This book explores the underlying philosophies and values that inform the speech rules that a government or community institutes.

This incisive book provides an unparalleled insight into the ways in which international human rights law functions in a real world context across cultural, religious and geopolitical divides. Written by a professor, former ambassador and international judge, the book demonstrates how power, diplomacy, tactics and processes operate within the human rights system from the perspective of a non-Western insider with more than three decades’ experience in the field.

Turbulent Times: Selected Readings on World Politics in the Twenty-First Century provides students with timely and thought-provoking articles that underscore the complexities of global politics and their far-reaching impacts on the rest of the world. The anthology is divided into seven distinct parts. The readings in Part I examine the impact of female presidents on political activity. Part II explores the concept of globalization and more specifically, the rise of China as a potential challenge to the legitimacy of liberalism and the new international order established in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Part III discusses the rise of non-traditional actors in the international system and the challenges they present to nation-states throughout the world. In Part IV, students read about power competition and the rise of autocratic states. Part V examines two Communist countries' trajectories--Cuba and the Soviet Union. In the final sections, students learn about less developed and newly industrialize economies of the world and are challenged to envision the future of democracy. Turbulent Times is ideal for courses in international relations, comparative politics, international studies, and world politics.

Media and Society is an established textbook, popular worldwide for its insightful and accessible essays from leading international academics on the most pertinent issues in the media field today. With this updated edition, David Hesmondhalgh joins James Curran and a team of leading international scholars to speak to current issues relating to media and gender, media and democracy, sociology of news, the global internet, the political impact of the media, popular culture, the effects of digitisation on media industries, media and emotion, and other vital topics. The media are in a state of ferment, and are undergoing far-reaching change. The sixth edition tries to make sense of the media's transformation, and its wider implications. Purely descriptive accounts date fast, so the emphasis has been on identifying the central issues and problems arising from media change, and on evaluating its wider consequences. What is judged to be the staple elements of the field has evolved over time, as well as becoming more international in orientation. Yet the overriding aim of the book - to be useful to students - has remained constant. This text is an essential resource for all media, communication and film studies students who want to broaden their knowledge and understanding of how the media operates and affects society across the globe.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of transactional forms of the digital across the Asian region by addressing the platforms and infrastructures that shape the digital experience. Contributors argue that each and every encounter mediated by the digital carries with it a functional exchange, but at the same time each transaction also implies an exchange based on social relationships for the digital age. In capturing the digital revolution through case studies of economic, informational, and social exchanges from across the larger Asian region, the book offers a richly contextualized and comparative account of the pervasive nature of the digital as both a medium for action and a medium of record.

This book explores the past and present of information infrastructures in India. Grounded in infrastructure theory, it explores the historical continuities between information infrastructures in colonial and post-colonial India and the compulsions of information infrastructures in contemporary India. This volume highlights the roles played by private and public sector entities in shaping information infrastructures in India, the political economy of growth in this sector and the challenges faced by the State in regulating information platforms that are also information infrastructures. It includes separate chapters on oceanic cable infrastructures that account for more than 90 per cent of data traffic between India and the rest of the world and the political economy of India's satellite program. Taking the 'long view', it argues that the provisionings of information infrastructures are by no means straight forward, that they are always expressions that are shaped by internal and external contestations, by ideological ends and business imperatives, the needs of consumers/citizens and the State, that there is a politics of infrastructure that needs to be accounted for, and that there always are winners and losers in large infrastructural projects such as Digital India.

Religion Online provides new insights about religiosity in a contemporary context, offering a comprehensive look at the intersection of digital media, faith communities, and practices of all sorts. Recent research on Apple users, video games, virtual worlds, artificial intelligence, digital music, and sports as religion supports the idea that media and religion, once considered separate entities, are in many cases the same thing. New media and religious practice can no longer be detached; this two-volume set discusses how religionists are embracing the Internet amidst cultural shifts of secularization, autonomous religious worship, millennials' affinity for new media, and the rise of fundamentalism in the global south. While other works describe case studies, this book explains how new media are interwoven into the very fabric of religious belief, behavior, and community. Chapters break down the past, present, and projected future of the use of digital media in relation to faith traditions of many varieties, extending from mainline Christianity to new religious movements. The book also examines the impacts of digital media on beliefs and practices around the world. In exploring these subjects, it calls on the study of culture, namely anthropology, to conceptualize a technological period as significant as the industrial revolution.