Böcker av Deborah Chambers

The Panhandle's first railroad, the Southern Kansas Railway of Texas, was constructed in 1886. Reaching Amarillo in 1889, the railway pulled cars filled with immigrant families and their belongings. The settlers were farmers from the east and south who came west to find water and cheap land. George Tyng, an adventurous fortune seeker, began leasing ranch land in 1887. A rail station was constructed, and Tyng eventually settled on the name "Pampa," a South American word that means "plains." Tyng was fond of saying that someday Pampa would be the "Queen City of the Plains."

Deborah Chambers draws on the metaphor of friendship as a strategy for exploring contemporary changes in informal social ties. She traces the shift from fixed and permanent ties of family, neighbourhood and community to fluid and transient ties typified by computer mediated communication.

Looking at how the family is represented by the media, and by scrutinizing the manner in which it is regulated, this book uncovers the ways in which academic research and welfare policy have colluded with political rhetoric and the popular media to re-invent a mythical ideal family.

Offering an analysis of the roles, status and experiences of women journalists in the US and Britain, this text investigates the challenges ey have faced in their struggle to establish reputations as professionals. It provides an account of the gendered structuring of journalism and speculates about women's still-emerging role in online journalism.