This book surveys the essential elements of both the written and the oral traditions that have contributed to the literary background of China's children. Chapter topics include (1) Chinese literature and its transmission from early times; (2) myths, legends, and symbolism; (3) traditional education and the classics; (4) storytellers, puppets, and…

In the 1960s many teachers in the British secondary schools began a major effort to redefine their attitude toward the mass media in the light of certain social and cultural pressures. Changes in students made it necessary to provide materials of a less formal academic kind and to introduce literature, music, and art that would relate more…

Summarizes current research on children's use of audio equipment and argues that records, radio, and tapes play an important role in the personal and social lives of many children. Examines issues and promising approaches in the study of listening in children's lives. (PD)

The 1967 MENC symposium at Tanglewood advocated the inclusion of popular music, along with the classics, in the general music curriculum. The author looks briefly at how well this recommendation is being implemented and discusses the benefits of using popular works in music instruction. (SJL)

Explores research done in Latin America concerning audiences of telenovelas. Examines critically the methods employed and the kinds of knowledge generated. Finds that most of the 26 studies examined are severely flawed from a methodological perspective. Suggests that much research still needs to be done. (SR)

Addresses social and cultural changes of reading in Russia: (1) changes in cultural hierarchy; (2) changes in reader behavior; (3) declining importance of classic literature; and (4) rise of mass culture and its effects. Tables present information on the genre of books that were best sellers and books borrowed from Russian libraries. (JMV)

The research literature on city magazines can be divided into five primary sources: books on magazines, popular magazines/journals and newspapers, business magazines, scholarly journals, and unpublished theses. "The New Yorker," founded in 1925 specifically for a sophisticated, metropolitan audience, is considered a precursor of the…

Theories of taste are efforts to understand the processes of signification by which cultural forms take on meaning, and how subjects are inserted into such processes. One of these theories is the notion of "taste cultures," set forth by Herbert Gans in the 1960s and continued by George Lewis into the 1980s. A taste culture is an…

To illustrate the relevance of critical communication history and theory to media ethics, this paper examines a crucial episode in the history of public relations: the American electrical industry's cooperative advertising and public relations efforts in the 1920s to sell the "electrical idea" to consumers. The paper first enumerates…

Mass communication researchers have largely ignored the role of audio media and popular music in the lives of children, yet the available evidence shows that children do listen. Extant studies yield a consistent developmental portrait of childrens' listening frequency, but there is a notable lack of programatic research over the past decade, one…

France's response to modernism in popular culture, the return of individualism, and social values are examined. Five sources of further information and insight are listed, including volumes on French public opinion, public service documents, institutional documents, an economic summary, and a piece on the role of women. (MSE)

This study examines the frequency and nature of substance use in the most popular movie rentals and songs of 1996 and 1997. The intent was to determine the accuracy of public perceptions about extensive substance use in media popular among youth. Because teenagers are major consumers of movies and music, there is concern about the potential for…

This paper attempts to unify the varied research in media literacy in order to make sense of this growing yet fragmentary movement and to organize the widely varied literature by the locus, objectives, and depth of the initiative. Much of this movement involves what educators choose to teach their students about media literacy. A critical…

The relationship between the curriculum, especially English, and popular music is explored. A review of research is presented, curricular changes are suggested, the role of English teachers is examined, and critical analysis of popular trends is advocated (f=fiche number). (MH)

The category of the social increasingly informs the way people think about rhetoric. The foregrounding of the social has a two-fold origin in an uneasy relationship between poststructuralism and sociolinguistics. Poststructuralism has provided a strong version of the hypothesis that language is determinative. Sociolinguistics has established that…