At the age of 26鈥攚hile pursuing her PhD in media research and practice at CMCI鈥擲amira Rajabi found herself contemplating whether or not to undergo surgery and radiation for a tumor that was filling the space between her inner ear and brain stem. She looked for answers online, in the digital communities she鈥檇 discovered when she was first diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma.听
Around the same time, Rajabi, now the director of technology influenced practices at CMCI, developed the doctoral thesis that is now at the center of her new book: 鈥淗ow do people use digital media to respond to the big questions that trauma forces them to ask鈥撯�揳nd is it helping?鈥� From illness narratives among breast cancer patients to political upheaval among Iranian-Americans, the book combines personal stories, media studies and interdisciplinary theories to examine what people do when they go online after they have suffered a trauma.听
鈥�...I鈥檓 a media researcher, and I fell into trauma by accident, or perhaps, by empathy,鈥� Rajabi said during her . 鈥淚t鈥檚 just that every time I went online looking for research, I saw suffering, which says something very dark about me. But what I think I actually saw was hope; people whose lives were broken by trauma reaching out for a hand to hold and reaching out to hold somebody else鈥檚 hand.鈥�
Learn more about Rajabi鈥檚 book and research in the upcoming fall print issue of CMCI Now.听
by Instructor Samira Rajabi
(Rutgers University Press, 2021)
by Professor Stewart Hoover and Associate Professor Nabil Echchaibi
(De Gruyter 2021)
Part of the Religion and Society series, this new edition by Center for Media, Religion and Culture (CMRC) Director Stewart Hoover and Associate Director Nabil Echchaibi considers the meditation of religion in the context of global relations of power, culture and communication.听
In part, Hoover says, the book is based on papers and presentations from a CMRC conference held on 兔子先生传媒文化作品鈥檚 campus several years ago.听
鈥淭he idea is to look at the various ways that media and religion are interacting and affecting each other in various national contexts across the world,鈥� he writes.
With topics ranging from 鈥�High Tech Mediations, Low Tech Lifestyles: The Paradox of Natural Parenting in the Digital Age鈥� to 鈥淒igital Media and Imperial Formations: The 2012 Lady Gaga Controversy in South Korea,鈥� the book鈥檚 chapters鈥撯�揳uthored by the editors and other contributors鈥撯�搕ackle timely examples while offering connections to other cases and contexts. Together, they form a snapshot of religious evolution in the media age.
Learn more about the authors and CMCI鈥檚 Center for Media, Religion and Culture in 鈥淒ivine Intervention鈥� from the fall 2018 issue of CMCI Now.
Visual imagery is at the heart of humanitarian and human rights activism and video has become a key tool in these efforts. The Saffron Revolution in Myanmar, the Green Movement in Iran, and Black Lives Matter in the United States have all used video to expose injustice.听
In Seeing Human Rights, Sandra Ristovska examines how human rights organizations are seeking to professionalize video activism through video production, verification standards, and training. The result, she argues, is a proxy profession that uses human rights videos to tap into journalism, the law, and political advocacy. She also looks at the use of video evidence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court.听
鈥淚 grew up in the former Yugoslavia watching images depicting the horrors and traumas of the 1990s wars that led to the breakup of my state. Activist and bystander footage shot on VHS tapes was circulated extensively on news media during the wars, eventually making its way into international courtrooms in The Hague,鈥� Ristovska says. 鈥淭hese early experiences fueled my research interest in images and human rights.鈥�
This is a line of research she started in her first book, (Palgrave, 2018), a co-edited volume that maps out how images alter international human rights discourses, presenting different ethical, legal and political challenges and opportunities.听
Learn more about Ristovska鈥檚 research in "Through the Lens of the Law" from the spring 2021 issue of CMCI Now.
by Assistant Professor Sandra Ristovska
(MIT Press 2021)
by former senior media executive and Knight Ridder journalist Paula Lynn Ellis, 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Journalism Professor Emeritus Paul Voakes and CMCI Founding Dean Lori Bergen
(Cognella, 2021)
In a moment of heightened distrust and polarization, how can journalists encourage audiences to do the work of engaged citizenship that is required in a democratic society?
That question is at the center of News For Us: Citizen-Centered Journalism, the first-ever guide to a new citizen-centered approach that enriches the skill set of the 21st-century journalist with the mindset of civic engagement.
In addition to exploring the shifts taking place in journalism, the authors raise awareness of how news organizations are finding new ways to engage with citizens鈥撯�揻rom the radio station KPCC in Los Angeles, where readers were asked to help create a 鈥淗uman Voter Guide鈥� to AL.com, where the leading statewide news organization asked community members to join journalists in collaborative forms of storytelling.
In the foreword, Neil Brown, president of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, says the authors have 鈥渙ffered a powerful and optimistic playbook for journalists to embrace new and adaptive thinking about how journalism can be an effective tool of democracy, rather than settle for the trope that it simply is."
For the latest release of Adobe Animate, Joseph Labrecque鈥撯�揳n instructor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design鈥撯�揵rings readers into the world of animation and gives them the tools to take their projects to the next level.听
Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and hands-on walkthroughs, the book shows Adobe Animate users how to create immersive experiences by breaking through creative limitations across every medium.
In addition to providing readers with a solid understanding of the program鈥檚 fundamentals and new features, the book offers a nuanced take on how to publish and export rich media content for a variety of platforms, advanced techniques for creating engaging motion content, techniques for creating dynamic motion and more.听
A creative developer, designer and educator with nearly two decades of experience creating expressive web, desktop and mobile solutions, Labrecque has previously authored a number of books and video courses on design and development technologies, tools and concepts. He is an Adobe Education Leader, Adobe Community Professional and member of Adobe Partners by Design.
Learn more about Labrecque鈥檚 work in his bio and learn about Adobe Creative Cloud discounts for CU students, faculty and staff through the
by Instructor Joseph Labrecque
(Packt Publishing 2021)