Recently the author has been including in her undergraduate seminars Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Letter to d'Alembert on the Theatre" (1758), the most provocative essay on the arts ever written. It is about the unintended effects of theater--which, for Rousseau, stands in for all of the arts--on an audience. The essay is an impassioned rebuttal to…

The question is not whether literacy practices are present in contemporary popular culture--it is hard not to find a movie or program without some representation of literacy in it. The more important and useful question is, How do we in the audience interpret the literacy practices we find in popular culture? What do such representations tell us…

This article described the methods of media education development of personality (including the audience's individual, "creative critical thinking" corresponding to "conceptual" (knowledge of media culture theory), "sensory" (intentional communication with mass media, orientational experience in genre and topical…

This research focused on the observation of infants between the ages of 2 and 18 months with regard to their aesthetic preferences for a variety of visual stimuli. These stimuli included: a black-and-white schematic drawing of a baby, a popular cartoon image, a colorful abstract painting of a baby, and a photographic image of a baby's face. Prior…

This study examined the relationships between American and South Korean students' achievement and their time spent in out-of-school activities. Analyzing nationally representative data for 8,912 U.S. and 5,309 Korean middle school students from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003, we found differences in…

This study extends analysis of geographic literacy further by examining the relationship of geographic knowledge with the primary goal of geographic educators--cultivation of cultural understanding and moral sensitivity for global citizenry. The main aim is to examine contributors to moral formation during the university years based on a survey…

With declining budgets and increased pressure to deliver a prepared and hirable workforce, universities must look externally for resources to assist with recruiting and retaining top students. This nationwide survey of journalism and mass communication programs shows that while some programs have reached out to external professionals for advice…

This paper looks at the author's outreach efforts as a distance librarian to encourage library use among a distance student population that comprises satellite locations, students attending online, students attending courses through instructional television, and students attending hybrid courses. Outcomes of the author's outreach attempts and…

This collection of papers is from the first national conference of academicians, teachers, school administrators, parents, television industry specialists, and government agency personnel interested in children and television. The 23 papers are presented under the following topics: (1) development of receivership skills (skills required for the…

A study was undertaken to develop a body of knowledge which might bridge the communications gap between the more formal communications establishment and the eclectic alternative television movement. Information was gathered mainly through personal experience, and by survey and interviews. The analysis was carried out during the period from late…

The operation of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation is almost exclusively based upon "instructional television" programing and production. The corporation operates one of the two Swedish television channels and is state-sponsored; thus, its failure to develop high quality programing is particularly distressing. Reasons for dull and…

This series of studies focused on the content of television programming about sexual activity and sexual relationships, examining what messages are communicated in the so-called "family hour," the first hour of prime time broadcast television (8-9 p.m. in most areas of the country). First, a content analysis documented the nature of…

This paper discusses from a historical perspective past shortcomings of public service television with its protective information policies, indifference to audiovisual language, absence of diversity in journalistic thematic choices, and "boring" style of television reporting. It is argued that there has been a substantial lack of concern…

To identify the descriptors most frequently associated with four popular television talk show hosts and to isolate the fundamental dimensions of the images of those talk show hosts, a study surveyed 209 students from Memphis State University and the University of Arkansas (Little Rock) about their impressions of Johnny Carson, David Letterman,…

This final report describes a survey by mail questionnaires of 2,993 colleges and universities to determine the uses each institution makes of television in their academic programs. The overall response rate was 94 percent, and the major findings indicated that approximately 71 percent of the institutions surveyed make some use of television, and…