ALTOONA, Pa. — A new book by Nick Mohammed, associate professor of communications, has been published. “Global Radio: From Shortwave to Streaming" (Rowman and Littlefied) chronicles the development of radio as a global medium. Mohammed examines the evolution of radio from its early uses as little more than a novelty into a set of powerful systems for international exchanges of news, culture, and political influence.
Mohammed has also had an article about flat Earth YouTube videos published in the “Journal of Social Media in Society.” The advent of digital user-created media platforms such as YouTube has made possible the spread of a wide range of information without the constraints of traditional mass media such as editorial gatekeeping. Mohammed's paper examines YouTube videos that advocate the idea of a flat Earth and tests for conspiratorial ideation. The research found that flat Earth videos significantly outnumbered debunking videos, were almost twice as long on average, and were more likely to include conspiracy ideation, science denial, and religious thought. More information can be found on the “Journal of Social Media in Society” website.