Abstract
I have made a style change in the book reviews section as of this edition. I am spelling out all references to U.S. states rather than using that jarring letter combination prescribed by the U.S. Postal Service. One prompt for this change is the Associated Press’s like-minded style change in the past couple of years. The consensus of discourse in the blogosphere afterward was the AP did so in recognition of the global, interconnected world we live in where something published on the most rudimentary of websites in some isolated corner of the United States is immediately globally accessible. Indeed, I employ an anecdote to show this to my students by pointing to a press release from my university about microwaving sponges to kill germs. Within a day, microwave fires erupted in Egypt and Europe because the release failed to emphasize that the sponge must be wet and contain no metal.
Thus, I have come to believe that it is a bit presumptuous—and provincially minded—to expect someone in Bhutan, let’s say, to know what is meant by AZ or MD or AK. Another impetus for this change is the actions of our new editor of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (JMCQ)—Louisa Ha—who sent out a digital request for book reviewers. Many volunteers lined up—and many of them were from every corner of the world. You can already see this reflected in the reviewers and the reviews of books in previous editions and this one that you are viewing now. Please enjoy.