Book reviews by Prof Sudha Venkataswamy, Vice Chairperson and Assistant Professor, Amrita School of Communication at Coimbatore campus, are reported in two international journals, viz., Information, Communication & Society (iCS) and Media International Australia: Incorporating Culture & Policy (MIA).
The review of the book, A Normative Theory of the Information Society authored by Alistair S. Duff, gets published in the journal, Information, Communication & Society (iCS) in Volume 17, Issue 8, pages 1049-1051. The online version was first published on February 20, 2014. The book critically interrogates and asserts the need for equality in the social distribution of information in an information society.
iCS is a leading peer reviewed international journal in the field of communication and is indexed in EBSCO, Scopus, Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Sociological Abstracts, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts besides others and is published by Taylor & Francis, Routledge. The journal transcends cultural and geographical boundaries, drawing together the most current work upon the social, economic, and cultural impact of the emerging properties of the new information and communications technologies.
“When I read the book for the first time, I realized the difficulty in reviewing this text. However, after a good second read, I could not help but appreciate the author’s nuanced understanding of the critical debates related to the field of information society and earlier theories on social democracy and justice. The key strengths of this book are the strong arguments that are theoretically grounded and well substantiated. Duff draws inspiration from Rawls’ theory of social justice and Tawney’s theory of social democracy and strives for an alternative theory to represent equality in the information age. A challenging book that offers a good perspective and contributes to theory building on information society,” she explained.
Sudha’s review of the book, Children in the Online World: Risk, Regulation, Rights authored by Elisabeth Staksrud, is published in Media International Australia (MIA) in Issue 151 (June 2014). MIA is an A-ranked, triple peer-reviewed international journal that publishes new scholarly and applied research on the media, telecommunications, cultural industries and the policy regimes within which they operate. This Australian journal is indexed in Scopus, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) and Informit’s Humanities and Social Sciences Collection.
“This is a well-researched book located in the theoretical backdrop of sociologist Ulrich Beck’s ‘individualization’ theory. It is essentially an interesting work engaging in the discussion on children’s online risks and rights, drawing from the findings of Staksrud’s thesis and the EU Kids Online project. Besides being a theoretically strong and responsible book that shares social concerns about children’s online risks it presents a powerful debate on the democratic rights for their online safety and protection,” she detailed.
“The books reviewed have a strong theoretical grounding and it was an enriching experience to both read and review them. I am also glad to be associated with these reputed international journals as a book reviewer since it helps to establish myself as a researcher in the field of Internet studies from India and Amrita Vishwa vidyapeetham,” expressed Ms. Sudha.
July 22, 2014
Amrita School of Communication, Coimbatore
