Union for Democratic Communications Annual Conference: 2007 Enclosure, Emancipatory Communication and the Global City, Vancouver, October 25-28.

Feminist Interventions in International Communication: Minding the Gap, edited by Katharine Sarikakis and Leslie Regan Shade. Rowman and Littlefield, September 2007.

International communication research has badly needed a collection such as this one for a very long time. If any book is likely to give the field a much-needed shot in the arm, this is it. The variety of its contents and the freshness of the analyses are genuinely stimulating. It will probably set off new research initiatives globally. John Downing, Southern Illinois University

When feminist categories of analysis are brought to bear on the world of the new information technologies the result can be exciting and unfamiliar. Sarikakis and Shade have brought together a highly diverse group of such scholars and given us one of the more extraordinary texts I have seen on the new technologies. Together these authors open up the field with their original studies and deborder established propositions with gusto and brio. Saskia Sassen, Columbia University; author, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

Feminist Interventions in International Communication is exactly what we all need right now. Together, these smart editors and authors reveal the connections between media's representation of women, women as workers in this burgeoning industry, and the structural trends of global media. They show us all what a feminist curiosity about global media can reveal. Cynthia Enloe, Clark University; author, The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire.

This cutting-edge work critiques today's global mediascape through feminist perspectives, highlighting concerns of policy, power, labor, and technology. Starting with the general state of international communications, the book uses feminist political-economic and policy analyses to explore the globalization of media industries, including questions about women's employment and media content that is globally produced and consumed. A top-notch group of authors covers cases on online news, pornography and explicit material, political participation and democracy, policies for women's development, violence against women, labor practices and information workers, print media and publishing, public "telecentres," media coverage of HIV/AIDS, and more. Providing fresh feminist insights into international communication, this essential book shows the important strides taken toward women's justice in these areas and how far there is yet to go.

List of Contributors, TOC, and Acknowledgments (below)

GROWING UP ONLINE: Young People and Digital Technologies, edited by Sandra Weber and Shanly Dixon. Palgrave, 2007. Colleagues at Concordia! Here's the Amazon.ca link to the book with discount.

TOC:
Young People and Technology: Issues and Concepts--Sandra Weber & Shanly Dixon

Growing Up with New Technologies: A Longitudinal Case Study--Sandra Weber with Julia Weber

'I'm the One Who Makes the Lego Racers Go:' Virtual and Actual Space in Videogame Play--Seth Giddings

Time, Space and Embodiment in Girls’ Experiences of Technologies--Sandra Weber & Shanly Dixon

Computer Games: Methods, Players and Gender--Diane Carr

Young People Constructing Identities as Game Players and as Game Designers--Caroline Pelletier

The Girls Room: Negotiating Schoolyard Friendships Online--Kelly Boudreau

Blogging: Private Writing in Public Spaces?--Brandi Bell

Children’s Experiences of Technologies: Power and Technicity--Helen Kennedy & Jon Dovey

Playing at and with 'Tween' Culture: Consuming Popular Culture Websites as an Instance of Critical Digital Literacy--Jacqueline Reid-Walsh

Consuming Fashion and Producing Meaning through Online Paper-Doll Sites--Rebekah Willett

Surfin’ for Idols: Pop 'Girls' and Digital Technology--Candis Steenbergen

Tween Culture and Digital Technologies in the Age of AIDS--Claudia Mitchell & Jacqui Reid Walsh

'There are too many of us for this to be abnormal!!!' Girls Creating Identity and Forming Community in Pro Ana/Mia Websites--Michele Polak

New Girl (and New Boy) at the Internet Café: Digital Divides/Digital Futures--Grace Sokoya & Claudia Mitchell

Contested Spaces: Public Discourses and Policy Problematics--Leslie Regan Shade

Re-viewing Girls and New Technologies--Shanly Dixon & Sandra Weber