Watching Channel One


Book Description

Channel One, an electronic curriculum that was developed primarily to sell products in the marketplace, is cablecast daily to approximately twelve-thousand public high schools in the United States. About one quarter of our public secondary schools have been wired by Whittle Communications, a private company, for the delivery of this required news program. This translates to a captive audience for advertisements of around eight- to nine-million teens. The political, economic, social, and cognitive impact of Channel One will be vast. How did school board members and administrators arrive at the decision to include Channel One in their districts? What is the form and content of news and advertising on Channel One? Do students pay attention to the news? To the ads? Do students learn from Channel One? These questions, among others, are addressed in this book. By employing various forms of discourse analyses, critical theory, rhetorical analysis, structural and post-structural readings, descriptive case studies, and traditional-effects studies, the authors provide a thorough investigation into Channel One.




In Pursuit of Justice


Book Description

Ralph Nader is one of America’s most controversial—and uncompromising— public figures. He is a man on a mission who believes that taking on the powers that be involves more than just talking about it—it also means taking action. From car safety in the 1960s to opposition to the World Trade Organization in the 1990s, Nader’s work has increased government responsiveness to citizens, served as a check against the abuse of power by big business, and shaped the political consciousness of a nation. Nader’s sense of mission is infused in all of his work, especially his weekly columns. In Pursuit of Justice, a collection of Nader’s most recent, trenchant articles written in the years immediately following the publication of The Ralph Nader Reader, Nader addresses a broad array of issues, among them: corporate crime and power, government accountability, media control, consumer rights, healthcare, congressional reform, nuclear power and energy, racial discrimination, poverty, food and drug safety, air and water pollution, fair taxation, product liability protection, union democracy, living family wage, unfair lending practices, community radio, industrial hemp, banking, pension law, telecommunications and the importance of character. Nader has even sponsored consumer initiatives to reform university governance, educational testing, daily newspapers, women's health care, legal services, and professional sports—all of which are reflected in these sharp and sometimes humorous essays. As informative as it is pleasurable to read, section after section of In Pursuit of Justice slices through government and corporate propaganda and reveals the corruption, bias and injustice that all too often connect politics with big business, thereby impeding the pursuit of justice. Collecting more than one hundred of his most recent writings, In Pursuit of Justice conveys Nader's inimitable sense of both the global political economy and our nation's democratic promise.




Noise Wars


Book Description

Let me place on your radar screen an issue that for most people goes by unnoticed. Every day it is there for all of us to see and hear? if we can just notice it for that first time. This is the rising use of media, the use of media in abusive, penetrating ways. Our freedom to choose whether or not we consume that media is taken away from us. & br / & br /With their business model coming under pressure from shrinking audiences, media companies seek to regain their footing by forcing people to consume TV and other digital content outside the home by turning public and private settings into captive-




The Corporate Assault on Youth


Book Description

The Corporate Assault on Youth examines childhood as a social construction increasingly influenced by corporations and commercialism. Through case studies, critical analysis, and historical/philosophical research, the essays collected here expose the degree to which children are unwitting targets of marketing. With topics ranging from the presence of media branding in schools and school supplies to the subtler ways in which the public education system is influenced by corporate ideologies and purposes, this book draws much-needed attention to how educators, administrators, policymakers, parents, and children can become aware of, and counterbalance, the effects of the commercialism that is overwhelming students' understanding of the world and their place within it.




Marketing Madness


Book Description

In 1983, Reese's Pieces made their debut on the silver screen, gobbled up by that lovable alien ET, and sales of the candy shot up instantly by 66 percent. Reebok has sponsored the U.S. Olympic team-and the Russian team, as well! The British Boy Scouts sell space on their merit badges to advertisers. Michael Jacobson, founder of the Washington, D.C




ESEA, from Tales to Tapes


Book Description




Consuming Kids


Book Description

Looks at the way corporations and advertisers target children as a profitable demographic, as well as their methods for getting past parental safeguards to make products of all kinds appeal directly to even the youngest children.




Minority staff report


Book Description




The Psychology of Binge Watching TV


Book Description

This fascinating work provides an up-to-date examination of shifts in the nature and impact of TV and video watching that have largely been driven by non-linear TV and video services online. The book reviews research evidence from around the world about the physical and behavioural shift of viewing away from linear and towards non-linear TV and video services. It studies the psychological factors that underpin and drive this shift and the impact of binge-watching behaviour on people’s physical and psychological health and social relationships. Along the way, it differentiates between "binge-watching" and "heavy-viewing" and considers binge-watching as a distinctive form of TV/video use that has its own reasons of occurrence and impacts. The Psychology of Binge Watching TV is aimed principally at students and academics interested in psychology, media, mental health and other related disciplines. It will also interest any readers looking to understand more about the psychology behind binge-watching and the potentially positive and negative effects on audiences.




Raising Financially Confident Kids


Book Description

It's natural to want your kids to have a secure future. But when it comes to teaching the next generation how to handle money, parents are failing. Still there is hope! Financial expert Mary Hunt shows parents how to raise kids who have a healthy relationship with money--even if the parents themselves have made financial mistakes along the way or are struggling financially right now. Drawing from solid statistics and her own hard-won knowledge and experience, Hunt helps parents protect their children from the financial pitfalls of easy credit, an attitude of entitlement, and our culture's chummy relationship with debt. From preschool through the teen years, every stage of a child's development is covered, including how to talk to them about money, how to help them start saving money and giving it away, and how to manage money wisely.