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An accessible guide to the wealth of media-making tools and processes in our contemporary world.

Today’s world offers no shortage of media for us to consume, and the ever-expanding array of available media has changed the way scholars think about its production and reception. Missing from these conversations about new media, however, is the maker—the one with the power to produce media from their own pocket.

In Material Media-Making in the Digital Age, Daniel Binns looks at the current media landscape in order to understand his own media practice. The result is a personal journey through media theory, history, and technology, furnished with practical lessons on the digital form for teachers, students, professionals, and enthusiasts. A refreshing combination of theory and practice written in a personal, engaging style, this book will enable readers to understand how a personal creative practice might unlock deeper thinking about media and its place in the world. 

In the early- to mid-2010s, Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy, the hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ “I’m a Mormon” media campaign brought critical media attention to Mormonism. In this first lengthy treatment of Mormon identities as they intersect with their religious institution, the internet, and modernity during the so-called “Mormon Moment,” Rosemary Avance explores how LDS stakeholders challenged traditional notions of what it means to be Mormon, vying for control of their own public narratives.

Mediated Mormons uses a case study approach to consider various iterations of Mormon identity as presented by church authorities, faithful members, the secular media, and heterodox and former adherents. These often-conflicting perspectives challenge traditional models of LDS authority, dismantling a monolithic view of Mormons and offering a window into processes of social activism and institutional change in the internet era.

Winner of the 2025 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Analytical-Descriptive Studies 

Winner of the 2023 Association for Jewish Studies Jordan Schnitzer First Book Prize

Judaism in the twenty-first century has seen the rise of the messianic Third Temple movement, as religious activists based in Israel have worked to realize biblical prophecies, including the restoration of a Jewish theocracy and the construction of the third and final Temple on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Through groundbreaking ethnographic research, Messianic Zionism in the Digital Age details how Third Temple visions have gained considerable momentum and political support in Israel and abroad . 
 
The role of technology in this movement’s globalization has been critical. Feldman skillfully highlights the ways in which the internet and social media have contributed to the movement's growth beyond the streets of Jerusalem into communities of former Christians around the world who now identify as the Children of Noah (Bnei Noah). She charts a path for future research while documenting the intimate effects of political theologies in motion and the birth of a new transnational Judaic faith.
 

Tracing the integration of digital technologies in film production and distribution that empowered a generation of filmmakers and expanded the global market for Mexican films.

Digital filmmaking and distribution have transformed the movies from what gets made and how to who gets to experience it. But while this has been a global evolution, local cultural forces have also played a decisive role. Mexico is a case in point. In Mexican Cinema in the Digital Age, Marvin D’Lugo traces the dramatic impact of technological innovation on one country’s film industry and aesthetics, revealing profound interactions between art and nation in an era when cultural products know no borders.

Through close analysis of more than twenty movies made this century, D’Lugo shows how technological advances fed the creative energies of Mexican filmmakers. In particular, the agility of the mobile digital camera contributed to a new audiovisual style in Mexico, which achieved global commercial success in the pre-streaming age. Since then, the rise of streaming has encouraged filmmakers to create works that are understood as distinctively Mexican yet marketable to global audiences. As a result, ordinary Mexicans increasingly see their own society through the eyes of outsiders. D’Lugo argues that the consequence has been a novel political subjectivity, as today’s cinema promotes a sense of Mexican cultural affiliation shorn of old nationalist tropes.

The early twenty-first century has experienced an unrivaled dissemination of information and misinformation about Islam, its prophet Muhammad, and its followers, largely facilitated by the fact that the tragedy of 9/11 roughly coincided with the advent of the digital age. In the first collection of its kind, Ruqayya Khan has compiled essays that treat Muhammad and the core elements of Islam as focal points in an exploration of how the digital era—including social media and other expressions—have both had an effect on and been affected by Islam.

Scholars from a variety of fields deal with topics such as the 2005 cartoon controversy in Denmark and the infamous 2012 movie trailer “Innocence of Muslims” that some believe sparked the attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi, as well as how the digitization of ancient texts have allowed the origins of Islam to be studied in new ways. Other essays examine how Muhammad’s wives have been represented in various online sources, including a web comic; the contrasting depictions of Muhammad as both a warrior and peacemaker; and how the widespread distribution of “the look” of Islamic terrorists has led to attacks on Sikhs, whose only point of resemblance to them may be a full beard. These findings illuminate the role of the Internet in forms of representation, advocacy, and engagement concerning Islam and Muslims in our world today.