Computer games, rock video, television, and movies are robbing teenagers of time they should be using to develop their minds. However, the electronic media do have a positive potential. A 10-item reference list is provided. (Author/DCS)

Warns that schools must make sure that students are aware of the relationship between reality and image, particularly the image presented by television. (JL)

Analyzes 13 daytime serial dramas broadcast during 1977 for the occurrence and distribution of health-related conditions and resultant deaths, according to age and sex. (JMF)

Examines popular culture in terms of its position in social structures of power, looking at the Ivoirien music made popular by state television in Cote d'Ivoire. Focuses on Cote d'Ivoire's international singing star, Alpha Blondy, and how this singer and others negotiate the relationship between state television and the Ivoirien popular singer.…

The mass media appear to have an influential role in the socialization of children by exposing them to a world far beyond the limits of their immediate experience. Because children must depend on mass media models for learning about adult sexual intimacy, a content analysis of daytime soap operas, to which many children are exposed daily without…

An Indian adult educator discusses the value of "pleasure-oriented" audiovisual adult education, the use of both commercial and subsidized films, television, and radio for their educational potential. He notes several production needs and techniques. (MF)

Presents approaches to the study of the role of popular culture in society. (DD)

An essay on the responsibilities of news media discusses the priorities of network news coverage, distorted editing, and the need for consumer awareness and concern about mass media inadequacies. (FG)

This study focused on whether reading instruction based on popular youth-oriented television programs increases task involvement or reading achievement scores. After one year, reading scores of classes using television scripts, in addition to regular materials, were significantly higher than those of nontreatment classes. (JN)

Discusses the development of characters in daytime serials in terms of love, marriage, and personal happiness. Considers how these developments are designed to fit middle-class values. (JMF)

Recommends Margaret Houlihan as a one-character case study illustrating the evolution of female characters on primetime television as well as the change and social status of women in America. Argues that the changes in the Houlihan character reflect an archetypal model of an evolving feminist consciousness. (KEH)

Describes four ways (and several class activities) to make the meanings of media texts more visible to students while teaching the basics of critical theory. Analyzes (1) codes and conventions of language; (2) personal pleasure, understandings, and experience; (3) cultural, ideological meanings; and (4) commercial overtones and economic…

Provides a rationale for the use of popular television in the classroom. Offers examples and applications from the syndicated television series "Star Trek: The Next Generation." (SR)

Explores the effectiveness of using television and video to motivate student writing. Describes how, following a series of motivational and brainstorming sessions using television, video, and popular literature, 23 fifth-grade students wrote and videotaped dramatizations of short "teaser" scripts in cooperative groups. Notes that these…