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Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination starts with a basic premise: technology shapes and is shaped by the stories we tell about it. Stories about drones-at once anxious and hopeful, fearful and awe-inspired-are emblematic of the profound ambivalence that frequently accompanies the introduction of new technologies. Through critical analysis of a variety of cultural forms-from newspaper headlines, nightly newscasts, and documentary films, to advertising, entertainment media, and graphic arts-this book demonstrates the prevalence of drones in global battlefields and domestic airspace, public discourse, and the popular imagination. Written in a lively, engaging, and accessible style, Kevin Howley argues that media discourse plays a decisive role in shaping these new technologies, understanding their application in various spheres of human activity, and integrating them into everyday life. In doing so, Howley highlights the relationship between discursive and material practice in the social construction of technology.
List of contents
Figures - Preface - Introduction: Don't Call Them Drones - Perpetual War - Technological Dreams and Killing Machines, or Drones and the Sublime - A New Kind of War - Murder Incorporated - Domesticating Drones - Unmanned: Drones for Fun and Profit - Eye in the Sky: New Surveillance Regimes - Reporting the Drone Wars - Witnessing - Survivors Speak - Mr. Al-Muslimi Goes to Washington - Distributed Intimacies: Robotic Warfare and Drone Whistleblowers - Resistance - Direct Action and Media Activism - "I Have a Drone": Internet Memes and Digital Dissent - Think Locally, Bomb Globally: Satirizing Drones - Conclusion: Twenty-First Century Empire and Communication - Index.
About the author
Kevin Howley is Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University. His work has appeared in the
Journal of Radio Studies,
Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism,
Social Movement Studies,and
Television and New Media. He is author of
Community Media: People, Places, and Communication Technologies (2005), and editor of
Understanding Community Media (2010) and
Media Interventions (2013).
Summary
Drones: Media Discourse & The Public Imagination starts with a basic premise: technology shapes and is shaped by the stories we tell about it. Stories about drones - at once anxious and hopeful, fearful and awe-inspired - are emblematic of the profound ambivalence that frequently accompanies the introduction of new technologies.
Report
«[...] Howley's book offers a rich and challenging contribution to the field.»
(European Journal of Communication 33/2018)
