Twenty years after South Africa's first democratic elections, what is the state of film and media studies education at the country's higher education institutions? The article examines several key debates, from calls for the decolonisation of curricula to the tension between internationalisation and local research in local media industries. Is…

In light of profound socio-economic and technological changes, the research from New Literacies has raised fundamental questions on the nature of literacy in the way we read, write, and communicate. Yet, in science education, research in literacy has been largely restricted to the domain of print-oriented academic language. This paper aims to set…

Facebook and other social media have been hailed as delivering the promise of new, socially engaged educational experiences for students in undergraduate, self-directed, and other educational sectors. A theoretical and historical analysis of these media in the light of earlier media transformations, however, helps to situate and qualify this…

A frame analysis was conducted to explore themes in recent coverage by print journalists of the college application process, with special attention paid to the use by reporters of "keywords, stock phrases, stereotyped images, sources of information, and sentences that provide reinforcing clusters of facts or judgments" (Entman, p. 52) about this…

The recent proliferation of reality-based television programs highlighting cosmetic surgery has raised concerns that such programming promotes unrealistic expectations of plastic surgery and increases the desire of viewers to undergo such procedures. In Study 1, a survey of 170 young adults indicated little relationship between cosmetic surgery…

We present a program of research investigating the effects of lad magazines on male body self-consciousness and appearance anxiety. Study 1, based on panel data from undergraduate men, showed that lad magazine exposure in Year 1 predicted body self-consciousness in Year 2. Study 2 was an experiment that showed that men assigned to view objectified…

Young children ages 3 to 6 play a wide range of digital games, which are now available on large screens, handheld screens, electronic learning systems, and electronic toys, and their time spent with games is growing. This article examines effects of digital games and how they could be designed to best serve children's needs. A small body of…

Even a quick review of U.S. households, daycare centers, and preschools reveals widespread use of digital programs and products with young children. Research indicates that regardless of the hard technology that delivers these digital applications, their content most significantly affects the experience and outcomes. A primary question thus…

This paper argues for a clearer conceptualization of media stimuli in experimental research and identifies 3 issues impeding our understanding of message processing: (a) assumptions bolstered by manipulation checks about homogeneity of response to media stimuli, (b) conflation of 2 different classes of variables--media attributes and psychological…

This article discusses digital media and its potential effects on emergent literacy skills development for young children. While the impact of digital media exposure on children's emergent literacy development is largely unknown, it is becoming a significant issue, as more and more young children throughout the world observe and use various forms…

For English-speaking researchers, French doctoral dissertations can represent a "terra incognita." For this reason, a retrospective bibliometric study of French dissertations in press and media studies offers a useful profile of available research to researchers concentrating in studies of the press and other media. The present study…

This study explores the use and presentation of information and research on education by the news media. Using content analysis, this study compares four types of think tanks--contract research, academic, advocacy, and mixed academic and advocacy--and shows how the news media represented each one as a source of research, facts, and figures on…

"Slacker Astronomy" is a weekly podcast that covers a recent astronomical news event or discovery. The show has a unique style consisting of irreverent, over-the-top humor combined with a healthy dose of hard science. According to our demographic analysis, the combination of this style and the unique podcasting distribution mechanism allows the…

Daniel Linz and Edward Donnerstein criticize the research methods and conclusions of pornography researchers Dolf Zillmann and Jennings Bryant (who allege that consumption of pornography results in antisocial effects). Zillman and Bryant respond. (ARH)

Investigates the ideological presumption concerning media analysis (the claim that what really matters is the underlying sociopolitical relations of control and power). Explicates and critically assesses arguments provided by the writings of John Fiske and Michel Foucault, concluding that there is no good reason to believe that the news media are…