories about war always encompass ideas about initiation, masculinity, cross-cultural encounters, and trauma. Peebles shows us how these timeless themes find new expression among a generation of soldiers who have grown up in a time when it has been more acceptable than ever before to challenge cultural and societal norms, and who now have unprecedented and immediate access to the world away from the battlefield through new media and technology. Two Gulf War memoirs by Anthony Swofford (Jarhead) and Joel Turnipseed (Baghdad Express) provide a portrait of soldiers living and fighting on the cusp of the major political and technological changes that would begin in earnest just a few years later. The Iraq War, a much longer conflict, has given rise to more and various representations. Peebles covers a blog by Colby Buzzell ("My War"), memoirs by Nathaniel Fick (One Bullet Away) and Kayla Williams (Love My Rifle More Than You); a collection of stories by John Crawford (The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell); poetry by Brian Turner (Here, Bullet); the documentary Alive Day Memories; and the feature films In the Valley of Elah and the winner of the 2010 Oscar for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker, both written by the war correspondent Mark Boal. Books and other media emerging from the conflicts in the Gulf have yet to receive the kind of serious attention that Vietnam War texts received during the 1980s and 1990s. With its thoughtful and timely analysis, Welcome to the Suck will provoke much discussion among those who wish to understand today’s war literature and films and their place in the tradition of war representation more generally.

Download or read book Infotopia written by Cass R. Sunstein and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-08-24 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of the "information society" offers not only considerable peril but also great promise. Beset from all sides by a never-ending barrage of media, how can we ensure that the most accurate information emerges and is heeded? In this book, Cass R. Sunstein develops a deeply optimistic understanding of the human potential to pool information, and to use that knowledge to improve our lives. In an age of information overload, it is easy to fall back on our own prejudices and insulate ourselves with comforting opinions that reaffirm our core beliefs. Crowds quickly become mobs. The justification for the Iraq war, the collapse of Enron, the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia--all of these resulted from decisions made by leaders and groups trapped in "information cocoons," shielded from information at odds with their preconceptions. How can leaders and ordinary people challenge insular decision making and gain access to the sum of human knowledge? Stunning new ways to share and aggregate information, many Internet-based, are helping companies, schools, governments, and individuals not only to acquire, but also to create, ever-growing bodies of accurate knowledge. Through a ceaseless flurry of self-correcting exchanges, wikis, covering everything from politics and business plans to sports and science fiction subcultures, amass--and refine--information. Open-source software enables large numbers of people to participate in technological development. Prediction markets aggregate information in a way that allows companies, ranging from computer manufacturers to Hollywood studios, to make better decisions about product launches and office openings. Sunstein shows how people can assimilate aggregated information without succumbing to the dangers of the herd mentality--and when and why the new aggregation techniques are so astoundingly accurate. In a world where opinion and anecdote increasingly compete on equal footing with hard evidence, the on-line effort of many minds coming together might well provide the best path to infotopia.

Download or read book Identity written by Christopher Chávez and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identity: Beyond Tradition and McWorld Neoliberalism refashions the frameworks of discussion of “who we are”. In the “Introduction”, co-editors Brian Michael Goss and Christopher Chávez’s grand tour re-works previous concepts of identity in prelude to the volume’s global reach. The first section examines the intersection of identity and mass media; to wit, non-ascriptive ideological interpolation in a right-wing British broadsheet, the rise of beur cinema as an organically European movement, and linguistic construction of foreigners in a Thai novel. The second section examines the nation and trans-nation. The discussion traverses the “Global Latino” in advertising discourse, the (practical, theoretical) conundrums inscribed in the European Union, retorts to the global construction of Italianicity, implications of Spain’s World Cup triumph in 2010 for the nation’s unity, and the activism of expatriate Iranian bloggers. The third section of the book addresses social approaches to identity. Matchmakers who coach Israeli daters and a linguistic analysis of female teen conflict on Facebook conclude the trajectory through global sites at which identity is animated in practice, within a volume of scholarly originality grounded in the present moment.

Download or read book Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa written by Sherine Hafez and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-05 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume combines ethnographic accounts of fieldwork with overviews of recent anthropological literature about the region on topics such as Islam, gender, youth, and new media. It addresses contemporary debates about modernity, nation building, and the link between the ideology of power and the production of knowledge. Contributors include established and emerging scholars known for the depth and quality of their ethnographic writing and for their interventions in current theory.

Download or read book The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging written by The editors of the Huffington Post and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-12-02 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editors of The Huffington Post -- the most linked-to blog on the web -- offer an A-Z guide to all things blog, with information for everyone from the tech-challenged newbie looking to get a handle on this new way of communicating to the experienced blogger looking to break through the clutter of the Internet. With an introduction by Arianna Huffington, the site's cofounder and editor in chief, this book is everything you want to know about blogging, but didn't know who to ask. As entertaining as it is informative, The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging will show you what to do to get your blog started. You'll find tools to help you build your blog, strategies to create your community, tips on finding your voice, and entertaining anecdotes from HuffPost bloggers that will make you wonder what took you so long to blog in the first place. The Guide also includes choice selections from HuffPost's wide-ranging mix of top-notch bloggers. Among those who have blogged on HuffPost are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Larry David, Jane Smiley, Bill Maher, Nora Ephron, Jon Robin Baitz, Steve Martin, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ari Emanuel, Mia Farrow, Al Franken, Gary Hart, Barbara Ehrenreich, Edward Kennedy, Harry Shearer, Nancy Pelosi, Adam McKay, John Ridley, and Alec Baldwin.

Download or read book The Only Constant Is Change written by Ben Epstein and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of American political history, political elites and organizations have often updated their political communications strategies in order to achieve longstanding political communication goals in more efficient or effective ways. But why do successful innovations occur when they do, and what motivates political actors to make choices about how to innovate their communication tactics? Covering over 300 years of political communication innovations, Ben Epstein shows how this process of change happens and why. To do this, Epstein, following an interdisciplinary approach, proposes a new model called "the political communication cycle" that accounts for the technological, behavioral, and political factors that lead to revolutionary political communication changes over time. These changes (at least the successful ones) have been far from gradual, as long periods of relatively stable political communication activities have been disrupted by brief periods of dramatic and permanent transformation. These transformations are driven by political actors and organizations, and tend to follow predictable patterns. Epstein moves beyond the technological determinism that characterizes communication history scholarship and the medium-specific focus of much political communication work. The book identifies the political communication revolutions that have, in the United States, led to four, relatively stable political communication orders over history: the elite, mass, broadcast, and (the current) information orders. It identifies and tests three phases of each revolutionary cycle, ultimately sketching possible paths for the future. The Only Constant is Change offers readers and scholars a model and vocabulary to compare political communication changes across time and between different types of political organizations. This provides greater understanding of where we are currently in the recurring political communication cycle, and where we might be headed.

Download or read book Prison Diaries written by Denis MacShane and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-17 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two days before Christmas 2013, former MP Denis MacShane entered one of Europe's harshest prisons. Having pleaded guilty to false accounting at the Old Bailey, he had been sentenced to six months in jail. Upon arrival at Belmarsh Prison, his books and personal possessions were confiscated and he was locked in a solitary cell for up to twenty-three hours a day. Denis was the latest MP condemned to serve as an example in the wake of the expenses scandal. Written with scavenged pens and scraps of paper, this diary is a compelling account of his extraordinary experiences in Belmarsh and, later, Brixton. Recording the lives of his fellow prisoners, he discovers a humility and a willingness to admit mistakes that was conspicuously lacking in his former colleagues at the House of Commons. Woven into the narrative are thought-provoking reflections on a range of important topics, from the waning of public confidence in MPs - and the high-profile termination of his own political career - to the failings of the British judicial system. Above all, Prison Diaries reveals what life as a prisoner in Britain is really like, addressing issues such as rising inmate numbers, dehumanising conditions, high incarceration rates, lack of rehabilitation and an endemic political disinterest. This honest and fascinating diary is both a first-hand insight into the current prison system and a report on how it simply does not work.

Download or read book The Edumacation of Jay Baker written by Jay Clark and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In small-town Ohio, 15-year-old Jay Baker's popular new blog helps him navigate high school as he faces off against his mortal enemy, meets the girl of his dreams, and watches his parents' relationship implode.

Download or read book The Honourable Ladies written by Iain Dale and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 878 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biteback Publishing is delighted to announce a major new project, a two volume series of biographies of every female MP ever to be elected to the House of Commons. When Constance Markievicz stood for election as MP for Dublin St Patrick's in 1918, few people believed she could win the seat – yet she did. A breakthrough in the bitter struggle for female enfranchisement had come earlier that year, followed by a second landmark piece of legislation allowing women to be elected to Parliament – and Markievicz duly became the first woman MP. A member of Sinn Féin, she refused to take her seat. She did, however, pave the way for future generations, and only eleven months later, Nancy Astor entered the Commons. A century on from that historic event, 491 women have now passed through the hallowed doors of Parliament. Each one of these pioneers has fought tenaciously to introduce enduring reform, and in doing so has helped revolutionise Britain's political landscape, ensuring that women's contributions are not consigned to the history books. Containing profiles of all 287 woman MPs from 1997 to 2019, and with female contributors from Mary Beard to Caroline Lucas, Ruth Davidson to Yvette Cooper and Margaret Beckett to Ann Widdecombe, The Honourable Ladies: Volume II is an indispensable and illuminating testament to the stories and achievements of these remarkable women.

Download or read book Blogistan written by Annabelle Sreberny and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2010-10-30 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The protests unleashed by Iran's disputed presidential election in June 2009 brought the Islamic Republic's vigorous cyber culture to the world's attention. Iran has an estimated 700,000 bloggers, and new media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were thought to have played a key role in spreading news of the protests. The internet is often celebrated as an agent of social change in countries like Iran, but most literature on the subject has struggled to grasp what this new phenomenon actually means. How is it different from print culture? Is it really a new public sphere? Will the Iranian blogosphere create a culture of dissidence, which eventually overpowers the Islamist regime? In this groundbreaking work, the authors give a flavour of contemporary internet culture in Iran and analyse how this new form of communication is affecting the social and political life of the country. Although they warn against stereotyping bloggers as dissidents, they argue that the internet is changing things in ways which neither the government nor the democracy movement could have anticipated. "Blogistan" offers both a new reading of Iranian politics and a new conceptual framework for understanding the politics of the internet, with implications for the wider Middle East, China and beyond.