Examines audience perceptions of which values characterize soap operas in general and which values distinguish daytime from prime-time offerings. Indicates meaningful differences between daytime soaps and prime-time serial dramas. Considers the implications of the empirical method guided by critical concerns and results for media scholars of…

Describes how the jokes of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Joan Rivers explore, support, and disrupt different elements of the American social experience. Argues that joking is one strategy for encouraging and sustaining resistance to ideological control. (NKA)

Examines the structural rules governing the presentation and resolution of problems that serve as premises for prime-time fictional programs. Offers demographic data on character types and matching problem types. (MS)

Reports results of a survey in which 200 teenaged girls indicated which television woman was like them, which one they would like to be like, which would be the best friend and the best mother, which women exhibited the most control over their situations, and which female television star most resembled the "typical American female." (GT)

A review of research findings examines how children up to age 12 use media, especially television, and presents theoretical accounts of the functions media serve during childhood. (Author/KC)

Discusses how television programs can be used to teach courses in gender and communication. Provides examples of how instructors can use specific programs to provide illustrative models of sex-role orientations and to illustrate the changing social standards of desirable or acceptable traits and behaviors for females and males. (KEH)

Presents a teaching unit tracing the last three decades of cultural history in the United States through television programs. Includes objectives, daily routines, questions, and a list of representative shows. Suggests that students compare and contrast situation comedies from each decade and examine new programs for cultural awareness and…

Despite burgeoning literature that acknowledges the importance of the principalship in achieving and maintaining school effectiveness, principals have been depicted unfavorably in film and television as insecure autocrats, petty bureaucrats, and classic buffoons. This paper presents findings of a study that not only catalogued images of principals…

Proposing the use of a single comprehensive communications model, the Circles of Context Model, for all forms of communication, this paper shows how the model can be used to identify different kinds of criticism of the television comedy series "All in the Family" and the ways in which that criticism shifted during the show's nine-year…

Journalistic practice in the United States has gone through a number of changes in recent history, much of it because of television. The significance of these changes might be better understood with a theory on the social function of news and its relationship to the postmodern culture. News is considered in some way as the ground material of…

This book is intended as an aid for high school English teachers who want to understand visual literacy and learn how to teach it. The first part of the book defines and analyzes the basic structural devices used in filmmaking. The first chapter in this section discusses how the creative use of these devices--composition, lighting and color,…

The article summarizes the developmental processes of adolescents (age 12-18) and reviews literature concerning the adolescent's use of television, newspapers, periodicals, records, and radio. (KC)

Examines the Latin Grammy Awards and the ALMA Awards as media texts that can be used as course content on Latino people and cultures in an intercultural communication course. Outlines a critical reformulation of epideictic rhetoric, provides background on the two programs, and interprets their import as epideictic discourse. (Contains 25…

Suggests that young adult librarians must have a working knowledge of pop culture to stay in touch with their clientele's interests and needs. Provides a "Pop Culture Quiz," and tips for improving quiz scores, including eight Web sites for teenagers. (AEF)

In this paper we explore dichotomies that exist between/within/through the (re)presentations of students and teachers found in the television shows Dangerous Minds and Boston Public . These dichotomized relationships engender a school culture organized by and through either/or conditions. More specifically, these dichotomized relationships force…