Attracting mates

Sample

Mordechai Kedar

"The Syrian regime, ruled by the Ba'th socialist party and headed by presidents from the 'Alawi minority, faces problems of legitimacy vis-a-vis its people, which it tackles through powerful security organizations and the state media." "Text, photographs and cartoons are marshalled in support of promoting the consensus accepting the legitimacy of the state. Analyzing the political domestic message of the Syrian press - as well as the quotation of newspaper sources in the original Arabic, and their English translation - shows up the problems faced by the shapers of public opinion in Syria, revealing what they see as the weakness of their state, society, regime and president. The book also looks at the new "message period" of Bashar, Hafiz al-Asad's son and successor."--Jacket.

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Irene Kiefer

Presents the cases for and against the use of nuclear power, considering its advantages over other forms of energy as well as disadvantages such as the problems of accidents, low-level radiation, and radioactive waste disposal.

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Peter Dahlgren

"One of the most difficult problems facing Western democracy today is the decline in citizens political engagement. There are many elements that contribute to this, including fundamental socio-cultural changes. This book summarizes these contexts and situates itself within them, while focusing on the media s key role in shaping the character of civic engagement. In particular, in examines the new interactive electronic media in terms of their civic potential. Looking at the evolution of the media landscape, the book interrogates key notions such as citizenship, public sphere, agency, identity, deliberation, and practice and offers a multidimensional analytic framework called civic cultures. This framework is then applied to several settings, including television, popular culture, journalism, the EU, and global activism, to illuminate the role of the media in deflecting and enhancing political engagement, as well as in contributing to new forms of political involvement and new understandings of what constitutes the political."--Jacket.

Sample

Hedda Garza

Follows the life of the man who served in Chile as the first Marxist to be freely elected to lead a nation of the Western Hemisphere, until military leaders overthrew his government in 1973.