Provides new perspectives on the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats materiality and meaning. Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies our consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form – the physical qualities of objects and the meanings which extend from them; format – objects considered in relation to the protocols which govern their use and the meanings and practices which stem from them; and ephemeral meaning – the ways in which media artefacts are captured transformed and redefined through changing social cultural and technological values.

Each section includes empirical chapters which provide expansive discussions of perspectives on media and materiality. It considers a range of media artefacts such as 8mm film board games maps videogames cassette tapes transistor radios and Twitter amongst others. These are punctuated with a number of short takes – less formal often personal takes exploring the meanings of media in context.



We seek to consider the materialities which emerge across the broad and variegated range of the term’s use and to create spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of study of media culture and society.

There is a well-documented mental health crisis among media professionals around the world - in journalism advertising/marketing/PR film and television digital games music (recording and performance) and online content creation.



This book documents what is particular about well-being in creative careers in the media offers an analysis of systemic issues throughout the media industries that explain why so many practitioners get sick on the job and shows what can be done. The health crisis in the media industry consists of mental issues – with extraordinary high instances of anxiety trauma burnout and depression; physical ailments - prevalent substance abuse unhealthy living sleep problems and exhaustion; and spiritual problems – including people experiencing moral injury at work and suffering from a loss of morale.



At the same time most media professionals claim to be happy doing what they do suggesting that what makes people happy can also make them sick. What ends up causing work-related stress disorders is a combination of a lack of reciprocity between what people bring to the job and what the industry offers in return organizational injustice as people perceive policies and decisions at work to be discriminatory and unfair and persistent high workloads.

Though queer critics and queer theory tend to frame queer identities as marginal this edited volume draws attention to a dynamic field in which a wide variety of queer identities can be put on display and consumed by audiences. Cementing a foundational understanding of queerness that is at odds with current shifts in media production contributors present a broad variety of queer identities from across a range of televisual shows and genres to reconsider the marginalization of queerness in the twenty-first century. Doing so challenges preexisting notions that such “mainstreamification” necessitates being subsumed by the cisheteropatriarchy. This project argues the opposite showing that heteronormative assumptions are outdated and that new queer representations lay the groundwork for filling gaps that queer criticism has left open.

Thomas Brassington is a researcher whose work explores intersections of queerness and the Gothic in contemporary popular culture. Debra Ferreday is a feminist cultural theorist whose research concerns gender feminist theory sexuality critical race theory queer theory and embodiment. Dany Girard is a queer researcher whose work primarily explores representations of gender asexualities and queer theory in television and film.

This study examines the safety and security of journalists in Ghana assessing their satisfaction with key media stakeholders and the state of press freedom through the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) journalists’ safety indicators. Using a predominantly quantitative integrative mixed-method approach it surveyed 80 journalists from broadcast print and online outlets conducted ten in-depth interviews and analysed two policy documents. The findings reveal widespread dissatisfaction with stakeholders such as law enforcement politicians regulatory bodies and journalists’ associations. The independent t-test shows that the editors and reporters did not differ significantly in their assessment of their satisfaction with stakeholders in the media landscape. Only the online media journalists reported satisfaction with their management’s efforts to ensure safety. The absence of formal safety policies and the frequent closure of broadcast outlets signal a decline in press freedom. This study highlights a concerning gap between Ghana’s democratic credentials and the unsafe working conditions for journalists. Recent press freedom rankings align with these challenges affirming UNESCO’s indicator as a predictive tool.

The public relations (PR) function in Malawi was passing through a period of growth when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. For the first time a professional body – the Public Relations Society of Malawi (PRSM) – was established and commended for improving media and stakeholders’ relationships with various organizations and institutions. However the pandemic accompanied by an infodemic increasingly affected the role of practitioners in disseminating effective communication. Previous literature indicates that environmental factors force companies and institutions to redirect resources away from PR activities forcing PR practitioners to adjust some practices to accommodate the new circumstances. This study explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role of PR practice and the function’s prospects in Malawi. Drawing on the excellence theory the PR function can be of value if the department is empowered through practitioners’ inclusion in the coalition of the dominant. Data were collected from fourteen selected PR practitioners who were also members of the PRSM using in-depth interviews. The findings indicated that PR practitioners in Malawi were brought closer to the centre of power in organizations but somehow excluded from the coalition of the dominant. Most of the practitioners served as technicians. However the pandemic forced organizations to direct more resources to PR activities due to the practitioners’ increased workload of disseminating information working from home and adopting information and communication technology in PR activities. PR practitioners’ efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic made the function a necessity in many organizations a development that signalled a bright future for the industry in the country.

This article delves into two types of government-funded video productions within China’s Ecological Civilization movement: eco-documentaries produced at the highest level and eco-feature films produced at the provincial and sub-provincial levels. Both types of productions focus on environmental topics but environmental awareness and behaviours are often not prioritized. This article aims to situate China’s green campaign in a centre-local relation and to demonstrate how this campaign is portrayed through government-funded moving images. The article concludes that moving images are utilized by different levels of government to promulgate new green terms shift blame among different levels of authorities and individuals and guide grassroots officials’ behaviours in the nation’s brand-new environmental vision.

Massive sports events always attract international attention. However for attention-seeking countries this is a double-edged sword because it is difficult to remain in control of the images produced by foreign media outlets. Since Qatar is eager to boost its image internationally hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup was supposed to be a major step in the country’s comprehensive strategy to achieve this. However Qatar faced strong criticism from western countries in the run-up to and during the World Cup exemplified here by a cursory investigation of German media. Taking a postcolonial lens we analysed the reactions to this criticism in Qatari media in opinion articles of three different sets of media one focusing on the national Qatari public (Al-Sharq) one targeting the pan-Arab public (Al-Jazeera) and one targeting the western English-speaking public worldwide (Al-Jazeera English). Two distinct discursive patterns were identified – one that aims to construct a particular identity mix of an Arab Global Southern and Islamic ‘us’ against the ‘West’ as a kind of positively turned self-othering and another that actively deconstructs what is perceived as western hypocrisy. While the first pattern is exclusive to the Arab-speaking media the second pattern was addressed in all three sets of media albeit with different lines of argumentation depending on the target audience. While for example in Qatari national media reactions to the allegation of Qatar violating or neglecting the rights of LGBTQ people are connected to an emphasis on a different ‘conservative’ or ‘Islamic’ value system Al-Jazeera Arabic and English presented their arguments in a more sophisticated manner and highlighted the double standards used by the West by including references to a neo-liberal world order and the remnants of a colonial past that continue to shape the West’s policies.

Digital screen cultures play a fundamental role in shaping ways of thinking about the environment. Yet digital media are highly problematic not just for the massive footprint of technological development server maintenance e-waste and the reproduction of the colonial extractive relationship but also for an increasing web architecture monopolized by the big-tech platforms in content creation. Nonetheless several scholarly and activist digital practices are creatively dealing with the urgency posed by the environmental crisis showing massive potential in challenging anthropocentric global ecoculture. Through a discourse theoretical approach to digital communication this article offers an interpretation of selected experiences of digital communication practices as counter-hegemonic tactical communication that dislocates anthropocentric ideologies shrouded in the web informational overload. Through a narrative of the construction of one of these digital experiences the Environmental Ideologies Map (EIDmap) website the article discusses and calls for the multiplication of creative art-based research practices able to dislocate dominant environmental ideologies circulating in the ‘extinction internet’.

Language and gender have a strong connection especially in a social context. This study examines register in Arabic by looking at the language used by male and female teachers who utilize the YouTube media platform to provide basic Arabic tutorials. From these videos the language characteristics of male and female Arabic language teachers can be observed in terms of gender. In general this study investigates the registers of male and female Arabic language teachers. Specifically it elaborates on the significant differences between the language used by male and female Arabic language teachers based on a register analysis. The research question is thus divided into two: (1) what is the typical character of male teachers and female teachers of Arabic on YouTube channels; (2) how do male and female Arabic teachers use register on YouTube channels. The method used in this research can be divided into three stages. The first stage was the data collection which was carried out by viewing and observing Arabic language learning videos uploaded onto YouTube channels by male and female teachers. The second stage was the data analysis which used the model of Miles and Huberman consisting of data reduction data display and data conclusion. The final stage was the reporting of the results using illustrative quotes in the form of descriptions and narratives related to the language registers of male and female teachers in terms of a sociolinguistic study. The gender-based language characteristics can be identified from aspects of gesture word choice greeting pronunciation and the mention of personal names. This research contributes to the development of the study of language learning in terms of gender based on an online social media platform.

This cross-national study draws from the GPDS framework to explore the outreach strategies of two environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) – one in Ohio United States and the other in Paraná Brazil. The study examined and compared ENGOs’ targeted communication practices and their efforts to engage with racial/ethnic and socio-economic minorities within charged political climates. Semi-structured qualitative interview results with ENGO employees and board members show similarities in public outreach strategies challenges operating in politically charged environments and intentions to address the needs of low socio-economic and minority members of local communities. Many of the communication strategies described as being used by participants correspond to the social marketing theory (SMT) framework. However ENGO employees reported low levels of confidence in effectively engaging their audience mostly due to lack of strategic communication training and resources.