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The book covers qualitative approaches that can be utilized by students and scholars in their research endeavors concerning social activism in contemporary society. Specifically, the book illustrates different strategies for using qualitative methods to observe activism within organizations, networks, events, and alternative media.

Academic study of social activism and social movements has become increasingly prevalent over the years; this is due in large part to the fact that activists have captured public imagination and gained substantial influence in political discourse. For instance, Occupy Wall Street activists, Tea Party activists, and activists affiliated with the Arab Spring have transformed political debates and have become the focus of mainstream news media coverage about a variety of different political topics.Journey into Social Activism explicates the philosophical foundations of the study of activism and illustrates four different research sites in which activism can be observed and studied: organizations, networks, events, and alternative media. The book will introduce students and scholars to important qualitative approaches to the study of social activism within these four research sites.

Unruly spaces, cityscape & communicative cities -- The enclave at Wildcat Hollow -- The hidden geographies of Flint -- BART, Cairo & spaces of exception -- Memory revival in Mannheim -- Memory modification at the DDR Museum -- Diffused intertextual production -- Standpoint performance within the intertext -- Creative narrative appropriation.

This is a learning-centered guide to designing, conducting, and evaluating qualitative communication and media research methods. The book introduces and unpacks qualitative communication research method design, analysis, representation, writing, and evaluation, using extended examples and clear discussion. With numerous elements intended to engage students and enrich the learning process, the book provides examples of how to do qualitative and critical analyses, including arts-based and media and textual analyses to understand, describe, and query communication and media research in a variety of communication areas. There is also an extensive discussion of ethics in qualitative research and spotlights with renowned researchers on hot topics in qualitative research.

In this project, we conducted focus groups with college students at a mid-sized university in order to examine their interpretations of different political advertisements. Our interest emerged from heightened political tensions in the United States that have led to increases in political advertisements targeting people in general, but young people and students in particular. After viewing nine different ads, students were asked a series of questions to generate discussion. Overall, these discussions provided insight concerning the interpretive strategies that were used to make sense of the ads. We found that most of the students would only interpret the campaign ads as "political," while the others—including ads produced by activists—were interpreted as "issue ads" or "topic ads." What is more, most of the students (but particularly those who identified as conservative) found the candidate ads to be untrustworthy, or viewed them as negative. Many of these students explained their interpretations of the candidate ads as a response to the growing negativity and partisanship that they saw in contemporary elections. Such findings hold important implications for strategic approaches to audiences—for both traditional politicians, as well as activist organizations.

This volume examines the rising role that alternative media play in contemporary mainstream political communication. The book focuses on three primary sites where such media have established growing influence in recent years: political parties, mainstream political news, and participatory media that allow for engagement.