The study of popular culture in the United States is an appropriate anthropological endeavor, as evidenced in a case study of the volcanic eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Oregon. By examining its popular arts, anthropologists gain understanding of the culture and its people. For example, an analysis of reactions to the Mt. St. Helens eruption…

Surveys the relationship between historical inquiry and mass communication research. Argues that historically grounded inquiries into mass communications have focused on three areas: apparatus-centered criticism, social history, and textual interpretation. Contends that challenges from inside and outside the discipline have encouraged historians…

Describes the editing of Hugh Lofting's "Doctor Dolittle" books in order to remove racial slurs. Stresses that the books are high quality children's literature. (ARH)

Addresses problems of familiarity, abundance, redundancy, and usability to provide librarians with workable solutions for establishment of popular photograph collections. Discussion is directed towards the type of collection desired, the category of the acquiring library, and the user of popular photography. Fifteen references are listed. (RAA)

This paper makes two principal assertions: first, that Coleridge's "Biographia Literaria" is a valuable and hitherto neglected resource for aesthetic educators and, second, that the distinction Coleridge makes between fancy and imagination affords the aesthetic educator a unique insight into the differences between the popular and fine…

Argues that good film and television fantasy is not a retreat from reality but a means of expanding the imagination. (FL)

Represents an educator interviewing himself, with the help of an imaginary Jacques Derrida and quotes from the film "The Commitments." Ranges over many issues, including thoughts about rhetoric, composition, and U.S. culture. (PA)

Recounts the life of John Newbery, the 18th-century London bookseller who did more than anyone to establish the children's book trade, and for whom the prestigious Newbery Award is named. States that Newbery published many books, including a line of books called the Juvenile Library, entertaining but also didactic, in the manner of the times. (PA)

Positions the school as a site through which cultural responses to material conditions are played out. Identifies responses to three waves of modernization--universal schooling, postindustrial society, and commodified electronic culture--that are accompanied by specific cultural forms such as youth culture. Suggests that these forms are sites for…

Suggests American screenwriters experiment with the lighting, colors, perspectives, angles, and positioning of images in works of art to generate narrative. Argues that American screenwriters, unlike European counterparts, unnecessarily adhere to the concept that characterization is essential to generate narrative. (KEH)

Examines similarities and differences between writing short, live-action narrative films and writing feature films. Examines market influence, budget, structure, and story factors. Describes useful procedures for inclusion in a scriptwriting class. (KEH)

Critiques Allan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" for idealizing "mind" as a container (casket) open only to indifference or the quest for certitude. Unlike Bloom, teacher educators deal with young people reared in a consumerist world dominated by the electronic media and beset with social realities like AIDS, homeless…

Explores implications of the antagonism between Marxist political economy and cultural studies. Argues that the antagonism is based on a profound misunderstanding of political economy, and that the project of cultural studies can only be successfully pursued if the bridge with political economy is rebuilt. (RS)

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Agrees that cultural studies writers commonly and almost ritualistically distinguish themselves from their "reductionist" cousins, but notes that every few years some political economist attacks cultural studies. Challenges the history of the relation between cultural studies and…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Finds it strange that the intense dispute between political economy and cultural studies is cast as wholly independent of real political issues. Suggests that the aim of cultural studies is to renew a democratic conversation outside of the media, and to begin renewal in the universities.…