The media play active roles in politics with different media channels serving as bridges that link the politicians and citizens together. It is clear that what the media emphasize as important may be seen as such by the public. Hence, it is likely that the media may impact voter decisions during electoral processes and even during the elections. As such, it is imperative that research is collected on the impact of the media and the role it plays in strengthening party loyalty, improving public knowledge on elections, and swaying apathetic citizens to become involved in the electoral process. Global Perspectives on the Impact of Mass Media on Electoral Processes provides relevant theoretical frameworks and research findings that evidence the impact of the media in specific elections in different countries around the world. The book supports professionals who want to improve their understanding of the strategic roles that the media play in electoral politics as well as political candidates who may want to know if their heavy expenditures in paying the media to carry their political messages bring in returns on their investment. Covering topics that include social media, political cartoons, and media influence, this book seeks to provide fresh insights on the media’s impact on elections whether at the national, regional, or local levels. It is ideal for politicians, campaign managers, media analysts, government officials, professionals, researchers, students, academicians, and individuals involved in electoral management, political parties, advertising agencies, and marketing companies.

Intrapersonal communication has been considered and studied less in comparison to general communication and other related topics. Moreover, intrapersonal communication is usually mentioned in the context of studying other topics, as opposed to being studied singularly. To fully understand the complexity and potential uses of this field of study, intrapersonal communication must be researched further. A Social-Scientific Examination of the Dynamics of Communication, Thought, and Selves focuses on the concept of intrapersonal communication, discusses how and why we communicate with ourselves, and considers how scholars can help humans improve and harness intrapersonal communication in fields such as artificial intelligence. The book also makes a forceful case for the importance and potential utility of intrapersonal communication. Covering topics such as language, sociology, and cognitive science, this reference work is ideal for sociologists, psychologists, industry professionals, academicians, scholars, researchers, practitioners, instructors, and students.

In today’s global culture where the internet has established itself as a main tool of communication, the global system of economy and regulations, as well as data and decisions based on data analysis, have become essential for public actors and institutions. Governments need to be updated and use the latest technologies to understand what society’s demands are, and user behavioral data, which can be pulled by intelligent applications, can offer tremendous insights into this. The Handbook of Research on Artificial Intelligence in Government Practices and Processes identifies definitional perspectives of behavioral data science and what its use by governments means for automation, predictability, and risks to privacy and free decision making in society. Many governments can train their algorithms to work with machine learning, leading to the capacity to interfere in the behavior of society and potentially achieve a change in societal behavior without society itself even being aware of it. As such, the use of artificial intelligence by governments has raised concerns about privacy and personal security issues. Covering topics such as digital democracy, data extraction techniques, and political communications, this book is an essential resource for data analysts, politicians, journalists, public figures, executives, researchers, data specialists, communication specialists, digital marketers, and academicians.

This book brings together fresh evidence and new theoretical frameworks in a unique analysis of the increasing role of social media in political campaigns and electoral processes across Africa. Supported by contemporary and historical cases studies, it engages with the main drives behind the various appropriations of social media for election campaigns, organization, and voter mobilization. Contributors in this volume delve into changing and complex aspects of social media, offering an appraisal of theoretical perspectives and examining fascinating case studies which social media use is redefining elections across Africa. Contributions show that new media ecologies are resulting in new policy regimes, user behaviors, and communication models that have implications for electoral processes. The book also provides preliminary analysis of emerging forms of algorithm-driven campaigns, fake news, information distortions and other methods that undermine electoral democracy in Africa.

This book explores the geographical dimensions and implications of the post-truth era. Opening with a defense of the Enlightenment and the continued significance of science, objectivity, and truth, it then provides three key perspectives on the concept: The first is a philosophical analysis of post-truth. Social theory in various forms has sutured knowledge and power, in the process relativizing the nature of truth. This process reaches its apogee under post-modernism, which questions the very nature of truth itself. The second is the examination of the historical origins and development of the post-truth world. While post-truth has a history that can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries, more recently it has growth prolifically through the use of social media. The book examines post-truth as it appears in the yellow journalism of the Hearst newspapers, Holocaust denial, and contemporary attacks on science itself (e.g., the anti-vaccine movement, denial of evolution). Post-truth becomes a central issue in Western politics following Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, who uses it frequently to advance a reactionary political agenda. Russian hackers weaponize it to interfere in the politics of Europe and the U.S. Fox News and other right-wing outlets also play a central role. One result is the proliferation of unfounded conspiracy theories such as QAnon. Today, autocrats and dictators the world over use fake news to maintain their power. Finally, this book links the rise of a post-truth society to the dynamics of contemporary economic geography. Knowledge-intensive capitalism has greatly elevated the significance of symbolic workers or the creative class. Geographically, contemporary capitalism has accentuated the agglomeration of producer services in large urban areas in which such workers labor. Conversely, rural areas and small towns have largely become repositories of the undereducated, and thus are more susceptible to fake news.

In the event of a disastrous event leading to the loss of communication networks, ad-hoc networks are a potent wireless communication resource because of their unique features including being quickly deployable and having a distributed nature, large coverage area, reduced cost, and more. Flying ad-hoc networks (FANETS) and vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETS) are the future technology and can solve many problems in e-commerce delivery through drones, agriculture, vaccine delivery, and more. The unique characteristics of these networks and special requirements have created new challenges for the research community in recent decades. Modelling and Simulation of Fast-Moving Ad-Hoc Networks (FANETs and VANETs) enhances the modelling and simulation aspects of FANETS and VANETS and understands the protocols in mac layer and network layers for fast-moving ad-hoc networks. It presents simulations run using various simulation tools and measures the performance metrics of ad-hoc networks. Covering topics such as emulation tools, secure communication, and modelling software, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for computer scientists, IT specialists, business leaders and managers, supply chain and logistics management, libraries, students, government officials, international organizations, law enforcement, engineers, agriculturalists, researchers, and academicians.

There are dramatic global challenges that urge us to examine our identities and the need for intercultural dialogue to overcome differences and bring the world together around the concept of a global human module. Dialogue is important to give the world an agenda for action based on tolerance, mutual respect, and fairness. These actions can only succeed if people are clear about the foundations of cultures and civilizations, which can only be reached through dialogue. It is essential to solve how we can reach the next level of technology with inclusion, peace, and dialogue in the era of the metaverse. Dynamics of Dialogue, Cultural Development, and Peace in the Metaverse provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the metaverse. It explains the strategic role of trust at different levels of the information and knowledge society. Covering topics such as digital culture, peace training, and religion in the metaverse, this premier reference source is an essential resource for business leaders and executives, politicians, government officials, sociologists, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.