Religion, like Superhero discourse, is a contested topic of question and debate in early childhood education. This article draws on data from a small ethnographic study that took place in a long day care centre in Sydney Australia. The study examined how children negotiated their "identity work" in the context of popular culture. In this…

This paper presents abstracts of 80 individual papers and panel discussions that deal with journalism, popular culture, mass media, "science" in public discourse, the social construction of communication technologies, factorial analysis as a research tool, and other issues in communication. Almost all of the abstracts in the paper are…

It is argued that rock lyrics, alternatively seen as poetry, are a source of instructional material for students of English as a Second Language (ESL), offering an opportunity for literary analysis that is highly motivating, relevant to students' lives, a potential bridge to more serious literature, and a readily-available source of authentic…

This theme issue of the serial "Educational Foundations" contains five articles devoted to the topic of "Studies in Empowerment." In "The Disempowering of Empowerment: Out of the Revolution and into the Classroom," Margaret D. LeCompte and Kathleen Bennett deMarrais focused on placing the term in proper historical…

This bibliography provides a chronological panorama of Vietnam War era mass market paperbacks. In an introduction, the bibliography also identifies the major visual themes used on the paperback covers to market the books. It shows the enormous variety as well as the great sameness of the Vietnam market paperback, 1960-1989, a market which saw…

This paper analyzes the ways in which members of different ethnic groups decode the worldwide hit television program Dallas, and suggests answers to the question of how such a quintessentially American cultural product crosses cultural and linguistics frontiers so easily. The program was studied with the intent of observing the mechanisms through…

Music videos from the past few years have become a prominent phenomenon in our culture. They are critically compared by a small or large section of the public with the structures of, and relations within, social reality. These videos are considered to portray real situations that are, according to the standards of western culture, severely…

Drawn from papers presented at the East-West Communication Institute Seminars on popular culture held yearly from 1974 to 1976, the essays in this report focus on popular images of America held in four countries. Essay topics are: images of the American woman in Japan, the changing images of America in Korean literature, images of America in Malay…

Discusses recent developments in media education that reflect the concern of teachers at all levels about the ability of students to comprehend and practice the variety of media to which they are constantly exposed and through which they develop many of their concepts of the world. (SRT)

The news media are actively involved in constructing reality rather than neutrally transmitting it. Media education should be concerned with who owns and controls the media; how ideological effects are constructed; what values are implicit in the constructions; and how the audience reads the constructions. (IS)

Notes that "manga"--Japanese comics--constitute the most popular kind of reading material in Japan. Discusses the skills needed to read manga. Surveys 297 Japanese college students. Suggests that many manga readers can be considered engaged readers as they are highly motivated and have developed a range of strategies to help them…

Trends and cultural differences are examined in the history of the novel in France and the United States since 1906. These trends and cultural differences are proposed as a way of teaching American culture. (MSE)

Describes a college course on the sociology of sport, in which students reflect on their own experiences and practices in sport, engage in critical analysis of the taken-for-granted values and assumptions associated with sport, and do construct analysis and deconstruction of televised sport as it promotes certain interests and marginalizes others.…

This case study investigated the introduction of a theme from popular culture into a sociodramatic role-play area in a northern England Nursery Infant school, focusing on its effects on 6- to 7-year olds' literacy activities. Findings indicated that the incorporation of themes from popular culture into the curriculum motivated children whose…

"Manga," or Japanese comics, differ from American comics by their lack of color, the attitude of their audience, and their acceptance of nudity. Several science fictional and action-oriented "manga" for young adult and general audiences are described. (AEF)