Book review: Studying mobile media: cultural technologies, mobile communication, and the iPhone, by Hjorth, Larissa, Burgess, Jean and Richardson, Ingrid (eds), Routledge, New York, 2012

A review of a series of articles exploring the role of online networked mobile devices, such as the iPhone, in changing communication, with multidisciplinary relevance. The articles examine the smartphone as a cultural object, a platform for specific uses as a multi-purpose input device and its evolution from a personal communication device to a multimedia tool with implications for politics and social change.

Zombie processes and undead technologies

Zombies in the Academy taps into the current popular fascination with zombies and brings together scholars from a range of fields, including cultural and communication studies, sociology, film studies, and education, to give a critical account of the political, cultural, and pedagogical state of the university through the metaphor of zombiedom. The contributions to this volume argue that the increasing corporatization of the academy—an environment emphasizing publication, narrow research, and the vulnerability of the tenure system— is creating a crisis in higher education best understood through the language of zombie culture—the undead, contagion, and plague, among others. Zombies in the Academy presents essays from a variety of scholars and creative writers who present an engaging and entertaining appeal for serious recognition of the conditions of contemporary humanities teaching, culture, and labor practices.