Para-Interactivity and the Appeal of Television in the Digital Age focuses on broadcast television's attempts to transition from a mass medium to one which addresses viewers as potentially active participants in simulated interactive communication. It explores both the transformations and the continued popularity of television in an age of social media and competition from interactive digital media. It presents the concept of “para-interactivity,” which contains features or elements that echo interactive communication processes considered characteristic of digital media and participatory culture translated into television's language. This novel idea helps to understand contemporary television and identify current and traditional strategies it employs in order to survive in a changing media environment.

This book examines the “satanic panic” of the 1980s as an essential part of the growing relationship between tabloid media and American conservative politics in the 1980s. It argues that widespread fears of Satanism in a range of cultural institutions was indispensable to the development and success of both infotainment, or tabloid content on television, and the rise of the New Right, a conservative political movement that was heavily guided by a growing coalition of influential televangelists, or evangelical preachers on television. It takes as its particular focus the hundreds of accusations that devil-worshippers were operating America’s white middle-class suburban daycare centers. Dozens of communities around the country became embroiled in trials against center owners, the most publicized of which was the McMartin Preschool trial in Manhattan Beach, California. It remains the longest and most expensive criminal trial in the nation’s history.

What role does the Internet play in the activities of organizations for social change? This book examines to what extent the democratic potential ascribed to the Internet is realized in practice, and how civil society organizations exploit the unique features of the Internet to attain their goals. This is the story of the organization members’ outlooks and impressions of digital platforms’ role as tools for social change; a story that debunks a common myth about the Internet and collective action. In a time when social media are credited with immense power in generating social change, this book serves as an important reminder that reality for activists and social change organizations is more complicated. Thus, the book sheds light on the back stage of social change organizations’ operations as they struggle to gain visibility in the infinite sea of civil groups competing for attention in the online public sphere. While many studies focus on the performative dimension of collective action (such as protests), this book highlights the challenges of these organizations’ mundane routines. Using a unique analytical perspective based on a structural-organizational approach, and a longitudinal study that utilizes a decade worth of data related to the specific case of Israel and its highly conflicted and turbulent society, the book makes a significant contribution to study of new media and to theories of Internet, democracy, and social change.

Proposing a conceptual framework for evaluating "hand-held" books, Dresang (information studies, Florida State U.) explains how books are changing along with developments in digital information and how librarians, teachers, and parents can recognize and use books to create connections for and among young people using digital concepts and designs that emphasize multilayered, nonlinear stories and information. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The use of interactive technology in the arts has changed the audience from viewer to participant and in doing so is transforming the nature of experience. From visual and sound art to performance and gaming, the boundaries of what is possible for creation, curating, production and distribution are continually extending. As a consequence, we need to reconsider the way in which these practices are evaluated. Interactive Experience in the Digital Age explores diverse ways of creating and evaluating interactive digital art through the eyes of the practitioners who are embedding evaluation in their creative process as a way of revealing and enhancing their practice. It draws on research methods from other disciplines such as interaction design, human-computer interaction and practice-based research more generally and adapts them to develop new strategies and techniques for how we reflect upon and assess value in the creation and experience of interactive art. With contributions from artists, scientists, curators, entrepreneurs and designers engaged in the creative arts, this book is an invaluable resource for both researchers and practitioners, working in this emerging field.

Drawing on cultural theory and interviews with fans, cast members and producers, this book places the reality TV trend within a broader social context, tracing its relationship to the development of a digitally enhanced, surveillance-based interactive economy and to a savvy mistrust of mediated reality in general. Surveying several successful reality TV formats, the book links the rehabilitation of 'Big Brother' to the increasingly important economic role played by the work of being watched. The author enlists critical social theory to examine how the appeal of 'the real' is deployed as a pervasive but false promise of democratization.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: With the recent emergence of Interactive Television (iTV) in Europe, the TV set will rival the PC as an interface for interactive services in the European home. The purpose of this report is to look at the current situation and future prospects of Internet provision via TV in order to then identify possible changes within the traditional Internet world. Based on these findings, the study will give recommendations to Internet businesses regarding the appropriate choice of strategies to be pursued. In a first step, however, this report will introduce Interactive Television (iTV) and sum up its current and predicted market situation in Europe. This report consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to Interactive Television and the Internet and states why the Net on TV stands the chance to influence the PC-based Internet world. In Chapter 2a detailed picture of Interactive Television and its features is created. Further, the European TV landscape is analyzed, looking at the current situation and future prospects of Interactive Television. After an assessment of the implications of TV-based Internet access, possible changes in the traditional Internet world are indicated. Chapter 3 outlines the methods used for the information gathering process of the primary and secondary research. Chapter 4 complements and evaluates the information stated in Chapter 2 with insights obtained from three industry specialists. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the key findings of this report and gives recommendations to Internet ventures regarding the appropriate choice of strategy in order to exploit the opportunities arising from iDTV. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITYI EXECUTIVE SUMMARYII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIV TABLE OF CONTENTSV TABLE OF FIGURESVIII TABLE OF TABLESIX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1 1.1Intro1 1.2Introducing The Protagonists2 1.2.1What Is Interactive Television?2 1.2.2Internet - Some Facts And Figures3 1.2.2.1Medium Internet4 1.2.2.2Penetration And Growth5 1.2.2.3Access Devices6 1.2.2.4Commerce7 1.3iTV Might Have An Impact On The Internet World9 1.4Objectives And Scope Of The Study10 1.4.1Principal Aims10 1.4.2General Limitations10 1.4.3Geographical Scope10 1.4.4Technological Scope12 CHAPTER 2: SECONDARY RESEARCH13 2.1Introduction13 2.2Characteristics And Features Of iTV13 2.2.1Broadcasting And Interactivity13 2.2.1.1Television Transmission [...]