CLEARANCE REVIEW
The book edited by Professor Emmanuel Ngwainmbi. A final assessment.
The book is very engaging because of the style of writing. Ngwainmbi knows how to weave the present with the past, the narrative with the statistical, and to provide the reader with a sense of being in the same spaces as he has done in the first chapter where he sets up the rest of the chapters by outstanding scholars. He begins the book with a very powerful personal account that helps set up other writers’ continuing discourses.
The second chapter by Mei and Wang on Destigmatization and Identity Refactoring of Online Celebrities: The Case of the Chinese Celebrity Economy is one of the best portraits of the celebrity economy in a country that I have ever read. The work is tightly argued and well-written with numerous facts and conceptual ideas.
The chapter by Xie and Chao, Social Media as Mechanism for Accountability: Cases of China’s Environmental Civil Society, is also very well developed and will be useful for scholars and general readers interested in the developing and developed public green spaces comprised of various media platforms and technologies. The chapter is important and very well crafted to prove the points made I the discussion. I am particularly pleased to read this final version of the chapter because it establishes from data what we have often surmised that the Internet is a sphere for decision-making.
Reading Ngwainmbi’s powerful chapter, “Hate speech and the re-emergence of Caucasian Nationalism in the US,” showed “a wide range of cultural phenomena that continue to reflect underlying racial problems, “including media distortions and other problems of clarity in the society. This chapter will become a central focus of discussion and understanding of the role played by social media in creating racial nationalism. Although this work concentrates on Caucasian Nationalism in the USA, the author’s chapter is applicable as a template for other possible nationalism.
I am impressed by the chapter How social media is dismantling socio-cultural taboos in Afghanistan by Hazrat Bahar because of its relevance to contemporary politics. Bahar gives a historical and political account of the developments that led to the current situation in Afghanistan.
The writing in the entire book represents some of the best ideas about media that I have seen in the past five years. It is well organized, relevant, clear, well written, appropriate for learners, and useful for scholars who need references.
This book will be a strong presence among the books on media, digital studies, international relations, and mass communication through social platforms. I will gladly push this volume among my students and colleagues because of its cogency, expertise, and brilliance.