Among the Sensuous: Listening to Film,Listening to the Philippines

In this paper, I argue that listening to a film is as significant as watching it; in spite of what seems like a formalist argument, I examine in what ways such an approach intervenes in the production of knowledge around Philippine history and Filipina/o bodies. In Kidlat Tahimik's film, Mababangong Bangungot, an overprivileging of the visual aids and abets the film's masculinist nationalism, despite the best efforts of critics to find a “third term.” That third term just might come from listening to the film, which delivers its own kind of postcolonial and feminist critique, one which impacts how we think about contemporary communication and cultural studies.     

French and Feminine: Hegemonic Masculinity and the Emasculation of John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Race

French leaders met the September 2002 announcement of preemptive U.S. military action in Iraq with open disapproval. Thereafter, in the build-up to the “Iraq war,” as U.S. military strikes began in 2003 and continued in 2004, France became the target of nationalistic attacks in the United States. Building on this anti-French sentiment, George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign used narratives that cast Frenchness as feminine, assigning “Frenchness” to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry—and thereby characterizing him as unfit for the White House. Specifically, political conservatives sought to strip Kerry of the masculine qualities perceived necessary to serve as president of the United States. Analysis of American political and media discourse from September 2002 to November 2004 shows that the 2004 presidential campaign came to be defined in substantial part by nationalistic and sexist political communications that capitalized upon and reinscribed patterns and norms of hegemonic masculinity while also feminizing and devaluing dissent in times of war.     

Student Advocacy and the Limits of (Action-) Free Speech: Figurations of Materiality in Tinker,Bethel, and Hazelwood

The US Supreme Court has considered the question of free speech rights for students several times since its landmark Tinker v. Des Moines ruling in 1969. In each case it has confronted the failure of existing precedents to crystallize the imaginary distinction between speech and action in such a way as to satisfactorily negotiate the social relationship between students and educators, youth and adults. This essay analyzes three cases in the student free speech tradition, attending to the ways in which materiality is thematized in the course of a negotiation of the interests of adults vis-à-vis youth.     

It Follows: precarity,thanatopolitics, and the ambient horror film

In the 2014 horror film It Follows, a teenage woman is terrorized by a fatal curse that passes from victim-to-victim via sexual intercourse. The subject of the curse is relentlessly pursued by vacant-minded assassins that take the form of friends, loved ones, and strangers. The film is set near the infamous dividing-line of Detroit’s 8 Mile Road, between what remains of the suburban working-class and the sacrifice zone of post-industrial urban triage. I argue that It Follows confronts audiences with the spectral manifestation of precarity: the deliberate and unequal redistribution of human fragility to populations who are the most socially and economically vulnerable. First, the generic shift from a specific monster to an anonymous and relentless force redeploys horror convention to draw attention to the conditions that induce horror within the prevailing socioeconomic order. Second, the film renders such precarity visible by contrasting the mise-en-scene of the suburban enclave with zones of postindustrial ruin; the relative comfort of the former predicated on the vulnerability of the latter. The film maps a landscape of postindustrial ruin, enacting a visual and narrative critique of thanatopolitics, the biopolitical organization of death under late capitalism.     

Books and Websites,E-Journals or Print: If the Source Fits,Use It

Despite the ever-growing range of media types, formats, and information-access options, students are often instructed to only use specific sources in their research. They are sometimes even given strict guidelines, prescribing how many of each they need to, or may, cite. It is important not to lead students to believe there is a formula for the ideal works cited for all research topics. In contrast, students should learn to think critically about the content and appropriateness of each potential source rather than choosing it only because it is a book, a journal article, a Website, etc. This article argues that requiring students to use, or not use, a source based solely on its format or media type encourages students to choose sources for wrong reasons, pushing critical thinking and source-content evaluation to the periphery of their research processes.     

The Book Culture Club: Incorporating a Synergistic Approach Among an Academic Library,Authors, Potential Authors,and Publishers

The Book Culture Club at Hong Kong Baptist University goes beyond the traditional book talk format. Its vision is to nurture a culture that values reading, writing, and publishing books through a synergistic approach among the library, authors, potential authors, and publishers. Since its inauguration in early 2009, the club has offered eighteen programs and has attracted more than 1,200 attendees by March 2013. In this article, the author will describe how the Book Culture Club was formed, present a series of activities conducted, describe how events are prepared and implemented, discuss successful outcomes and offer reflections thereon, and demonstrate how good outreach initiatives for connecting many various parties can produce a long-lasting impact in an academic setting.     

Masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and cooperative ways of organizing: contradictions and tensions in the experience and enactment of democracy

This study explores how members of the Nebraska Cooperative Council and its constituent producer-owned cooperatives understand and enact democratic ideologies, drawing particular attention to how emergent contradictions and tensions are experienced and managed. The Council serves as a particularly rich context in which to explore traditionally feminine ways of organizing (i.e., cooperative enactment) in a historically male-dominated arena (i.e., agriculture). The dialectic of independence and solidarity became a revealing prism through which to make sense of how members enact cooperative life. This dialectic manifests itself in the discourse of cooperative life as members struggle to manage tensions between efficiency and participation, equality and equity, and the paradox of agency. Communication theorizing about gendered organizing and the history of American agrarianism is used to explore intersections between the social construction of masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and tensions embedded in the discourse of cooperative organizing.     

“We Do It, but They Don't”: Multiple Categorizations and Work Team Communication

The present study adopted an intergroup approach to information sharing and ratings of work team communication in a public hospital (N = 142) undergoing large-scale restructuring. Consistent with predictions, ratings of communication followed a double ingroup serving bias: while team members reported sending about the same levels of information to double ingroup members (same work team/same occupational group) as they did to partial ingroup members (same work team/different occupational group), they reported receiving less information from partial ingroup members than from double ingroup members and rated the communication that they received from partial ingroup members as less effective. We discuss the implication of these results for the management of information sharing and organizational communication.     

Communicating With Bank Stakeholders During Recession: Why It's Important,Who Is Doing It,and How to Stay in the Loop

This study explores the attitudes and actions of bank managers toward communication spending during recession. Results of this study indicate that organizational leaders cut communication spending early during recession and also erroneously rely on the bank's financials to mitigate irrational customer withdrawals. This research is used to illustrate the need for public librarians to meet the needs of bank stakeholders when their institution ceases to communicate during crises, for academic librarians to educate students in undergraduate and graduate programs regarding heightened information needs during recession, and for corporate librarians to understand a potential avenue for competitive advantage during recession.     

Ain't No (Sky)River Wide Enough to Keep Me from Getting to You: SkyRiver,Innovative, OCLC,and the Fight for Control over the Bibliographic Data,Cataloging Services,ILL, and ILS Markets

This article describes the litigation involving SkyRiver Technology Solutions and Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). At its heart is who owns library catalog records. It begins with an overview of the organizations and examines their histories, products, and positions in the library services market in an attempt to understand and explain the background for the current situation. It continues with an overview of the lawsuit, including the plaintiffs’ claims for relief and the major arguments in OCLC's motion to dismiss. Finally, it turns to what the lawsuit means for the library services marketplaces, what potential changes may occur, and what OCLC's future might look like.     

何以可能:对话公关的表现形式、价值追求与实践逻辑

当今世界,对话被一再重申,成为众多理论研究、争端化解、共识达成的基本要义。对话作为公关理论的核心范式之一,被誉为“公关的元理由”。本文全面检视了对话理论的思想脉络,认为对话既包括形式层面的对谈与双向沟通,又包括伦理意义上的平等、承认与永恒;对话既是人与人之间“琴瑟和鸣”的可行选择,更是组织与公众之间达成认同的理想机制。然而,对话在给公关理论研究提供新的思想引领的同时,也存在天然的“逻辑悖论”。本文围绕“对话何以可能”这一主题,结合对话公关理论研究的既有成果,归纳总结对话公关的表现形式、价值追求与实践逻辑,并就对话公关的启示、困境与展望做出探索性的思考。     

虚实并举,文以载道——靖继鹏先生信息经济学学术思想研究

[目的/意义]靖继鹏先生是我国情报学界最早从事信息经济学研究的代表性学者之一,探究其信息经济学学术思想的发展脉络与内容体系,有助于启发后辈研究学者,推动信息经济学学科的创新与发展。[方法/过程]首先结合先生个人经历与时代发展因素分析先生信息经济学思想的形成背景,然后通过研读先生信息经济学领域成果概括其信息经济学学术思想的内容体系,在此基础上总结先生信息经济学学术思想的特征及贡献,最后提出研究展望。[结果/结论]先生构建了信息经济学学科体系,凝练了信息经济学理论体系,拓展了信息经济学应用领域,他的信息经济学学术思想具有前瞻引领性、系统全局性、应用实践性3个典型特征。结合先生信息经济学思想与现实发展,从创新理论基础、拓展应用实践、追踪发展前沿3个方面提出研究展望。     

When the Pilot Is Over: Picking the Program and Making It Stick,Purchase on Demand at the University of South Florida

In 2008 the Interlibrary Loan department of the University of South Florida, Tampa, began a Purchase on Demand program, using interlibrary loan requests to supplement Collection Development practices. After three years the program was analyzed for effectiveness and compared to other programs currently in operation. To achieve a complete evaluation, interlibrary loan patrons were surveyed on their awareness and use of the Purchase on Demand program. This article combines the analysis of USF's program with recommendations gained through administration and evaluation of Purchase on Demand.