Apologies for cross-posting. I'm pleased to share below the table of contents of the first issue of our new journal Communication and the Public. For free access to all content until Dec. 31, 2016, please register on the journal's web site at: http://ctp.sagepub.com/ We welcome manuscript submissions from CITASA members as well as proposals for guest-edited special issues. Best, Guobin Yang * Communication and the Public Volume 1 Number 1 March 2016 Contents Editorial >From the editors 3 Zhongdang Pan and Guobin Yang Commentaries for Special Forum Communication is the public 4 Robert Asen New approaches to communication and the public 9 Michael A. Xenos Conversation is the soul of democracy: Expression effects, communication mediation, and digital media 12 Dhavan V. Shah Trashing the sectarian system? Lebanon’s “You Stink” movement and the making of affective publics 19 Marwan M. Kraidy Original Research Articles Egocentric publics and corrective action 27 Hernando Rojas, Matthew Barnidge and Eulàlia P. Abril Evolving repertoires: Digital media use in contentious politics 39 Emad Khazraee and James Losey Impact of social media on opinion polarization in varying times 56 Francis L.F. Lee Entrapped in one’s blind spot: Perceptions of bias in others and preparation for deliberation 72 Wenjie Yan, Eulàlia P. Abril, Kyurim Kyoung and Gang Jing On terrorist attacks in Nigeria: Stance and engagement in conversations on Nairaland 91 Innocent Chiluwa and Akin Odebunmi The normative role of public opinion in the republican experience of Renaissance Venice 110 Juraj Kittler Review Essay Doing Political Economy of Communication in China — A Review of the Book Series of Critical Communication 125 Yi Chen Book Reviews Pax Technica Phil Howard, reviewed by Jessa Lingel 131 Information politics: Liberation and exploitation in the digital society Tim Jordan, reviewed by Tamara Shepherd 132