Media : Community/Alternative Media

A revelatory examination of how the wildfirelike spread of new forms of social interaction enabled by technology is changing the way humans form groups and exist within them, with profound long-term economic and social effects-for good and for ill. A handful of kite hobbyists scattered around the world find each other online and collaborate on the most radical improvement in kite design in decades. A midwestern professor of Middle Eastern history starts a blog after 9/11 that becomes essential reading for journalists covering the Iraq war. Activists use the Internet and e-mail to bring offensive comments made by Trent Lott and Don Imus to a wide public and hound them from their positions. A few people find that a world-class online encyclopedia created entirely by volunteers and open for editing by anyone, a wiki, is not an impractical idea. Jihadi groups trade inspiration and instruction and showcase terrorist atrocities to the world, entirely online. A wide group of unrelated people swarms to a Web site about the theft of a cell phone and ultimately goads the New York City police to take action, leading to the culprit's arrest. With accelerating velocity, our age's new technologies of social networking are evolving, and evolving us, into new groups doing new things in new ways, and old and new groups alike doing the old things better and more easily. You don't have to have a MySpace page to know that the times they are a changin'. Hierarchical structures that exist to manage the work of groups are seeing their raisons d'tre swiftly eroded by the rising technological tide. Business models are being destroyed, transformed, born at dizzying speeds, and the larger social impact is profound. One of the culture's wisest observers of the transformational power of the new forms of tech-enabled social interaction is Clay Shirky, and Here Comes Everybody is his marvelous reckoning with the ramifications of all this on what we do and who we are. more...

Price: $16.00

Blogging for dollars - Do you have what it takes?. Here's the place to find out. Problogger.net is where bloggers worldwide go for advice and information on enhancing their blog's presence. Whether you're just starting out or have been blogging for years, learn from two professional bloggers how to turn your passion for blogging into extra revenue or possibly a rewarding career. This is not a get-rich-quick book, but rather a practical guide to creating and marketing a blog with the potential for generating a six-figure income. Learn to:. *. Choose subject matter that works for you. *. Handle technical issues. *. Examine different ways your blog can earn income. *. Evaluate your blog's success. *. Keep content fresh and interesting. *. Use your blog to generate income indirectly more...

Price: $24.99

Make Twitter work for you–right now!.  . Twitter! Everyone’s talking about it. Its memberbership grew over 700% in just one year! Now, learn how to make the most of Twitter–in your personal life, your business, everywhere!. All a Twitter delivers quick, smart answers to the questions everyone’s asking about Twitter: What’s it about? What’s it good for? Is it worth your time? How do you get started? Where can you find great Twitter feeds to follow? How can you build a worldwide audience for your own Tweets?. You name it, Tee Morris answers it–and shows you exactly how to do it, step-by-step, in plain English. No experience? Looking for something new to do with your Tweets? No problem: this is the Twitter book for everyone!.  . Covers all this, and more…. • Setting up your Twitter account and getting started in minutes. • Creating great Tweets: making the most of the 140 characters. Twitter gives you. • Using Twitter to make connections, exchange great ideas, and. uncover hard-to-find resources. • Building a Twitter audience–and using it to build your business. • Tweeting to recruit, promote, and coordinate volunteer organizations. • Mastering Twitter etiquette and avoiding beginner mistakes. • Swapping Tweets on your browser, on your desktop, and on your phone!. • Finding tools that make Twitter even more efficient. • And much more….  .  . informit.com/que. allatwitterbook.com.   more...

Price: $15.99

What are `alternative media'? Are they the same as underground, radical or oppositional media? In this book, Chris Atton offers a fresh introduction to alternative media: one which is not limited to `radical' media, but can also account for newer cultural forms such as zines, fanzines, and personal websites. Alternative Media : Examines how and why people produce and use alternative media - to make meaning, to interpret, and to change the world in which they live. Encompasses a wide range of alternative media and draws on examples from both the United States and United Kingdom. Locates contemporary alternative media in their cultural, historical and political contexts. Alternative Media provides a timely corrective to media theorizing which focuses almost exclusively on the output of the media conglomerates. As such it will be an essential purchase for all students and researchers with an interest in the true nature of the contemporary media environment. more...

Price: $55.95

An entertaining and eye-opening look into the new frontier of idea makingBreaking news, fresh gossip, tiny scandals, trumped up crises— every day we are distracted by a culture that rings our doorbell and then runs away. Stories spread wildly and die out in mere days, quickly replaced by more stories with ever shorter shelflives. How we participate in these stories has changed, too. No longer do we sit on the sidelines waiting for monolithic media giants to tell us what’s happening. Anyone on a computer in his or her local Starbucks can spread a story almost as easily as The New York Times, CNN, or People—in fact blogs are now often the source for journalists working in big media.And Then There’s This is Bill Wasik’s journey along the unexplored frontier of our churning and rambunctious viral culture. Covering this world—watching new bands promote themselves at South by Southwest; reporting on a Web site contest while secretly entering it; and creating a site that aggregates all blog smears against the presidential primary candidates—he ends up conducting six experiments himself. He doesn’t always get the results he expected, but along the way he meets a cast of characters who are capable of getting their information into our brains—and they’re not who you think.And Then There’s This reveals how our culture is now created from the ground up. Wasik proves that any one of us can cause a small ripple that can turn into a tsunami. Anyone involved in journalism, business, or information technology—and those who want to be—must read this book. And for the rest, Wasik’s tour is great, eye-opening fun. more...

Price: $25.95