The underlying thesis of much popular parenting discourse in circulation in western Anglophone countries is that parenting labour has intensified historically, notably in regard to schooling, and that we are witnessing new kinds of parental attitudes and strategies. A related argument holds that parents, especially middle-class parents, have…

The oldest of the mass communication technologies, books, needs to be examined in mass communication research. Accordingly a study analyzed the structure and format of the "New York Times Book Review" to identify its dual roles: evaluating books and providing information crucial to book marketing. Also explored was how the text of the…

Argues that people are affected by the pervasive images of advertisers who use signs to imbue products with specific realities. Examines how people use this information about various consumer products in making judgments of other people. (MS)

This paper is an analysis of the different aspects of the music video. Music video is defined as having three meanings: an individual clip, a format, or the "aesthetic" that describes what the clips and format look like. The paper examines interruptions, the dialectical tension and the organization of the work of art, shot-scene…

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…

This conference focuses on how females are portrayed in a range of current media and whether these messages influence girls. The report is divided into three parts. Part 1, "Getting the Message," maintains that girls are aggressive consumers of the popular media and they understand the messages conveyed there. Although current media…

Children's publicness is undergoing a substantial change. "Scripts" created by the media and involving intensive consumption influence when, where, and how children's publicness occurs. Particularly important are attempts to develop new ways of integrating medial, sensual-active, body-, space- and group-related actions. This article…

This book argues that people live simultaneously in two different cultures. Values of the first culture are imparted to children through curriculum in the nation's public school classrooms. The second culture is the world of mass communication that promotes consumption, instant gratification, and impulse. The clash between these cultures confronts…

Media literacy educators from the United States regularly pay homage to their colleagues in Canada. Canadians have talked about, thought about, taught about, and written about media literacy for many years. Canada first hosted a World Conference in media literacy in Guelph, Ontario, in 1990, and all provinces in Canada now include media literacy…