Marketing and advertising support the U.S. economy by promoting the sale of goods and services to consumers, both adults and children. Sandra Calvert addresses product marketing to children and shows that although marketers have targeted children for decades, two recent trends have increased their interest in child consumers. First, both the…

This article examines the resurgence in popularity of character education in the USA and Canada. It links this renewed interest to insecurities about academic achievement, economic competitiveness, civic engagement, personal safety, moral decline, and the loss of a common culture. Conceptualising policy as rhetoric, the article shows how character…

In 2000, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty first proposed putting the course materials from all 1,800 MIT classes online, free of charge. The idea behind MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) was to use the Internet for more than just distance learning. When MIT began placing the course materials online in 2002 and 2003, the audience…

This in-depth interview study of the schooling experiences of 120 First Nations, American Indian, and Alaska Native students contributes to understandings of their literacy motivation, highlighting tensions between their insights on literacy learning and literacy practices implicated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. With NCLB in…

In 1997, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting commissioned Market Facts to conduct a survey of Americans' views of commercial activities by public television and public radio stations. The general objectives were to get an up-to-date reading of perceptions and attitudes among the general population and among groups of special interest defined…

A study explored perceived reality and developmental differences in viewing theater. Subjects, 33 second graders, 33 fourth graders, 23 sixth graders, and 23 college students viewed a production of "This Is Not a Pipe Dream," a non-representational play based on biographical facts about the early life and work of the surrealist painter…

This paper explores an alternative way of studying journalism in the classroom by focusing on contemporary journalists' ironic treatment of morality. The paper examines the performative character of the language of news, when the words investigative journalists use are of interest not so much for what they say but for what they do. The paper…

Points out the many people who influence what goes on in classrooms, and relying on insights gained from research on language interaction, offers guidelines for communicating with these complex audiences--parents, administrators, policymakers, politicians, and the general public. (HTH)

College radio is quite often viewed as the true alternative to commercial radio. However, what is alternative radio and how does college radio factor into the ideal? To further understand this concept, this paper focuses on the role of alternative programming in college radio. Areas discussed include alternative radio as a non-mainstream form of…

Investigated the influence of first-person, personal narratives on high school students' engagement with a historical reading-to-write task. Found that students who began the task by reading a visible author tended to hold mental conversations with these authors, make judgments about them, and think more about the historical topic. Also, their…

Explores the relationship among media consumers, institutional economics, and cultural ethos and suggests that communication researchers must adopt a flexible methodology capable of considering all relevant forces. Uses the case of Norway's broadcasting of the U.S. television series "Dynasty" to help illustrate these premises. (MG)

The goal of audience segmentation is to identify population subgroups that are homogeneous with respect to certain variables associated with a given outcome or behavior. When such groups are identified and understood, targeted intervention strategies can be developed to address their unique characteristics and needs. This study compares the…

Developed for theaters or classrooms that wish to present abbreviated versions of Shakespeare's plays without changing the language, this book presents an edited version of "Romeo and Juliet" suitable for presentation in one hour. The book also presents an affordable set design, sound and prop requirements, costume suggestions,…

A study was conducted to create a portrait of a contemporary art film audience. A survey containing open- and close-ended questions was sent to 329 persons on the mailing list of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, an institution that also runs an art theatre. Among others, analysis of the…

More and more, advertising revenue, not circulation or concern for the underdog, seems to be determining the content of American newspapers. As Americans moved to the suburbs, suburban newspapers sprang up, taking readers and advertising revenue away from metropolitan dailies. "Counterattacks" by metropolitan papers such as zoned…