This volume draws on issues and cases from more than 20 countries to provide empirical evidence and theoretical insights into why discourse matters. Covering a wide range of concepts and topical issues, contributors from media studies, journalism, and linguistics address the following key questions: Why and how does discourse matter pertaining to identity in a mediatized world? Who makes discourse and identity matter, for what reason, in what way, and with what consequences? The volume provokes a new proposition that it is necessary to go beyond the safe havens of disciplinary strongholds with familiar terminology, methodology, and questions to address future inquiries into discourse and identity from a combination of linguistics and journalistic media studies.

Contents: Paul Chilton: Why Discourse Matters: Negotiating Identity in the Mediatized World - Monika Weronika Kopytowska/Yusuf Kalyango, Jr.: Introduction: Discourse, Identity, and the Public Sphere - Mei Li Lean/Maya Khemlani David: Media Discourse as a Double-Edged Sword in Ethnic Integration - Li Zeng/Zhiwen Xiao/Khalat Tahat: Terrorism and Middle East Identity on Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya Websites - Laura Filardo-Llamas/Elena González-Cascos Jiménez: Memory and Identity in the Public Sphere: Northern Irish Murals - Enakshi Roy: Identity, Discourse and Cultural Signifiers in Indian Game Shows - Monika Weronika Kopytowska: Pictures in Our Heads: Crisis, Conflict and Drama - Godwin Etse Sikanku/Margaret Ivy Amoakohene: Media Discourse of President Barack Obama in Sub-Saharan Africa - Yusuf Kalyango Jr./Jared Henderson: New York Times Rhetorical Discourse Framing of Two Gadhafian Protégés - Kate Azuka Omenugha: Reading Images: African Women in the British News - Bryan McLaughlin/Hemant Shah: Agent of Change or Compromise? Jesse Jackson's 1988 Presidential Campaign - Jared Henderson/Yusuf Kalyango, Jr.: The Ideology of Sexuality in Media Discourse and Text - Ashley D. Furrow: Framing Discourse and the Collective Memory of College Athletics - Christopher Hutton: «Soft» and «Hard» Theories of Identity: Orientalism, Aryanism, and Race - Piotr Cap: Proximization, Threat Construction, and Symbolic Distancing in Political Discourse - Padmini Banerjee/Myna German: Religious-Ethnic Identities in Multicultural Societies: Identity in the Global Age - Majid Khosravi Nik: Critical Discourse Analysis, Power, and New Media Discourse - Bob Hodge: Discourse Analysis and the Challenge of Identities - Monika Weronika Kopytowska: Discourse Matters: Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries.